Object Details
- Theodore Alteneder and Sons
- Description
- This instrument has two very tarnished flat metal bars, each 22 cm long, with tapered ends that interlock to make a beam of 40.9 cm. The two steel sliding trammels resemble pencils and are marked: T.A. & SONS. The longer trammel has a needle point, and the shorter has a pencil point. The shorter trammel has a cam wheel that allows adjustment up to 3/16". Spring tension in both trammels may be adjusted by turning a knurled nut.
- John Wesley Oehrli (1903–1969), an engineer and inventor who lived in State College, Pa., applied for a patent on this beam compass in 1944. He moved to Southern California by 1953, where he worked for McCulloch Motors Corporation, and received a total of 11 patents, mainly for chain saws and planetary drives in internal combustion engines. Theodore Alteneder & Sons sold the "improved tubular beam compass" as model number 1666 from 1945 through at least 1952 for $16.50. This object originally would have had a case.
- References: John W. Oehrli, "Beam Compass" (U.S. Patent 2,385,723 issued September 25, 1945); Insert dated 1945, Alteneder Drawing Instruments (Philadelphia, 1942); Alteneder Drawing Instruments (Philadelphia, 1952), 16.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Robert B. Condon
- 1945-ca 1952
- ID Number
- 1991.0793.05
- accession number
- 1991.0793
- catalog number
- 1991.0793.05
- Object Name
- beam compass
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- steel (overall material)
- lead (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 40.9 cm x 7.5 cm x 1.3 cm; 16 3/32 in x 2 15/16 in x 1/2 in
- place made
- United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Dividers and Compasses
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Drawing Instruments
- Record ID
- nmah_904411
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-5c31-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
