Object Details
- Description
- This steel-spring instrument has an ivory handle, a point attached to one leg, and a penholder with adjusting screw on the other leg. The distance between the legs is adjusted with a pin and thumbscrew. The instrument resembles a Swiss bow pen sold around the turn of the 20th century by W. & L. E. Gurley (for $2.00) and by Keuffel & Esser (for $2.50). The manufacturer was probably not Kern & Co. of Aarau, Switzerland, as the Kern instruments advertised in the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog have a different shape of ivory handle.
- References: 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue (reprint; New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007), 369; Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 23rd ed. (New York, 1892), 31; Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 33rd ed. (New York, 1909), 63; A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley, 37th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1903), 289; A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley, 39th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1906), 289. This instrument does not appear in the 1921 K&E and 1912 Gurley catalogs.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Eunice L. Hoffman
- ca 1900
- ID Number
- MA.335337
- accession number
- 305958
- catalog number
- 335337
- Object Name
- compass, drawing
- compass
- bow compass
- Physical Description
- steel (overall material)
- ivory (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 7.8 cm x 1.8 cm x .7 cm; 3 1/16 in x 23/32 in x 9/32 in
- place made
- Switzerland
- 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_892943
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-3deb-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
