Object Details
- Description
- This instrument consists of four flat wooden bars.Three bars are eighteen inches long, and one is ten inches long. Each bar has a set of irregularly spaced holes that are marked from ½ to 1/16.One of long bars has a metal and wooden piece at one end with points on the bottom for fixing it to table. Another long piece has metal pointer through one end. The third long piece has rounded metal piece through one end which can be used to secure it to a second bar. With three additional joints of this sort and a pencil point, the device could be used as a simple pantograph, an instrument for enlarging and reducing drawings.
- The object has no maker’s mark. It was transferred to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1907.
- For an example of a pantograph with similar scales, see the 1859 catalog of J. Molteni & Cie.
- Reference:
- J. Molteni & Cie., Catalogue et Pris Courant des Principaux Produits, Paris, 1859, p. 59.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Transfer from U.S. Geological Survey
- before 1907
- ID Number
- MA.247969
- catalog number
- 247969
- accession number
- 47736
- Object Name
- Pantograph
- pantograph
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 4.5 cm x 45 cm x 3.8 cm; 1 25/32 in x 17 23/32 in x 1 1/2 in
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Pantographs
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_690233
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0ad0-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
