Object Details
- Chapotot, Louis
- Chapotot, Jean
- Description
- This 6-1/2" brass rule unfolds to form a set square. The outer edge of one leg has a scale for German inches (roughly 1-1/32 English inches), numbered by ones from 1 to 6. The first unit is divided into twelfths. The scale is marked: Demy pied de Rhin [half a foot of the Rhine]. The inner edge of this leg has a scale numbered by tens from -10 to 50. The first unit is divided into tenths. The scale is marked: Eschelle [scale]. This leg is also marked: CHAPOTOT A PARIS.
- Both edges of the other leg have scales for French inches (roughly 1-1/16 English inches), numbered by ones from 1 to 6. The first unit on the outer edge is divided into twelfths. The leg is marked: Demy pied de Roy [half a foot of the French king]. This leg has a pinhole and a larger hole (1/4" diameter) for hanging plumb lines. Compare to 1985.0580.03, 316929, 317362, and 316914.
- Louis Chapotot and his son, Jean, were prolific instrument makers with a workshop at Quay de l'Horloge du Palais à la Sphère Royale in Paris. Louis is known to have been active around 1670 to 1700, and Jean worked from about 1690 to 1721.
- Albert Haertlein (1895–1960), who collected this square, graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1918. He served in the engineering corps of the U.S. Army during World War I and taught engineering at Harvard from 1919 until 1959. Haertlein was prominent in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- References: J. A. Bennett, "New Acquisition: 'La planchette,'" Sphaera no. 9 (Spring 1999), https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/sphaera/issue9/articl4.htm; Adler Planetarium, Webster Signature Database, http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/signatures/; "News From the Classes," Technology Review 21 (1919): 645; Albert Haertlein, Papers, HUG4444, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. Albert Haertlein
- 1670-1721
- ID Number
- 1985.0580.02
- accession number
- 1985.0580
- catalog number
- 333927
- Object Name
- set square
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 16.5 cm x 2 cm x .5 cm; 6 1/2 in x 25/32 in x 3/16 in
- place made
- France: Île-de-France, Paris
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Squares and Triangles
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Drawing Instruments
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_904466
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-6227-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
