Set Square Signed Chapotot
date: label: date made
content: 1670-1721
name: label: maker
content: Chapotot, Louis
label: maker
content: Chapotot, Jean
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: References: J. A. Bennett, "New Acquisition: 'La planchette,'" <i>Sphaera</i> no. 9 (Spring 1999), https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/sphaera/issue9/articl4.htm; Adler Planetarium, <i>Webster Signature Database</i>, http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/signatures/; "News From the Classes," <i>Technology Review</i> 21 (1919): 645; Albert Haertlein, Papers, HUG4444, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Squares and Triangles
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Albert Haertlein
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0580.02
label: accession number
content: 1985.0580
label: catalog number
content: 333927
objectType: label: Object Name
content: set square
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16.5 cm x 2 cm x .5 cm; 6 1/2 in x 25/32 in x 3/16 in