Irregular or French Curve
date: label: date made
content: 1890-1920
label: date made
content: 1880-1920
notes: label: Description
content: This flat wooden drawing instrument has curves on the outside and in an inner opening. It also has two small holes.
label: Description
content: The previous owner of this object collected more than twelve hundred hand and machine tools, displaying them at his family's building company in Baltimore, Md. This device came in a tool chest along with several others.
label: Description
content: The shape of the curve (though not the holes) is similar to an instrument shown in a Reeves & Sons catalog from 1904. It also resembles one shown in Wallis and in McAllister as early as 1881 (there with one small hole). Hence the very rough date assigned.
label: Description
content: Compare 1977.1101.0095.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Maya Hambly, <I>Drawing Instruments</I>, London: RIBA Drawings Collection, 1982, p. 32.
label: Description
content: Accession File.
label: Description
content: Roland S. Wallis, <I>Industrial Education Notes on Mechanical Drawing</I>, Ames, Iowa: Engineering Extension Department Iowa State College, 1922, p. 15.
label: Description
content: William Y. McAllister, <I>Priced and Illustrated catalogue...</I>, Philadelphia, 1881, pp. 43-44.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Curves
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The John R. Gerwig, Jr., Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.1101.0096
label: accession number
content: 1977.1101
label: catalog number
content: 1977.1101.0096
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Curve
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .2 cm x 21.3 cm x 7.4 cm; 3/32 in x 8 3/8 in x 2 29/32 in