Instruction Manual for Gerber Variable Scale
date: label: date made
content: 1981
name: label: maker
content: Gerber Scientific Instrument Co.
notes: label: Description
content: The citation information for this 40-page stapled booklet is: H. Joseph Gerber, <i>The Gerber Variable Scale: An Application and Instruction Manual</i> (Hartford, Conn.: The Gerber Scientific Instrument Company, 1981). Gerber wrote these instructions in 1953 to accompany his invention; see 1994.0113.01. He inscribed this copy to Steve Lubar, who was chair of the division of history of technology when Gerber donated examples of several mathematical instruments he had invented.
label: Description
content: The booklet explains the construction and use of the Gerber Variable Scale. It then describes typical problems that could be solved with the instrument, including finding points in a family of curves, translating curves, reading graphs more precisely, converting between proportional scales, enlarging and reducing engineering drawings, normalizing curves, interpolating points, counting cycles of frequencies, dividing one curve by another, determining the center of gravity, reading oscillograms, and mapping aerial photographs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Rule, Calculating
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Scale Rules
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1994.0113.04
label: accession number
content: 1994.0113
label: catalog number
content: 1994.0113.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pamphlet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .3 cm x 14 cm x 21.6 cm; 1/8 in x 5 1/2 in x 8 1/2 in