Group of Two Dividers
date: label: date made
content: 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: Early modern European draftsmen used dividers to transfer distances from measuring instruments to architectural, topographical, mechanical, and engineering drawings. They also employed dividers in reading off distances on a sector, so that a numerical calculation could be made. The first pair of dividers has metal needle points inserted into brass legs. Decorative horizontal lines are engraved into the brass. The instrument is almost 4" long.
label: Description
content: The second pair of dividers is entirely made of brass. Two sets of three horizontal lines are engraved into the outside of the legs. On one leg, a wheel is engraved below the lines. The instrument is 3-1/4" long.
label: Description
content: References: J. F. Heather, <i>Mathematical Instruments: Their Construction, Adjustment, Testing, and Use</i>, rev. ed. (London: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 1870), i:13, 42.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Sotheby & Company, Catalogue of a Collection of Scientific Instruments, the Property of the Late Henry Russel Wray, London, 1959 (a copy of the catalogue is in the accession file).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Europe
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Dividers and Compasses
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316931
label: accession number
content: 219305
label: catalog number
content: 316931
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dividers
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 9.5 cm x .8 cm; 3/8 in x 3 3/4 in x 5/16 in