Instruction Manual for Coradi Planimeters
date: label: date made
content: 1912
name: label: maker
content: Coradi, Gottlieb
notes: label: Description
content: The citation information for this 40-page booklet is: G. Coradi, <i>The Coradi Planimeters: Description and Instructions for the Use and Testing, with a General Elementary Explanation of Their Operation</i> (Zurich, 1912). Gottlieb Coradi (1847–1929) established a workshop in Zurich in 1880 and began making wheel and disc polar planimeters in the Amsler style soon thereafter. In 1894, he designed the compensating polar planimeter, and by 1900, his firm was selling a precision rolling planimeter.
label: Description
content: This booklet explains the mathematical theory behind planimeters, which are used to measure the area bounded by a curved diagram. Coradi then describes the general parts of a planimeter and provides instructions for the forms manufactured by his workshop: the rolling sphere planimeter (see MA.333660 and 1977.0112.01), the precision disc planimeter (see MA.321745), and the compensating polar planimeter (see 1987.0929.01 and MA.321777). Olaus Henrici (1840–1918), a German mathematician who taught at English universities, helped Coradi prepare the booklet.
label: Description
content: The donor also provided three Coradi pamphlets on the coordinatograph, an instrument for quickly plotting points on a map according to their rectangular coordinates. According to the illustrations at the back of this booklet, Coradi's firm also made integraphs and pantographs.
label: Description
content: References: "People: Gottlieb Coradi," <i>Waywiser</i>, Harvard University Department of the History of Science, http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/eMuseum.asp?lang=EN; Olaus Henrici, "On Planimeters," in <i>Report of the Sixty-fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science</i> (London, 1894), 496–523.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Switzerland: Zürich, Zurich
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Engineering
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Planimeters
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Koppers Company, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.0112.02
label: accession number
content: 1977.0112
label: catalog number
content: 1977.0112.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pamphlet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15.6 cm x 23 cm; 6 5/32 in x 9 1/16 in