Protractor, Stolp's Circular Dividing Instrument
date: label: date made
content: 1877
name: label: maker
content: Stolp, Myron G.
notes: label: Description
content: This German silver instrument is in a cruciform wooden case lined with velvet. According to the patentee, Myron G. Stolp of Aurora, Illinois, it is an "instrument for dividing a circle into any required number of parts, however minute, and which is, at the same time, adapted for the dividing arrangement of a gear-cutter or dividing engine, and which is also adapted for ascertaining the radius for gear-wheels when the number of teeth and the pitch of the teeth are given, and which is also adapted for use as a protractor for laying out an angle, and for similar and kindred purposes."
label: Description
content: The mechanism is described in the patent. A piece of red tape attached to the outside of the box, as well as the source of the object, suggest that it was submitted as a patent model.
label: Description
content: Myron Greeley Stolp (1848-1906), the inventor of this device, graduated from Cornell University in 1872, a member of the first class of civil engineers there to comple a four-year course. He then returned to his native Aurora, Illinois, to work in the family woolen mills, and held a variety of other engineering positions. Stolp took out several patents.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: "Improvement in Circle-Dividing Instruments," U.S. Patent 192,092, June 19, 1877.
label: Description
content: "Myron G. Stolp, '72," <I>Transactions of the Association of Civil Engineers of Cornell University</I>, vol. XIV, 1905-1906, pp. lv-lvi.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Aurora
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Ruling and Dividing Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Single Drawing Instruments
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.309337
label: catalog number
content: 309337
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: protractor
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: German silver (instrument material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric (case lining, holder for tag material)
label: Measurements
content: case: 5 cm x 41.2 cm x 23 cm; 1 31/32 in x 16 7/32 in x 9 1/16 in