Dancing Leg Calipers
date: label: date made
content: 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: Calipers are used to measure round objects, both around the outside (machine parts, rifle shot) and from the inside (a rifle barrel). They were often included in cases of drawing instruments in the 18th and 19th centuries and shaped like the human body, mainly for the enjoyment of the machinist or draftsman. This pair is missing its set screw and has been welded into a fixed position. It has no identifying marks.
label: Description
content: References: Maya Hambly, <i>Drawing Instruments: 1580–1980</i> (London: Sotheby's Publications, 1988), 73, 88.
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
label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
label: Subject
content: Engineering
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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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.316932
label: accession number
content: 219305
label: catalog number
content: 316932
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calipers
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11.2 cm x 4.1 cm x .5 cm; 4 13/32 in x 1 5/8 in x 3/16 in