Plain Dividers by Société des Lunetiers
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Société des Lunetiers
notes: label: Description
content: This brass instrument has steel points that are both bent at the end. It has a ridged cylindrical handle and is held together with a screw. One arm opens and closes at the joint. That arm is marked: S<sup><u>TE</u></sup> DES LUNETIERS (/) FRANCE.
label: Description
content: In 1849 several workshops in Paris formed the Société des Lunetiers to cooperatively sell spectacles and mathematical instruments. Since 1972, the company has been known as Essilor.
label: Description
content: Keuffel & Esser, an American maker and dealer of slide rules and drawing instruments, donated this object to the Smithsonian in 1971. Part of a paper tag received with the object has been lost, but the remaining portion suggests these dividers may have been used by company employees preparing lettering. None of the dividers offered in K&E catalogs in 1909, 1921, or 1936 resemble this instrument.
label: Description
content: References: Nicolàs de Hilster, "Société des Lunetiers," <i>Geodetic Instruments</i>, http://www.dehilster.info/index.php?doc=http://www.dehilster.info/instrumenten/theodolite1/sdl.html; "About Essilor," http://www.essilor.co.nz/about_essilor/.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Keuffel & Esser Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335260
label: accession number
content: 306012
label: catalog number
content: 335260
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dividers
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 14.2 cm x 1.1 cm; 13/32 in x 5 19/32 in x 7/16 in