Barton's Button on a Chain (2)
notes: label: Description
content: John Barton (1771-1834) was an English engineer (early texts term him a mechanist) who served as Comptroller of the Royal Mint. He also devised a ruling engine, used it to engrave parallel lines (from the 2,000th to 10,000th of an inch apart) on steel plates, and found that when light was shone on these plates, one could see all the colors of the spectrum. This led to the production of Barton’s buttons, aka iris ornaments.
label: Description
content: Ref: P. Grodzinski, "A Ruling Engine used by Sir John Barton - and its Products," Transactions of the Newcomen Society 26 (1947–1949): 79–88.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.321734
label: catalog number
content: 321734
label: accession number
content: 244965
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pendants
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 2 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in; 2.54 cm x 6.35 cm x 3.81 cm