Railroad Curves Associated with George Shattuck Morrison
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890
notes: label: Description
content: This set of thirty-one well-finished cardboard curves fits in a wooden case with metal hinges and clasps. One curve appears to be handmade. The inner and outer edges of a given curve are identical arcs of circles. The number marked on a curve is the radius of that circle. Radii range from 1 1/2" to 60." The curves are marked: 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2, 5, 5 1/2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 60. The handmade curve is marked: 10 1/12000. There is no maker's mark.
label: Description
content: Railroad curves were used to draw the circular arcs representing track curves on railroad maps. The firm of Keuffel & Esser sold a set of thirty cardboard railroad curves like this from at least 1890 until at least 1921. In 1890, it also offered the curves in wood and hard rubber. By 1909, it sold them in plastic (Xylonite) as well. By 1936, K & E offered railroad curves only in plastic. Eugene Dietzgen Company of Chicago offered a similar set of thirty cardboard railroad curves from at least 1904 through at least 1931.
label: Description
content: These instruments are associated with the American railroad bridge engineer George Shattuck Morison (1842-1903).
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Eugene Dietzgen Company, <I>Catalog</I>, 1904, p. 219, 1908, p. 243, 1926, p. 228, 1931, p. 247.
label: Description
content: Keuffel & Esser Company, <I>Catalogue</I>, 1890, p. 152, 1909 p. 228, 1921, p. 156, 1936, pp. 236-237.
label: Description
content: Rolland A. Wallis, <I>Industrial Education: Notes on Mechanical Drawing</I>, Ames, Iowa: Engineering Extension Department Iowa State College, 1922, p. 24.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Curves
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Christiana M. Leonard, Elting E. Morison, and John H. Morison
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1993.0111.01
label: accession number
content: 1993.0111
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0111.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Curves, Set Of In Case
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (curves material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (hinges and clasps material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9.3 cm x 37.9 cm x 6 cm; 3 21/32 in x 14 29/32 in x 2 3/8 in