Troughton and Simms Dividing Engine
date: label: Date made
content: 1841
label: date made
content: ca 1841
name: label: maker
content: Troughton and Simms
notes: label: Description
content: This engine produced finely graduated circular scales such as those used on surveying instruments called theodolites. It was ordered by the U.S. Coast Survey from the London instrument maker Edward Troughton in 1832, completed by the successor firm of Troughton and Simms after Troughton’s death, and delivered to the Coast Survey in 1842. Over its time there, it was modified by Joseph Saxton and later George N. Saegmuller. The dividing engine was transferred from the Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Smithsonian in 1929.
label: Description
content: The instrument has a brass circle four feet across on heavy cone center bearings, supported by a 4 ½ foot iron circle. The cone bearing socket is mounted on a heavy fixed tripod two feet high. The instrument is signed: Troughton & Simms, London, 1841.
label: Description
content: The instrument is presently (2019) unavailable for study or exhibition.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession file 106350.
label: Description
content: Chris Evans, “Precision Engineering: and Evolutionary Perspective,”, MSc Thesis, Cranfield Institute of Technology, 1987, pp. 77-78.
label: Description
content: F.B. Hassler, <I>A Report from the Superintendent of the Coast Survey and of the Fabrication of Standard Weights and Measures</I>, Senate Report 11, 27th Congress, 3rd Session, December 20, 1842, p. 4.
label: Description
content: Joseph Henry, “Memoir of Joseph Saxton,” <I>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences</I>, vol. 1, pp. 311-312.
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Ruling and Dividing Engines
label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survery
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.309643
label: accession number
content: 106350
label: catalog number
content: 309643
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dividing Engine