Beam Compass
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument consists of a wooden beam and a single German silver trammel with a micrometer and needle point. A large round hole in one end of the beam allows the instrument to be hung. The other end of the beam is marked in pencil at each of the first six inch points. The trammel is similar but not fully identical to Dietzgen's model number 646, which sold with a pair of trammels, two needle/pencil points, and a pen point for $9.20 in 1904–1905. This instrument was owned by the renowned American designer of steam engines, Erasmus Darwin Leavitt Jr. (1836–1916), and donated by his granddaughter, Margaret van D. Rice.
label: Description
content: Reference: <i>Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co.</i>, 7th ed. (Chicago, 1904), 71.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Margaret van D. Rice
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.0460.04
label: accession number
content: 1977.0460
label: catalog number
content: 336075
objectType: label: Object Name
content: beam compass
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 34.5 cm x 6.4 cm x 1.4 cm; 13 19/32 in x 2 17/32 in x 9/16 in