Patent Model for Parallel Rule and T-Square by Eugene Towne
date: label: date made
content: 1877
name: label: maker
content: Towne, Eugene J.
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument has a wooden handle attached by a large brass thumbscrew to a brass protractor that is divided to single degrees and numbered by tens in both directions from 10 to 170. The protractor is screwed to a rectangular brass piece that slides in a groove in a rectangular wooden guide-piece. The guide-piece has brass clamps and thumbscrews for affixing the instrument on a table. The protractor is also attached by a split nut to a metal screw shaft that runs the width of the instrument. A thumb rest and gear on the left clamp rotates the screw shaft.
label: Description
content: A T-square is a technical drawing instrument used by draftsmen primarily as a guide for drawing horizontal lines on a drafting table. In this instrument, the two blades of the T-square are not fixed in a perpendicular position but rather can be rotated to any angle on the protractor. The large thumbscrew can then be used as a handle to move the blades along the screw shaft, allowing the user to draw parallel lines.
label: Description
content: Eugene James Towne (1847–after 1900) of North Dana, Mass., received a patent for this device in 1877. He submitted this example with his application as a prototype for the instrument, and the U.S. Patent Office marked it on the bottom: 187330 (/) L.1201.1228. Towne, a cabinetmaker, and J. W. Goodman, who made pianos, billiard table legs, and other wooden items in North Dana, apparently intended to manufacture the device together. However, the instrument likely was not widely adopted.
label: Description
content: References: Eugene J. Towne, "Improvement in Parallel Rulers" (U.S. Patent 187,330 issued February 13, 1877); Edwin Eugene Towne, ed., <i>The Descendants of William Towne</i> (Newtonville, Mass., 1901), 284; <i>The Worcester County Directory for 1878–79</i> (Boston: Briggs & Co., 1878), 41; 1870 and 1900 U.S. Census records.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, North Dana
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
label: Subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Parallel Rules
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content: Protractors
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.308953
label: catalog number
content: 308953
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: parallel rule
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rosewood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 cm x 31 cm x 30 cm; 2 3/4 in x 12 7/32 in x 11 13/16 in