Hairspring Compass
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Keuffel & Esser Co.
notes: label: Description
content: The handle on this metal instrument is connected to the point and can be pulled out of the cylinder that is the compass's main leg. The other leg is screwed to the cylinder with a metal slat. A screw goes through this leg and can be loosened or tightened to adjust the radius of a circle drawn with the compass. A second screw adjusts the tube that holds a pencil point. Draftsmen used the hairspring compass to precisely draw small circles.
label: Description
content: Keuffel & Esser, an American maker and dealer of slide rules and drawing instruments, donated this object to the Smithsonian in 1971. Part of a paper tag received with the object has been lost, but the remaining portion suggests this instrument may have come from Leipzig, Germany. None of the compasses offered in K&E catalogs in 1909, 1921, or 1936 resemble this instrument.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
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 Keuffel & Esser Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335261
label: accession number
content: 306012
label: catalog number
content: 335261
objectType: label: Object Name
content: compass
label: Object Name
content: compass, drawing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.1 cm x 12.1 cm x 2.3 cm; 7/16 in x 4 3/4 in x 29/32 in