Bow Compass with Pen Point
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
notes: label: Description
content: This steel-spring instrument has an ivory handle, a point attached to one leg, and a penholder with adjusting screw on the other leg. The distance between the legs is adjusted with a pin and thumbscrew. The instrument resembles a Swiss bow pen sold around the turn of the 20th century by W. & L. E. Gurley (for $2.00) and by Keuffel & Esser (for $2.50). The manufacturer was probably not Kern & Co. of Aarau, Switzerland, as the Kern instruments advertised in the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog have a different shape of ivory handle.
label: Description
content: References: <i>1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue</i> (reprint; New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007), 369; <i>Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co.</i>, 23rd ed. (New York, 1892), 31; <i>Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co.</i>, 33rd ed. (New York, 1909), 63; <i>A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley</i>, 37th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1903), 289; <i>A Manual of the Principal Instruments . . . Manufactured by W. & L. E. Gurley</i>, 39th ed. (Troy, N.Y., 1906), 289. This instrument does not appear in the 1921 K&E and 1912 Gurley catalogs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Switzerland
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
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 Eunice L. Hoffman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335337
label: accession number
content: 305958
label: catalog number
content: 335337
objectType: label: Object Name
content: compass, drawing
label: Object Name
content: compass
label: Object Name
content: bow compass
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7.8 cm x 1.8 cm x .7 cm; 3 1/16 in x 23/32 in x 9/32 in