Set Square Signed Nicolas Bion
date: label: date made
content: 1681-1733
name: label: maker
content: Bion, Nicholas
notes: label: Description
content: A square is an instrument used to draw lines perpendicular to other lines. It also can be used to test whether two lines are perpendicular. Squares in which the arms are fixed date from ancient times. By the 16th century, they also were made from two rules hinged together at one end so that they fold up compactly, allowing them to fit conveniently into a case of drawing instruments. See MA.316914, MA.335353, 1979.0876.01, and 1984.1070.01.
label: Description
content: Early modern squares often had plumb bobs for finding a vertical axis, as in a building under construction. While most others in the collection were lost before they arrived at the Smithsonian, this fixed-leg, L-shaped brass instrument retains its plumb bob, which is tied to a string that runs through a pinhole at the square's vertex. On one side, the long leg of this instrument has a scale divided into units of about 7/16". The scale is numbered by tens from 10 to 100 and is marked: Echelle De 100 parties [scale of 100 parts]. The first unit is divided into tenths and numbered from 1 to 10. This side is also marked: N Bion AParis.
label: Description
content: On the other side, the long leg has a scale divided into units of about 7/8". The scale is numbered by tens from 60 to 10 and is marked: Echelle de 60 parties [scale of 60 parts]. The first unit is divided into tenths and numbered from 10 to 1. The outer edge has a scale of French inches (about 1-1/16" English inches) numbered by ones from 5 to 1. The largest unit is divided into twelfths and numbered by threes from 12 to 3. This scale is marked: Pouce de Roy [inch of the French king].
label: Description
content: The short leg has a scale divided into units of about 1-25/32". The scale is numbered by tens from 10 to 20 and is marked: Echelle de 20 parties [scale of 20 parts]. The first unit is divided into tenths and numbered from 1 to 10. The outer edge has a scale of French inches numbered by ones from 1 to 4. The largest unit is divided into twelfths and numbered by threes from 3 to 12. This scale is marked: pouce de roy [inch of the French king].
label: Description
content: Nicolas Bion (about 1652–1733) made and sold mathematical instruments in Paris in his own shop and as royal maker for Louis XIV. He prepared a famous 1709 manual on the construction and use of mathematical instruments. 1980.0580.05 and MA.321675, two sectors in the collections, also came from his workshop. The Smithsonian acquired this object in 1959. Henry Russell Wray, the previous owner, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was a businessman in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the early 20th century.
label: Description
content: References: Maya Hambly, <i>Drawing Instruments, 1580–1980</i> (London: Sotheby's Publications, 1988), 105; Nicholas Bion, <i>The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments</i>, trans. Edmund Stone (London: for John Senex, 1723), 12, Plate 2.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Sotheby & Company, Catalogue of a Collection of Scientific Instruments, the Property of the Late Henry Russel Wray, London, 1959 (a copy of the catalogue is in the accession file).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
label: Subject
content: Building & Architecture
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Squares and Triangles
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316929
label: catalog number
content: 316929
label: accession number
content: 228694
objectType: label: Object Name
content: set square
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14.4 cm x 11.5 cm x .2 cm; 5 21/32 in x 4 17/32 in x 3/32 in