Mechanical Specialties Linear Planimeter
date: label: date made
content: 1888-1900
name: label: maker
content: Mechanical Specialties Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: This German silver linear planimeter is T-shaped. The base of the T has a measuring scale, which no longer can be read due to rust, and a metal wheel that slides up and down the scale when the planimeter is moved. The top of the T has a tracing point at one end. The other end fits into a metal groove screwed inside a rectangular mahogany case. Two clips fastened inside the case are for holding the paper marked with a steam engine indicator diagram, but the paper received with this object is held in place by four metal thumbtacks.
label: Description
content: The top of the case has a red and white inventory sticker marked: 1113 (/) 204-G-2. The sticker was presumably attached at Rutgers University, the donor of the object. A large white label glued inside the lid of the case is marked: THE • NEW • PLANIMETER (/) THE MECHANICAL SPECIALTIES MFG. CO. (/) 128 PURCHASE STREET, BOSTON, MASS. This label also has "directions for use." The inside bottom of the case is lined with blue paper. The paper held by thumbtacks contains a square drawn with pencil and marked: Begin here (/) Area (/) 4 sq. in. Above a circle drawn to the right of the square is marked: Circle is (/) 1 in. inside diam. (/) Area = Π / 4 = .785 sq. in. (/) Begin (/) here.
label: Description
content: The Mechanical Specialties Manufacturing Company was known for its "Arc" steam engine indicator, which it started to sell in 1888. The firm was apparently short-lived. By 1900, the <i>Boston Journal of Commerce and Textile Industries</i> was published from its address, and by 1918, the Boston Office Furniture Exchange was located at its address. Rolla Clinton Carpenter, associate professor of experimental engineering at Cornell, did describe the instrument in an 1893 textbook. The instrument was received at the museum in about 1965.
label: Description
content: References: The Mechanical Specialties Manufacturing Company, "A Treatise on the Arc Indicator," <i>American Engineer</i> 19, no. 10 (March 5, 1890): 107, and "Improvements in the Arc Indicator," <i>American Engineer</i> 20, no. 21 (November 22, 1890): 221–222; Rolla C. Carpenter, <i>Experimental Engineering</i>, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1893), 36–37; <i>Catalogue of Exhibitors in the United States Sections of the International Universal Exposition,</i>, vol. 2 (Paris, 1900), 446; "Purchase St," <i>Boston Register and Business Directory</i> no. 83 (1918): 976.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Engineering
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Planimeters
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Rutgers University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.327643
label: catalog number
content: 327643
label: accession number
content: 268279
objectType: label: Object Name
content: planimeter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: case: 3.2 cm x 30.5 cm x 16 cm; 1 1/4 in x 12 in x 6 5/16 in