Eagle Pencil Company Model 569 Compass and Divider
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Eagle Pencil Company
notes: label: Description
content: This metal compass is noticeably corroded. The compass is held together by a screw at the top. A spring inside the mechanism below the screw allows the two legs to be squeezed together. The mechanism is marked on both sides: EAGLE PENCIL CO. (/) NEW YORK (/) PAT. DEC.11.1894 (/) PAT. GT.BRITAIN. The legs are embossed with a floral pattern. The two needle points slide into slots at the end of each leg. One point is made of the same metal as the compass. The other point is a metal that does not corrode, possibly German silver. The German silver point is reversible and holds a pencil lead in its other end.
label: Description
content: German immigrant Heinrich Berolzheimer opened Eagle Pencil Company as a pencil shop in New York City in 1856, with a factory in Yonkers. By 1880, the firm made mechanical pencils as well as pens and erasers. In 1969, the company changed its name to Berol Corporation, and the Empire Pencil Corporation purchased it in 1986. Harrison Cole of Columbus, Ohio, applied on April 16, 1894, for a patent on a braking screw bolt that would help compasses or dividers stay set in position and received it on December 11 that year. The Brown University mathematics department donated this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1973. Compare to 1981.0933.17.
label: Description
content: References: Harrison Cole, "Drawing Instrument" (U.S. Patent 530,680 issued December 11, 1894); "Eagle Divider and Compass," <i>School Journal</i> 56 (1898): 389.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Education
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 Brown University Department of Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.304722.04
label: accession number
content: 1973.304722
label: catalog number
content: 304722.04
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 cm x 13 cm x 3.2 cm; 13/32 in x 5 1/8 in x 1 1/4 in