Lyman Protracting Trigonometer Signed Heller & Brightly

Description:

This metal drawing instrument allows civil engineers to translate their measurements into drawings with a minimum of calculation. It consists of a flat steel base bar 81.5 cm (about 32 inches) long, a semicircular protractor with a flat plate along the diameter that slides along the base bar, a long steel arm clamped to the protractor at its center, a brass set square or sliding square that moves along the arm, and a tri-leaved scale (like an architect’s scale) that moves along the arm or along the set square. There are four metal springs, each with its own screw. The two smaller springs hold the protractor plate to the base bar and the two larger ones hold the tri-leaved scale or the set square to the arm. The entire instrument fits in a wooden case. A sheet of instructions is pasted inside the case.

The protractor is divided by half-degrees and marked by tens from 0° to 90° to 0° and from 90° to 0° to 90°. An attached vernier permits angle readings to one minute of arc. The ratios on the architect's scales range from 1:10 to 1:60. Each scale is divided into tenths of a unit.

This is a modified form of the protracting trigonometer patented by Josiah Lyman of Lenox, Mass., in 1858, with reissue of the patent in 1860, and extension in 1872 (for an example of the protracting trigonometer, see MA.328738; for an architect’s rule patented by Lyman, see MA.308914). The instrument was made by Heller & Brightly of Philadelphia. According to a Heller & Brightly circular, the instrument sold with either a tri-leaved scale that was 6 inches long or one that was 12 inches long. This instrument has the 12-inch scale, and would have sold in 1878 for $30.00.

Hobart Cutler Dickinson (1875–1949), a 1900 graduate of Williams College who obtained a master’s degree there and did further graduate work at Clark University (Ph.D. 1910), owned this object. Dickinson worked at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards from 1903 until his retirement in 1945. Dickinson was the father of Anne D. Ross, one of the donors of the instrument.

References: "Circular of Lyman’s Trigonometer and Universal Draughting Instrument" (Philadelphia: Heller & Brightly, 1878); P.A. Kidwell, “Josiah Lyman’s Protracting Trigonometer,” Rittenhouse, 3 (November 1988): 11–14; Robert C. Miller, “A Lyman Protracting Trigonometer Made by Heller & Brightly,” Rittenhouse 3 (August 1989): 129–131.

Date Made: ca 1880

Maker: Heller & Brightly

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Subject: EngineeringMathematicsProtractor

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics, Science & Mathematics, Trigonometry, Protractors

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Hugh N. and Anne D. Ross

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 2009.0244.01Accession Number: 2009.0244Catalog Number: 2009.0244.01

Object Name: drawing instrument

Physical Description: steel (overall material)brass (overall material)wood (overall material)Measurements: case: 5.8 cm x 88.4 cm x 18 cm; 2 5/16 in x 34 13/16 in x 7 1/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-ca45-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1376069

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