Warner & Swasey Circular Dividing Engine
Warner & Swasey Circular Dividing Engine
- Description
- Dividing engines scribed the fine scales traced along the edges of mathematical, navigational, and astronomical instruments. From the time of Englishman Jesse Ramsden in the late eighteenth century, free-standing dividing engines with the advance or the tracer driven by a carefully controlled screw were used by scientific instrument makers (for an example of Ramden's dividing engine, see MA.215518).
- In 1893, the U.S. Naval Observatory ordered a new meridian circle from the Cleveland firm of Warner &Swasey. The instrument required metal circles, 26 1/2" inches diameter, divided to two minutes of arc (10,800 divisions). To create scales of sufficient precision, Ambrose Swasey designed this circular dividing engine. It would be used at Warner & Swasey at least into the 1950s, and was given to the Smithsonian in 1974 along with documentation (see record MA.313774.02 and MA.313774.03) and a box of parts (MA> 313774.22)
- References:
- Accession file 313774.
- C. Evans,Precision Engineering: An Evolutionary View, Bedford: Cranfield, 1987.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- dividing engine
- date made
- 1895-1896
- maker
- Warner & Swasey Company
- place made
- United States: Ohio, Cleveland
- Measurements
- overall: 64 in x 54 in x 54 in; 162.56 cm x 137.16 cm x 137.16 cm
- ID Number
- MA.334398
- catalog number
- 334398
- accession number
- 313774
- Credit Line
- Gift of Warner & Swasey Company
- subject
- Ruling and Dividing Engines
- Mathematics
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.