Keuffel & Esser Polar Planimeter Model 4212

Description:

This relatively simple German-made stainless steel polar planimeter has arms of fixed length, with measuring wheels near the vertex of the tracer arm and a carrier for a stainless steel weight at the end of the other arm. The carrier is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER Co. The part of the arm below it is marked on the underside: No 3079. The weight is marked: 80.

A wooden case covered with black leather is lined with purple velvet. A mark on the lid of the case reads: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO. N.Y.

Keuffel & Esser sold this planimeter as the model 1111 from 1892 to 1901 and then as model 4212 from 1901 to 1936. The donor assigned it a date of 1912. The sliding clasp on the case suggests a relatively late date. The model 4212 was one of the simpler planimeters sold by K & E and the 1909 catalog gives a price of $16.50. The instrument was imported by K&E from the firm established in Switzerland by the mathematician and inventor Jakob Amsler. Several other Amsler planimeters are in the collections.

This instrument reached the Smithsonian in 2016.

References:

Clark McCoy, "Collection of Pages from K&E Catalogs for the 4210 Family of Polar Planimeters," at the website www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/tm.

Keuffel & Esser Company, Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser, 33d ed., New York, 1909, p. 318.

Accession File.