Beam Compass
Beam Compass
- Description
- This instrument consists of a wooden beam and a single German silver trammel with a micrometer and needle point. A large round hole in one end of the beam allows the instrument to be hung. The other end of the beam is marked in pencil at each of the first six inch points. The trammel is similar but not fully identical to Dietzgen's model number 646, which sold with a pair of trammels, two needle/pencil points, and a pen point for $9.20 in 1904–1905. This instrument was owned by the renowned American designer of steam engines, Erasmus Darwin Leavitt Jr. (1836–1916), and donated by his granddaughter, Margaret van D. Rice.
- Reference: Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 7th ed. (Chicago, 1904), 71.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- beam compass
- date made
- ca 1900
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 34.5 cm x 6.4 cm x 1.4 cm; 13 19/32 in x 2 17/32 in x 9/16 in
- ID Number
- 1977.0460.04
- accession number
- 1977.0460
- catalog number
- 336075
- Credit Line
- Gift of Margaret van D. Rice
- subject
- Mathematics
- Drawing Instruments
- Engineering
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Dividers and Compasses
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
