Irregular Curve or French Curve, Possibly Queen and Company Catalog #918, #22

Irregular Curve or French Curve, Possibly Queen and Company Catalog #918, #22

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Description
This long, relatively thin transparent plastic curve has a single relatively narrow opening in the bottom half. Similar but not identical curves were sold by Dietzgen and by Keuffel & Esser Company. Dietzgen assigned the curve number 18 (part of catalog entry 2152 in the 1926 catalog), while Keuffel & Esser gave it the number 20 (part of catalog entry 1860 in the 1921 catalog). A mark on the object reads: 22. In its 1883 catalog, James Queen and Company listed a similar curve made out of hard rubber as catalog number 653, #22. However, it does not list plastic curves in this catalog. In a 1922 catalogue, Queen lists a curve very similar to this one as number 22. It cost eighty cents in pearwood, one dollar in rubber, and $1.20 in celluloid.
References:
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, 1926, p. 221.
James W. Queen and Company, Catalogue, 1883, p. 57. This catalog has no celluloid curves.
Queen & Co., Inc., Catalogue of Engineering Instruments and Materials, rev., Part I, Philadelphia, by 1922, p. 160. These curves have catalog number 918 (in celluloid). The catalog is in the James W. Queen & Company Collection in the NMAH Archives Center.
Keuffel & Esser Company, Catalogue, 1921, p. 148.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
Curve
date made
ca 1910
maker
Queen and Company
place made
United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Physical Description
celluloid (overall material)
Measurements
overall:.1 cm x 25.6 cm x 9.2 cm; 1/32 in x 10 3/32 in x 3 5/8 in
ID Number
MA.304722.10
accession number
1973304722
catalog number
304722.10
Credit Line
Gift of Brown University Department of Mathematics
subject
Mathematics
Drawing Instruments
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Curves
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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