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.
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.