Object Details
maker
Schoenner, Georg
Description
This folding cardboard case is covered with black leather and lined with blue leather. The inside of the lid flap is marked in silver: Made in Germany. It is also marked: Technical Supply Company (/) Scranton and New York. The firm's logo (intertwined letters T, S, and Co., in between two torches) is to the left of the first mark. The set includes:
1) 6-1/4" German silver compass with bendable legs and removable needle and pencil points. The central joint is marked: PAT. (/) 17.3.03. Inside one leg is marked: n 16. A picture of a gear is to the right of the mark. Inside the other leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY ||.
2) 6" German silver and steel fixed-point dividers. On one side, the joint is marked: D.R.P. On the other side, the joint has the Schoenner logo: an S, G, and two intersecting arrows with two heads superimposed on each other. The inside of one leg has a drawing of a gear. Inside the other leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY ||.
3) 1" yellow metal cylindrical case with two pencil leads. The lid is marked: PNK TINGE. The bottom is marked: AVON PRODUCTS INC. (/) DSTR (/) N.Y.
4) 3-3/4" steel bow pencil with German silver handle. The handle is marked: GERMANY.
5) 4" steel bow pen with German silver handle. The handle is marked: GERMANY.
6) 3-11/16" German silver lengthening bar.
7) 5-1/2" steel, German silver, and ebony drawing pen. The point has a latch that allows the user to set it open. The pen is marked: T.A. & SONS PAT. MAY 7, 95 – SEP. 29, 96.
8) 1" metal joint tightener.
The drawing pen and case for leads do not appear to be part of the original set. The case may have been manufactured for cosmetics instead of as a scientific instrument. Another instrument, probably a small pair of dividers, is missing.
Georg Schoenner (1821–1899) established an instrument workshop in Nuremberg, Germany in 1851. His son, Georg Schoenner Jr. (1851–1921), joined the firm in 1877, and his grandson, Georg Paul Schoenner, reorganized the business as a limited liability company in 1921. Schoenner exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The firm targeted the U.S. in its sales, and was the largest producer of mathematical instruments in Germany before World War I. The company's interest in the American market is illustrated by the fact that Georg Schoenner Jr. received five U.S. patents in 1904 and another five in 1908. Similarly, the firm held the rights for the patent mentioned on the compass, for the design of the pivot joint.
Theodore Alteneder & Sons held the rights to the patents marked on the drawing pen. These covered the set-screw and latch on the pen point. For other drawing and calculating instruments manufactured by Alteneder, see 1991.0793.01, 1991.0793.05, and 2008.3041.01.
This set is not exactly like any of the sets of drawing instruments advertised in the Technical Supply Company's 1912 catalog.
References: Wilhelm Schwarzer, "Compass" (U.S. Patent 723, 041 issued March 17, 1903); U.S. Centennial Commission, International Exhibition, 1876. Reports and Awards: Group XXI, ed. Francis A. Walker (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1877), 192; U.S. Tariff Commission, Tariff Information Surveys on . . . Antimony, rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921), 49; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1904, H.Doc. 266 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905), 437; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1908 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909), 443–444; Ferdinand A. Alteneder, "Drawing Pen" (U.S. Patent 538,811 issued May 7, 1895) and (U.S. Patent 568,556 issued September 29, 1896).
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of LaVerne Watkins
date made
1903-1912
ID Number
1989.0305.05
catalog number
1989.0305.05
accession number
1989.0305
Object Name
drawing instruments, set of
Physical Description
german silver (overall material)
steel (overall material)
wood (overall material)
leather (overall material)
cardboard (overall material)
Measurements
case: 2 cm x 23 cm x 8.5 cm; 25/32 in x 9 1/16 in x 3 11/32 in
place made
Germany: Bavaria, Nuremberg
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Drawing Instruments
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Drafting, Engineering
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1050953