Object Details
maker
Keuffel & Esser Co.
Description
This tarnished German silver bow pencil has a ring connecting the instrument to its ridged cylindrical handle. It is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO. (/) GERMANY. The disc adjusting the instrument's width is between the legs. Thumbscrews on the back of one leg and the front of the other permit adjustments to the height of the pencil and pricker points. The instrument has no pencil lead.
The instrument does not appear in K&E's 1892 or 1909 catalogs. K&E sold a similar bow compass from at least 1921 to at least 1936, but that instrument was made in the United States and had bolts in each leg at the ends of the bow screw. Therefore, this object may have been imported before 1892.
References: Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 36th ed. (New York, 1921), 92s; Catalogue and Price-List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 38th ed. (New York, 1936), 141.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Robert B. Condon
date made
late 19th century
ID Number
1991.0793.02
accession number
1991.0793
catalog number
1991.0793.02
Object Name
bow pencil
compass, drawing
Physical Description
german silver (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 14 cm x 3.4 cm x 1.4 cm; 5 1/2 in x 1 11/32 in x 9/16 in
place made
Germany
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Dividers and Compasses
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Drawing Instruments
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_904317