Object Details
Description
This steel-spring instrument has a metal and ivory handle, with a ridged ring around the bottom and the top shaped like a pawn chess piece. A holder with a metal adjusting screw on one leg is missing its needle point. This leg is marked with the number 8 inside a circle and an arrow pointing left (toward the 8). The holder on the other leg has a pencil lead and is adjusted with a brass screw. The distance between the legs is adjusted with a metal screw and brass nut. This object does not resemble the ivory-handled bow-pencils sold around the turn of the 20th century by Keuffel & Esser, Dietzgen, Gurley, Kern, or Schoenner.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Eunice L. Hoffman
date made
ca 1900
ID Number
MA.335342
accession number
305958
catalog number
335342
Object Name
bow pencil
compass, drawing
Physical Description
steel (overall material)
ivory (overall material)
brass (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 9.2 cm x 2.5 cm x 1.8 cm; 3 5/8 in x 31/32 in x 23/32 in
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_904322