Object Details
Description
This 12" 45°-45°-90° triangle with an open interior is made of three different woods, with two sections of lighter wood (0.5 cm wide) around two sections of darker wood (0.8 cm wide) around one section of reddish wood (1 cm wide). Three horizontal splines made from the lighter wood reinforce each corner. The back of the object has a sticker marked: 364.
Neither Keuffel & Esser nor the Eugene Dietzgen Company advertised triangles like this one. James W. Queen of Philadelphia offered only two-toned triangles, of walnut or mahogany with a maple or ebony inlay. Additionally, the firm did not sell inlaid triangles in a 12-inch size. The previous owner of this instrument collected more than 1,200 hand tools and machine tools and displayed them at his family's building company in Baltimore, Md. This object was item number 364 in his collection.
Reference: James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Mathematical Instruments (Philadelphia, 1883), 51.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
The John R. Gerwig, Jr., Collection
date made
ca 1900
ID Number
1977.1101.0087
catalog number
1977.1101.0087
accession number
1977.1101
Object Name
triangle
Physical Description
pearwood (overall material)
mahogany (overall material)
walnut (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm x .3 cm; 12 in x 12 in x 1/8 in
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Squares and Triangles
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Drawing Instruments
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_904236