Pantograph in Case, Like Keuffel & Esser 1126

This brass pantograph consists of four arms connected by pins. The long arms are twenty-five and twenty-four inches long, with the distance from the fulcrum to the points being twenty-four inches. Two of the arms are marked from 6 to 1/12 (the subdivisions of these scales are not fine). The pantograph rolls on three metal casters. There are two spools for thread next to levers with black handles at the ends of the long bars away from their meeting point. The pencil point has a cup on top for weights. The wooden case also contains three metal squares painted black, a stone weight with a metal loop in top, and a large round iron weight to anchor the pantograph. The iron weight has a metal bar on top to attach it to the pantograph and two screws on its sides. A wooden bar and two metal screws secure it in the case.

Penciled on the inside of the lid is the name: E. M. Douglas. Also written in black on the inside of the lid is the mark: Ser. 100. Two paper tags atop the lid are badly worn and illegible. A piece of masking tape reads: 100.

Compare MA.335263, which was pantograph model 1127 sold by Keuffel & Esser. This object resembles Keuffel and Esser’s Model 1126. Keuffel & Esser offered pantographs with bars twenty-four inches, twenty-eight inches and thirty-three inches long (the models 1126, 1127 and 1128 respectively) from at least 1890. However, the cross-section of the bars was square. By its 1906 catalog, the cross-section of pantographs 1126, 1127, and 1128 was rectangular rather than square – as it is in this example. Hence this appears to be a model 1126 in the later style. Three models also was listed in the 1909 catalog. Catalogs for 1913, 1916, and 1921 list only the model 1127. None of these pantographs were listed in the 1927 or 1936 catalogs. Hence it seems likely that this object dates from the period 1900-1912.

There was an Edward M. Douglas who worked as a topographer at the U.S. Geological Survey from 1882 and was Chief of the Computing Division there from 1911 until transferring to the map information office in the War Department in 1925; he worked in the War Department until his retirement in 1930.

References:

Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser, New York, 1890 (p. 107), 1892 (p. 107), 1906 (p. 168), 1909 (p. 154), 1913 (p. 151), 1916 (p. 151), 1921 (p. 102), 1936.

R. T. Evans and H. M. Frye, History of the Topographic Branch (Division), U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 1341, 2009, p. 154.

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