Object Details
maker
Société des Lunetiers
Description
This brass instrument has steel points that are both bent at the end. It has a ridged cylindrical handle and is held together with a screw. One arm opens and closes at the joint. That arm is marked: STE DES LUNETIERS (/) FRANCE.
In 1849 several workshops in Paris formed the Société des Lunetiers to cooperatively sell spectacles and mathematical instruments. Since 1972, the company has been known as Essilor.
Keuffel & Esser, an American maker and dealer of slide rules and drawing instruments, donated this object to the Smithsonian in 1971. Part of a paper tag received with the object has been lost, but the remaining portion suggests these dividers may have been used by company employees preparing lettering. None of the dividers offered in K&E catalogs in 1909, 1921, or 1936 resemble this instrument.
References: Nicolàs de Hilster, "Société des Lunetiers," Geodetic Instruments, http://www.dehilster.info/index.php?doc=http://www.dehilster.info/instrumenten/theodolite1/sdl.html; "About Essilor," http://www.essilor.co.nz/about_essilor/.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Keuffel & Esser Company
date made
ca 1900
ID Number
MA.335260
accession number
306012
catalog number
335260
Object Name
dividers
Physical Description
brass (overall material)
steel (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 1 cm x 14.2 cm x 1.1 cm; 13/32 in x 5 19/32 in x 7/16 in
place made
France: Île-de-France, Paris
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Dividers and Compasses
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Drafting, Engineering
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_904336