Object Details
maker
Schoenner, Georg
Description
This wooden case is covered with black leather and lined with blue satin and velvet. It has a steel locking pin. The case contains:
1) 4-3/4" German silver and steel drop spring bow pen marked: E. O. RICHTER & Co (/) GERMANY. The firm's trademark with superimposed backwards E, R, and O is next to the mark.
2) 6-1/8" German silver drawing compass with bendable legs and removable needle point (the needle is missing), extension bar, and pen point. On one side, the center joint is marked: D.R.P. The other side has the Schoenner trademark of a circle superimposed on two intersecting, two-headed arrows. Inside one leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY.
3) 5-3/4" German silver and steel fixed-point dividers. On one side, the center joint is marked: D.R.P. The other side has the Schoenner trademark. Inside one leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY.
4) 4-3/4" German silver and steel dividers with removable divider points, pen point, and pencil point. On one side, the center joint is marked: D.R.P. The other side has the Schoenner trademark. Inside one leg is marked: SCHOENNER. Inside the other leg is marked: 14.
5) 3-1/2" German silver and steel bow dividers.
6) 5-1/8" ivory and steel railroad pen with tightening screws in both blades and the central shank. The handle is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER Co. N.Y. (/) GERMANY.
7) 5-1/8" ivory, German silver, and steel drawing pen marked: PARAGON. It is also marked: GERMANY. Paragon was a brand of Keuffel & Esser.
8) 4-3/8" ebony, German silver, and steel drawing pen marked: POSTS (/) GERMANY.
The Schoenner instruments and bow dividers fit properly in their slots and thus are likely original to the set. Slots in the case suggest that a bow pen and pencil, case for pencil leads, joint tightener, small pen point, and proportional compass were part of the original set. For Schoenner company history, see 1989.0305.05.
Chauncey Brockway Schmeltzer (1894–1974) owned this set of drawing instruments. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois in 1919 and 1920, and taught there until 1926. He also worked in private practice in Urbana, Ill., from 1921 to 1933. He then became an associate engineer appraiser for the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis until 1936. From 1936, he held the same title at the USDA's Bureau of Agricultural Engineering.
Reference: Winfield Scott Downs, ed., Who's Who in Engineering, 4th ed. (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1937), 1217.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Grace Pauline Schmeltzer
date made
ca 1930
ID Number
MA.317925.04
accession number
317925
catalog number
317925.04
Object Name
drawing instruments, set of
Physical Description
velvet (case lining material)
wood (case material)
leather (case cover material)
satin (case lining material)
german silver (instruments material)
steel (instruments material)
ivory (handles material)
Measurements
overall: 2.5 cm x 23 cm x 14.5 cm; 31/32 in x 9 1/16 in x 5 23/32 in
place made
Germany: Bavaria, Nuremberg
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Drawing Instruments
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Drafting, Engineering
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1122129