Images(3)

linear dividing engine part

Datecirca 1900

Inventory Number1997-1-0354a

ClassificationDividing Engine

Subject

Maker Société Genevoise pour la Construction d'Instruments de Physique et de Mécanique 1862-present

User Bowdoin College, Department of Physics founded after 1794

Cultural Region

Place of Origin

Place of Use

Dimensions17 × 95.6 × 21.7 cm (6 11/16 × 37 5/8 × 8 9/16 in.)

Material

Bibliography

Description of an Engine for Dividing Strait Lines on Mathematical Instruments

DescriptionBlack apparatus, shaped like a long, rectangular box without a top, mounted on a wooden base. On one end is a hand crank, mounted on a gear, connected to a black coil inside the apparatus. The coil is attached to a clamp in the middle of the apparatus, and is also supported by a piece of brass halfway between the clamp and the hand crank. Next to the hand crank is a fine tuning adjustment knob on a ledge of black metal.

Signedon base: SOCIÉTÉ GENEVOISE / Pour la construction / d'Instruments de physique / GENÈVE

FunctionPrimary part of a linear dividing engine used for constructing high precision scales and marking the gradations for apparatus used in the physical sciences. For a short account of this type of apparatus, go to the following website.

See also this other website describing a circular dividing engine.

ProvenanceFrom the Department of Physics, Bowdoin College.

Historical AttributesAccording to the display card from Bowdoin College: "When this building was built in 1894, Mr. Searles also provided apparatus for the labs. At that time, much of the apparatus for experiments was made in the Departmental Shop, as our specialized apparatus is today. This engine was also used in the advanced laboratory course. The project was to make a 3 centimeter scale with a vernier. The companion circular dividing engine has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution."

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