Object Details
- Description
- This relatively simple German-made stainless steel polar planimeter has arms of fixed length, with measuring wheels near the vertex of the tracer arm and a carrier for a stainless steel weight at the end of the other arm. The carrier is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER Co. The part of the arm below it is marked on the underside: No 3079. The weight is marked: 80.
- A wooden case covered with black leather is lined with purple velvet. A mark on the lid of the case reads: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO. N.Y.
- Keuffel & Esser sold this planimeter as the model 1111 from 1892 to 1901 and then as model 4212 from 1901 to 1936. The donor assigned it a date of 1912. The sliding clasp on the case suggests a relatively late date. The model 4212 was one of the simpler planimeters sold by K & E and the 1909 catalog gives a price of $16.50. The instrument was imported by K&E from the firm established in Switzerland by the mathematician and inventor Jakob Amsler. Several other Amsler planimeters are in the collections.
- This instrument reached the Smithsonian in 2016.
- References:
- Clark McCoy, "Collection of Pages from K&E Catalogs for the 4210 Family of Polar Planimeters," at the website www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/tm.
- Keuffel & Esser Company, Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser, 33d ed., New York, 1909, p. 318.
- Accession File.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Keuffel & Esser Co.
- date made
- ca 1910
- Credit Line
- Gift of Maximilian Berktold
- Physical Description
- stainless steel (planimeter, weight material)
- plastic (measuring discs material)
- wood, leather, velvet (case material)
- Measurements
- overall: 4 cm x 16.4 cm x 6.7 cm; 1 9/16 in x 6 15/32 in x 2 5/8 in
- Object Name
- planimeter
