Object Details
- Description
- A pantograph is an instrument used to duplicate drawings, at different scales if need be. This example consists of four wooden arms held together with pins and a screw-eye with a wooden anchor support under one arm. Two metal screw-eyes are placed in holes which are numbered from 1 to 10. There is a tracer point in one arm, but there no longer is a pencil point.
- A mark stamped on one of the wooden bars reads: 1495 (/) POSTS. Below this is stamped an image of an eagle clutching a shield that is stamped P. This trademark appeared on the first page of the Frederick Post Company Catalog in 1903. By 1921, another trademark was used.
- The pantograph is number 1495 in the catalog of The Frederick Post Company. The company was started by Frederick Post (1862-1936), a native of Hamburg who emigrated to the United States in 1885 and soon settled in Chicago. By the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, he was a manufacturer of artist's materials there. Post imported drawing instruments and slide rules as well as manufacturing them. Whether his firm made this pantograph is not known.
- The instrument is from the estate of the American inventor of tabulating machines Herman Hollerith, Jr. In 1889, Hollerith introduced a device for punching cards for tabulating machines that was called a pantograph card punch. This pantograph dates from after that invention.
- For information about the pantograph card punch, see MA.312896.
- References:
- U. S. Census 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930.
- Catalogs of the Frederick Post Company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- date made
- 1903-1922
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Estate of Herman Hollerith, Jr.
- Physical Description
- wood (arms material)
- metal (pins material)
- Measurements
- overall: 2.8 cm x 43.7 cm x 3.3 cm; 1 3/32 in x 17 7/32 in x 1 5/16 in
- Object Name
- Pantograph
