Accession No
2612
Brief Description
parallel rule, 19th Century
Origin
Maker
Class
drawing
Earliest Date
1800
Latest Date
1900
Inscription Date
Material
wood (ebony); metal (brass); ivory
Dimensions
length 456mm; breadth 57mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Christie’s, South Kensington, London, England; lot 70, 10/7/1980.
Inscription
Description Notes
Ebony parallel rule, brass hinges. Each rule has an ivory stud set in brass.
References
Events
Description
Parallel rule
Used by architects, engineers, cartographers and on nautical charts, the parallel rule is used for drawing parallel lines accurately. It is also used in conjunction with a scale rule for producing orthogonal drawings (with lines in non-parallel direction as well). The pivoting links can be extended to the required distance, but this makes the instrument liable to error for larger drawings because the extension is changed by hand, and can be varied accidentally.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:44440
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