Accession No

2837

Brief Description

planimeter, by Stanley, English, 1900 (c)

Origin

England; London; Great Turnstile

Maker

Stanley

Class

calculating; drawing

Earliest Date

1900

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (steel); plastic; wood; hide (leather); cloth (velvet)

Dimensions

box length 285mm; breadth 55mm; height 33mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Christie’s, South Kensington, London, England; lot 203, 29/04/1982.

Inscription

Description Notes

Leather-covered fitted wooden box lined with blue velvet.
Steel planimeter with fixed arm and mobile arm, each with point at the end away from the hinge. Knurled screws for adjustment of the moveable arm, one with drumhead scale andtype-B vernier. Tracing arm engraved 1 dcm/0.1 f/2000 m 1:500/10 in/ 0.5 dcm/ 1000 m 1:500. Values for conversion between metric and imperial units and between scaled maps and actual measurements given on arms of instrument.
Separate drumhead weight sits on mobile arm.

Condition

References

Events

Description
Planimeters are mechanical instruments designed to solve the common problem of computing the area of an irregular closed shape. The first instrument designed to do this was made by J.M. Hermann, a Bavarian engineer, in 1814. Tito Gonella of Florence independently invented a similar instrument in 1824 using a wheel and cone arrangement.

FM:44707