Accession No
4488
Brief Description
planimeter by Stanley
Origin
London; England
Maker
Stanley
Class
calculating; drawing
Earliest Date
1880
Latest Date
1930
Inscription Date
Material
metal (white metal); ivorine; cloth (velvet); hide (leather); wood
Dimensions
length 252mm; box 305mm x 55mm x 40mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Donated in 1994.
Inscription
Description Notes
Leather covered box lined with black velvet.
White metal planimeter with fixed arm and mobile arm, each with point at the end away from the hinge. Screws for adjustment of the moveable arm, one with drumhead scale and type-B vernier. Values for conversion between metric and imperial units and between scaled maps and actual measurements given on arms of instrument.
Separate drumhead weight to place on mobile arm.
Box contains a note from the owner saying that ‘The planimeter was the property of my father L.R. Yealland MD., FRCP. He used it in the early 1930’s when studying the elasticity of the skull.’
Condition good; complete.
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:40478
Images (Click to view full size):
