Accession No

4434

Brief Description

compendium of anthropometric measuring instruments, French, mid 19th Century

Origin

France

Maker

Class

medical

Earliest Date

1825

Latest Date

1850

Inscription Date

Material

wood; metal (brass, steel); cloth (velvet); tape; hide (leather)

Dimensions

case: length 343mm; breadth 208mm; height 42mm; part of case in store 1 length 318mm; breadth 230mm; thickness 55mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract with the aid of the MGC/Science Museum PRISM Grant Fund.

Inscription

Description Notes

Compendium of anthropometric measuring instruments, French, mid 19th century.

Compendium of anthropometric instruments, designed for the comprehensive measurement of the human body. The set contains: a brass calliper (aka caliper) with geared parallel jaw motion, calibrated in centimetres, with orthogonal calibrated dovetail slider mounted with hinged arc, also with protractor degree scale and swivel screw for a 25.5inch leather tape measure as well as a hub for a second tap, 15 inch long with brass fittings; a brass ‘square’ with plumb bob for levelling, calibrated arms, sliding cursor, and moveable degree arc; a rigid brass square with cursor and calibrated arms, also with a clampable flexible flexible steel band, itself calibrated and with a cursor; a rigid rectangular ‘caliper’ with plumb level and clampable calibrated cursor supporting a flexible steel band (which has a centimetre scale and cursor). The compendium is contained in a fitted wooden case covered in red Morocco leather and decorated with gilt stamping.

Condition good (some rusting of steel; separation of case lid; external wear to case); complete

References

Events