Circular instrument dividing engine

Made:
1778 in Fleet Street
maker:
John Troughton
Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Circular instrument dividing engine made by John Troughton, London, England in 1778. The Cast brass, 46 1/4-inch dividing plate, with twelve spokes and 2160 teeth is supported on a heavy wooden frame and tripod table stand (foot treadle missing). It is similar to the first successful dividing engine which was completed by Jesse Ramsden in about 1775.

Completed by John Troughton (c 1739-1807), this is similar to the first successful dividing engine which was completed in about 1775 by Jesse Ramsden (1735- 1800). Until the 1770s, scales on scientific instruments had been marked out by skilled craftsmen in a process called 'dividing', this was partly mechanized from the 1770s when dividing engines were introduced. Originally used on small instruments, by the 1850s they were used to graduate scales on large astronomical telescopes, making hand-dividing obsolete.

Details

Category:
Industrial Metrology
Object Number:
1932-22
Materials:
mahogany (wood), brass (copper, zinc alloy) and steel (metal)
Measurements:
overall: 1080 x 1300 x 1200 mm
type:
circular dividing engine
credit:
A.J. Bennett & Co. Ltd.

Parts

Part of circular instrument dividing engine.

Part of circular instrument dividing engine.

"Four foot" circular dividing engine (c. 1778) by John Troughton, diameter of wheel to edge of teeth is 46 1/4 inches, with 2160 teeth, wooden treadle missing, and also a few unimportant details such as milled-head screws, near the 210 degree mark seven teeth are partly burred

Object Number:
1932-22 Pt1
type:
circular dividing engine and component - object