Object Description
An oak cased brass pantograph by Thomas Dunn of 50 North Street Edinburgh.
Interior of case has trade label: THOMAS DUNN, OPTICIAN, MATHEMATICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, 50 NORTH HANOVER STREET.EDINBURGH.
The interior also has a handwritten note inside the lid with the “Rule for setting Dunn’s improved pantograph”, dated “27 February 1845. see photograph of note for the equations needed to be used for the settings.
The first pantograph was constructed in 1603 by Christoph Scheiner, who used the device to copy and scale diagrams, but he wrote about the invention over 27 years later, in “Pantographice” (Rome 1631).