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Triangulation Instrument
Signed by Paolo Massucci
Dated 1604; Lucca
Brass; 400 mm in length

Two long arms with shaped steel points pivot of a flat 3-leaf decorated hinge. On one side each arm has a scale 0 to 360, divided to 10, subdivided to 5, numbered by 1. One point sight survives and is mounted at the corner of a short sleeve embracing either arm and clamped by a wing-headed screw. A semicircular arc is attached to one arm and has a degree scale 0 to 180, divided to 10, subdivided to 5, to 1 and to 1/2, numbered by 10. The first quadrant of the arc also has a scale 0 to 6 to 0, divided to 1, subdivided to 1/6 and to 1/12, but the divisions are equal, so this is not equivalent to a geometrical quadrant. The signature on the verso is 'Paulus Massucbius ? F ? Luc? ?'.

The accessories include a magnetic compass, with a hemispherical bowl in a gimbal mount held by a fork attached to decorated upright support, a clinometer with two arcs, and a quadrant clinometer. There is a shaped and fitted box, the outside bound with brown leather, the inside lined with red fabric.

Jim Bennett

Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze
Inventory no. 668

© Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze. All rights reserved. Information and images provided here may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the museum.

Basic URL: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/catalogue.php?ENumber=37730

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