Squares & TrianglesT-Squares
Some of the T-squares are shaped like Ls or have calipers. The examples in the collection range from simple, crudely constructed instruments to well-made, mass-produced T-squares. The newest object was for use at the blackboard in a mathematics classroom.
"Squares & Triangles - T-Squares" showing 1 items.
- The 18" X 24" drawing board is made of six strips of pine, joined with tongue and groove construction to two pine endpieces. The board is pieced to allow for expansion and contraction. It is not marked. Between 1926 and 1938, the Eugene Dietzgen Company added this size of board to its model 4410 line of drawing boards.
- The 26-3/8" ash T-square is lined with maple on the handle. The head is 13" wide and painted black. The handle is marked: DIETZGEN (/) GLOBE (/) 12066-24. A drawing of the Earth appears around the word "GLOBE." A round hole at the end of the handle permits hanging. Between 1926 and 1938, Dietzgen began offering a "school quality" version of its model 2066 line of T-squares and gave that version the model number 12066.
- George Norton (1927–2009) purchased these tools in 1944 as part of a "practical drawing outfit" (model number 1100BW) that also included two celluloid triangles, a triangular scale, a celluloid protractor, a celluloid French curve, a box of thumb tacks, two pencils, one eraser, one art gum, one pencil pointer, twelve sheets of sandpaper, one bottle of black ink, six sheets of drawing paper, one instruction book, and a lettering chart. He paid $4.60 for the entire boxed kit. He used the instruments as a toolmaker for the U.S. Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. He worked for the Smithsonian from the early 1960s until 1989.
- References: Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 12th ed. (Chicago, 1926), 217, 291; Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 15th ed. (Chicago, 1938), 203, 303, 390; "George A. Norton Jr., Museum Specialist," Washington Post, January 1, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101675.html; accession file.
- Currently not on view
- date made
- Eugene Dietzgen Company
- ID Number
- catalog number
- accession number
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center