Friday, April 25, 2014

Pantographs

Before Photoshop, there were mechanical pantographs.  These interesting devices don't show up in my neck of the woods very often.  The good ones have lovely knurled parts.

First, a plastic cheapo "Sketch-a-Graph" made in Canada by Linco in Oakville, Ontario.  (Their location is now home to a hard electroplating firm.)





Second, a nicer wooden one made in Taiwan for REX Graphic Supply, a division of the American Pin and Fastener Corporation of Tempe, Arizona:






Finally, a very nice, all-aluminum one, also made in Taiwan but sold through Leichtung Workshops of Cleveland Ohio, one of the original tool mail-order businesses.  It's copyrighted 1988:






You can actually make your own, less accurate version using a rubber band:


As an aside, the term "pantograph" was also used to denote a type of electrical switch!
Canada 1962.  The official handbook of present conditions and
recent progress.  
Ottawa:  Information Services Division,
 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1962.

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