Christopher Scheiner was a 16th century
Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer and in 1603 invented the Pantograph.
The name Pantograph is derived from the Latin Pantographice but finds its roots
in the Greek pas or pantos, topos and
graphé which in English is all, place,
and draw or write.(1)
The Pantograph would appear to have been developed originally to copy or reproduce original drawings or designs in different scales. Mechanical Printing and Copperplate Etchings had appeared in Germany in the 1400's which allowed reproductions of text and intricate drawings, but reproducing basic drawings in different scales required a different type of mechanical device; the lever had to be able to follow a parallel track to the original and it was through a parallelogram device that this was developed by Scheiner.
The original was made of hardwood, metal was still scarce an expensive but later and especially in the Industrial Revolution the device was made more durable and versatile with metal.
The Pantograph would appear to have been developed originally to copy or reproduce original drawings or designs in different scales. Mechanical Printing and Copperplate Etchings had appeared in Germany in the 1400's which allowed reproductions of text and intricate drawings, but reproducing basic drawings in different scales required a different type of mechanical device; the lever had to be able to follow a parallel track to the original and it was through a parallelogram device that this was developed by Scheiner.
The original was made of hardwood, metal was still scarce an expensive but later and especially in the Industrial Revolution the device was made more durable and versatile with metal.
It was with the development of the Industrial
Revolution in the 18th century that the pantograph found its
important place both as a drawing instrument and a manufacturing tool. Accurate,
scaled drawing reproductions and machine profiling was the Pantograph’s domain
until the development of computers took over with Computer Aided Design (CAD)
and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) in the 1970’s.
Interestingly enough it was James Watt, the designer
and builder of the first steam engine, the birth of the Industrial Revolution,
who developed a 3D Pantograph to sculpt 3D forms with
machine cutters. In the early 19th century Benjamin Cheverton
improved the process by using machine rotary cutters which allowed even more
precise profiling.
Today it is the computer and its programs that control
machines to produce 3D shapes and forms with the latest development being the
3D printer and/or rapid profiling techniques for applications across industry
and services.
/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English#P
(images) Pantographice seu ars delineandi (Rom,
1631) IMSS Digital Library http://193.206.220.110/Teca/Viewer?an=000000920801
Peter, thank you for noting where the images come from! A nice aspect of digital publishing (ie blogs) is that instead of doing MLA, with all of it's particular requirements, you can just link to where your information or images came from.
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