Circular instrument dividing engine

Made by John Troughton (c. 1739-1807), this is similar to the first successful dividing engine, which was completed in about 1775 by Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800). Until the 1770s scales on scientific instruments had been marked out by skilled craftsmen in a process called 'dividing'. This was partly mechanised from the 1770s when dividing engines were introduced. They were originally used on small instruments, but by the 1850s were used to graduate scales on large astronomical telescopes, making hand-dividing obsolete.

Credit: A J Bennett & Co. Ltd
Object no: 1932-22