Drafting Compasses

Dateca. 1850

Terms

Drafting Compasses
Brass
Steel
England

Dimensions10.15 cm (4 in.)

Credit LineGift of Cummings E. Davis or George Tolman (before 1909)

Object numberTH12D

DescriptionSteel and brass compass. Th12d and Th12e are identical, medium sized. One of 7 drafting instruments (Th12a-g). Thoreau's drafting instruments are an incomplete assemblage. There is a compass with two pens and a pencil, evidently part of a drafting set, but there are no dividers. There is a brass protractor and a wooden T-square, two straight-edges and a ruler. Some other, hand-made, drafting tools Thoreau seemed to have used in making surveys, including the pin he apparently used to prick drafts for transfer (now in the Concord Free Public Library). Thoreau first mentions surveying in his Journal for November 1840; he indicated

Collections