Sector (detail)

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This is a detail from a brass sector - an instrument for solving computations which use the rules of proportion. It dates from around 1625. The sector was probably made London-based scientific instrument maker, Elias Allen (c.1588-1653).

The detail shows the quality of the engraving on the sector.

Edmund Gunter devised this type of sector in 1605 and in 1624 produced a book called 'The Description and Use of the Sector', which ran to six editions. Allen's sector follows the pattern shown in the 1624 edition, which was modified in later editions.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-102-820-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1984.134
• Date: Around 1625
  c. 1625
  
• Material: Sector, Gunter's
  
• Dimensions: 9.00"
  
• What: Sector, Gunter's
  
• Subject:
• Who: Elias Allen, London (Maker)
  
• Where: England, London
  
• Event:
• Description: 9" Gunter's sector of brass, by Elias Allen, London, c. 1625
  
• References:
  • For Elias Allen, see Higton, Hester, 'Elias Allen and the role of instruments in shaping the mathematic culture of seventeenth-century England', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 1996 
• Translations:
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