Very Early & Unusual micrometer?

rivett608 · Dec 28, 2005

Picked this one recently and trying to learn more about it. It was made by Troughton & Simms of London, they were trading under that name from 1824 till about 1916. This mic resembles Maudslay's Lord Chancellor, circa 1800, a little bit as seen the small B & W photo. The frame is brass and is 6" long. The screw is spring loaded for tension on the anvils and enclosed in a dust jacket. It has vernier scales in both inch and metric with a range of about 1 1/2". It is of plate construction, doweled and screwed together instead of the dovetails being milled or planed which suggests it could be quite early. I think it was made at a time when brass was valued, notice in the last photo all the repairs of holes and dovetails some of which may date from the time it was made. So this brings up questions such as how old is it? was it made for a specific use? what? why the inch and metric as I thought the English didn't see much use for metric or most things from the continent in the mid 19th century? has anyone ever seen another one like it? What do you all think....... Thanks for any ideas or information as as some of you know I have been checking with all sorts of sources......

Asquith · Dec 28, 2005

Very interesting. I wonder why it's got a couple of pin spanner type nuts on one end?

Can't tell you anything about it, I'm afraid, but I will say that the fact that it has inches and cm suggests that it was for use in science (probably physics) rather than engineering.

In 1861 the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) proposed that an internationally coherent system of scientific units should be adopted, based on metre, gram and second. In 1873, cm, g and s were recommended instead.

The much-loved BA threads have metric dimensions, and these were introduced in 1884. Now I know why they're called 'British Association'. Thanks, Rivett.

northernsinger · Dec 28, 2005

What a handsome machine! How accurate is it?

Northernsinger

CoolWeldStudiosInc. · Dec 28, 2005

That is a very early in it's style as a venier measuring instrument. It looks as if corrective action was taken by relocating the dowel pins closest to the jaws. Perhaps for closer fit. Are the open holes slightly out of alignment (top and lower plates) ? A great find certainly of museum quality. Seems good tools are still out there.....

rivett608 · Dec 28, 2005

It appears there were once spanner nut at both ends holding on the columns... the anvil end have been replaced... all of the screws seem to hand made and may have been threaded with a Stubs type screw plate.... the slots look hand cut and they don't fit in each others holes well, but not marked for their holes either..... the main screw looks to be about 55 degrees thread angle.....

I checked it with .100, .350 and 1.000" gage blocks...... came in at within a thousandth!!!!

those guys were pretty good..... wonder if they thought someone on the other side of the pond would be checking their work 150 years or so later......

The dowels do look moved but I really can't see why..... also the anvil end has been moved and worked on..... there are many filled holes... and even the vernier adjust has two different size screws in it..... If only these tools could talk.

MILLWRIGHT · Jan 4, 2006

Rivett,
My tool *guru* informs me that a company history of Cooke Troughton & Simms was produced by Messrs Vickers instruments. Entitled *At the sign of the orrery* (clockwork model of the planetary system) named after Charles Boyle,4th earl of orrery c1700). I'm also informed that the company made numerous one-off machines and machanisms and that a London street is named after Troughton.

jkilroy · Jan 4, 2006

Rivett,

Very nice find. The remaining accuracy leads me to believe that this item did, in fact, exist in a lab setting, instead of a shop setting. It can't have seen anywhere near 100 years of solid work and still be able to hit that number, not with the screw being made of brass.

JL Sargent · Jan 4, 2006

I have the sneeky suspicion this is worth more than the little one I sent you today.

Sawman123 · Jan 4, 2006

that is some nice looking find! here's a thought, try the Smithzonian institute library. it has been a few years since i've been on the site, but they did have several photo libraries online.
i used to dig antique bottles and checked with the smithzonian for constant relic pictures back then.
just a thought.
eric

rivett608 · Jan 4, 2006

Millwright I have not read that book (yet, but I will, Thanks) but in another book titled "Instrument Makers to the World" by Anita McConnell it gives the history of the Troughton family..... and yes the first Troughton in the instrument business was John Senior (c1716-1788) who bought out the shops of Benjamin Cole (1695-1766) at 136 Fleet Street which goes back to Thomas Wright's (w1707-48) shop "at the Sign of the Orrery"...... I find it fascinating that there is some information on these shops of hundreds of years ago still to be found..... I wish I more time to dig into it. It just makes me wonder what the talk in one of the coffee shops in that neighborhood must have been like... if we could only do Time Travel....

JK The only wear on this might have been tightened up by moving the dowel pins/slides.... but your right in that this did not get heavy use out in a shop.....

rivett608 · Feb 8, 2006

Just an update.... I have found one other example of this type... it is in the Science Museum in London.... here is what they say about it...
"You may be interested to know that we have a very similar example in our Industrial Metrology collections, which was acquired from the War Department. The inventory details are as follows -

Inv No 1970-218
Frame micrometer no. 30 by Troughton and Simms, ex War Department; measures in mm and inches and uses a vernier scale. Stored in wooden box."

Note theirs has the inch/metric scales in reverse order and was used into the early 20th century. It appears these might be later than originally thought ...... maybe late 19th century......

Holescreek · Feb 8, 2006

Look at the calibration history in the lid of the war department box. Accuracy ranges from zero to .009. (thousanths?) I suspect that theirs got a lot more use! -Mike

Steve UK · Feb 8, 2006

Hi Bill,

I see your still trying. I have looked through all kinds of things with nothing of any certainty. I still think its from the jewellery trade, back in the 1800's London was the centre of every major industry in Europe. The jewellery trade was a thriving industry in that city. If you take this into context with imports of gold wire for necklaces etc, you would see a need for the metric measure as well as Imperial. I know its only an educated guess, but unless your lucky enough to turn up some obscure book, I dont think you will get any closer. But good luck all the same. Steve

rivett608 · May 1, 2006

but unless your lucky enough to turn up some obscure book

Lucky I am...... I should thank the thread in General on drawing instruments for this one...... who would have thought the answer to this would have been found in a book on drawing instruments anyway... and the book is from my own shelves... just a few feet from where the mic has been sitting all these months...... from "Mathematical Instruments, Their Construction, Adjustment , Testing and Use, Vol. 1, Drawing and Measuring Instruments" by J. F. Heather, M.A. 1892, first edition 1849...... anyway they call it a Spherometer however the jaws are a little different...... but we are sure getting close to solving this one!!!!!

jkilroy · May 2, 2006

So Rivett, are you considering producing a miniture of this guy? Maybe with a total measuring range of an inch? That would be a neat item.

rivett608 · Dec 20, 2008

Bump.... I thought I might bump up some old measuring tool threads and then over Christmas week ad some new ones of some super rare machinist tools......

chuckey · Dec 22, 2008

The "Spherometer" would suffer rapid wear to its knife edges hence change to the more robust round anvil. As the Spherometer handbook says "used for measuring the diameter of bullets", probablely why the war department had one! It is interesting that on both versions the round anvils are mounted away from the chassis with shims.
Was Rivetts one a prototype or for use in house? It looks too modified to be sold as a new one?
Frank

rivett608 · Dec 23, 2008

Frank Thanks for your observations.....

"It is interesting that on both versions the round anvils are mounted away from the chassis with shims.".... I am not sure what shims you are talking about?

"a prototype or for use in house? It looks too modified to be sold as a new one?".... no, I think this was sold..... I have seen other instruments with this type of repair thats appears to be do at factory, or maybe it was sent back to them for modification. Also the repair shows up better in the photo due to lighting it just right, in real life it is not as obvious.

And I wonder if the reason this is different than the catalog drawing is this is a different maker....... or they were at first made that and since they all wore out they were all changed.... Again Thanks for your comments.

rivett608 · Feb 7, 2011

Bump......... anyone see anything like this since?

PeteM · Feb 8, 2011

FWIW, the design of more recent and common fabric "thread count" micrometers (e.g. Lowinson, patent 1910) look like they might have been influenced by earlier designs, such as your micrometer.

Very Early & Unusual micrometer?

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