Pantograph

**Historical Development of Pantographs:**
– Ancient Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria described pantographs.
– Christoph Scheiner used a pantograph in 1603 to copy and scale diagrams.
– Professor William Wallace invented the eidograph in 1821, enhancing the practical utility of the pantograph.
– Herman Hollerith’s Keyboard punch for the 1890 U.S. Census was based on a pantograph design.
– An early 19th-century device called the polygraph utilized the pantograph mechanism.
– Eduard Selling patented a calculating machine based on the pantograph in 1886.
– Linn Boyd Benton invented a pantographic engraving machine for type design.
– Richard Feynman used the pantograph analogy for scaling tools to the nanometer scale.

**Various Applications of Pantographs:**
– Pantographs are used for copying and scaling line drawings.
– Sculptors use a three-dimensional version of the pantograph for enlargement or reduction ratios.
– Pantographs were used to duplicate phonograph and gramophone discs in the 1890s.
– Pantograph engraving machines reproduce copies accurately.
– Pantographs are used in electric locomotives and trams.
– Longarm quilting machine operators trace pantograph patterns for stitching.

**Industrial Uses of Pantographs:**
– Pantographs were used in sculpture and minting, with Benjamin Cheverton perfecting the machine in 1836.
– Before numerical control technologies, duplicate parts on milling machines were cut by tracing a template using a pantograph.
– Pantograph routing is conceptually identical to pantograph milling.
– Pantograph milling machines are largely replaced by programmable, computerized methods.
– Home machinists may still use manual control, while commercial machining is mostly done via computerized control.

**Related Devices and Mechanisms:**
– Autopen is a device for automatically signing signatures.
– Lettering guides are templates for writing text.
– Parallel motion linkage is a six-bar straight-line mechanism.
– Spirograph is a geometric drawing device.
– Digitized pantographs are followed by computerized machines.

**Additional Resources and References:**
– Ceccarelli’s book ‘Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science’.
– Van Helden’s work on the Galileo Project.
– Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
– Videos showing sculptors using three-dimensional pantographs.
– Publications on the development of punch card tabulation and coin designing.
– External links to resources related to pantographs, including media, interactive learning, building instructions, and detailed explanations of the mechanism.