X-Nico

4 unusual facts about pantograph


Pantograph

This was employed by Edison and Columbia in 1898, and was used until about January 1902 (Columbia brown waxes after this were molded).

Richard Feynman used the analogy of a pantograph as a way of scaling down tools to the nanometer scale in his talk There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

Edison, Bettini, Leon Douglass and others solved this problem (partly) by mechanically linking a cutting stylus and a playback stylus together and copying the "hill-and-dale" grooves of the cylinder mechanically.

Herman Hollerith's "Keyboard punch" used for the 1890 U.S. Census was a pantograph design and sometimes referred to as "The Pantograph Punch".


Brecknell Willis High Speed Pantograph

It was designed during the late 1970s / early 1980s by Brecknell Willis and British Rail Research Division as part of ongoing research into developing a pantograph capable of speeds over the 100 mph (160 km/h) limit of the Stone Faiveley AMBR pantograph, which was the standard type fitted at the time.

SBB-CFF-FFS Ae 4/7

In 1960, four Ae 4/7 (10948–10951) got a wider pantograph compatible to ÖBB standards, so that they could run international trains from St. Margrethen via Bregenz to Lindau.

Technical lettering

# Mechanical lettering is done using tools such as lettering guides, templates, or using a small mechanical pantograph referred to by the Keuffel and Esser trademark "Leroy"


see also