Vernier scales and other early devices for precise measurement

Alistair Kwan

Citation: Am. J. Phys. 79, 368 (2011); doi: 10.1119/1.3533717

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Vernier scales and other early devices for precise measurement
Alistair Kwana兲
Section of History of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
共Received 31 May 2010; accepted 2 November 2010兲
Vernier scales have been extensively used since the 17th century. They replaced the Nonius scale,
a unpopular device due to difficulty in its fabrication and use, and they coexisted alongside other
types of scales that increased measurement precision and accuracy in complementary ways. I
suggest that the success of Vernier and diagonal scales is due not only to simplicity of fabrication,
but also to their exploitation of visual hyperacuities. © 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers.
关DOI: 10.1119/1.3533717兴

I. INTRODUCTION planning, property rights, and organization. Positional as-

tronomy was especially significant in providing for cartogra-
Vernier scales on undergraduate teaching instruments such phy, timekeeping, and astrology, plus open-sea navigation
as calipers and spectrometers are being replaced by digital from the 15th century onward. Hence, there was particular
readouts, so students encounter Vernier scales less often. But attention paid to measuring angles, and therefore instrumen-
students are often impressed by the results achievable by tation for astronomy generally represents the most advanced
such a simple device, that such a simple idea escaped real- mechanical measuring technologies.
ization until the 17th century, and that, four centuries later, it
has still not been completely superseded. Why do science
III. PRECISION FROM LARGENESS
and engineering still use a technology essentially unchanged
since the 1630s? The ancients and medievals had only one way to increase
The Vernier scale’s success and its decline can be under- precision: They made their angle-measuring instruments big-
stood by examining how it relates to other devices with ger. Enlarging the instrument lengthens the arc segments for
which it competes. This article surveys early technologies for subdivision around the instrument’s limb 共its outer edge兲.
precision length and angle measurement as a resource for The arc length increases in proportion to the radius, but the
teachers and students interested in the Vernier scale’s origins, concomitant increases in size, weight, and bulk bring diffi-
competitors, and long success. culties in manufacturing, transporting, mounting, and sup-
porting the instrument, as well as in operating it. These dif-
II. MOTIVATIONS FOR PRECISE MEASUREMENT ficulties were not uniquely medieval. Instrument makers
remain concerned with the weight of instruments, causing
Precision measurement has long been considered a hall- them to sag or to misalign the walls and frames on which
mark of exact science, although it owes as much to commer- they were hung. Precision was enhanced by largeness, but
cial, industrial, government, and military concerns as to ergonomics and accuracy can easily be undermined.
“pure” intellectual pursuits. Until the 18th century, nearly all Medieval astronomical instruments could be tens of
precision measurements were concerned with length, weight, meters across. Well-known examples include Guō Shǒujìng’s
time, and angle. Lengths were typically standardized by lines 13th century solar observation tower at Gàochéng in China
that can still be found engraved on the exteriors of old Eu- and the excavated ruins of Ulugh Beg’s 15th century obser-
ropean town halls and churches, weights by standard masses, vatory in Samarkand.2,3 Even as modern astronomy gathered
and time by astronomical cycles. Angles were constructed by momentum from the 17th century, size remained a practical
manually dividing circles, half-circles, and quarter circles to solution for instruments without large moving parts, as
produce instruments such as circumferentors and quadrants shown by Cassini’s solar observatory built into the Basilica
for land surveying and astronomy. This division was done di San Petronio in Bologna in the 17th century to test for
primarily by compass and rule, with dots marked at the arc ellipticity of the Earth’s orbit, and Jai Singh’s 18th century
and line intersections with a punch or drill 共or burin, for system of observatories at Delhi, Jaipur, Mathura, and
lower-grade instruments兲. Protractors were used for plotting Varanasi.4,5
routes on navigational charts but generally not for measuring Most instruments were smaller, and seem to have been
angles. graduated to individual degrees. Ancient records, such as
The standard angle measure system was inherited from those in Ptolemy’s Almagest, show that, even using portable
ancient Mesopotamia.1 The degree system appears to derive instruments, astronomers measured angles to thirds, quarters,
from astronomy, where 360 is approximately the number of and fifths of a degree.6 These fractions remained in use for a
steps that the sun takes around the ecliptic per year. 360 has long time. At the end of the 16th century, for example, we
many useful divisors, and fits readily into the sexagesimal find such fractions among Tycho’s measurements, and sur-
number system in which ancient Mesopotamians counted. mise that the fractional parts were approximated by eye.
Although masons’ and carpenters’ squares have been used
since antiquity for replicating right angles, more precise IV. THE NONIUS
angles for surveying, cartography, navigation, artillery, and
astronomical instruments were constructed anew. The first major advance in precision measurement scales
Most efforts to standardize length, weight, volume, and was announced in the 1542 publication De crepusculis, a
currency can be understood as forms of social regulation book on the duration of twilight as governed by the setting
because common standards facilitate trade and taxation, sun, by the mathematician Pedro Nunes 共1492–1577兲.

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 Fig. 2. A quadrant with nonius and alidade graduated for easier reading
共Ref. 32兲.

In spite of its theoretical simplicity, the nonius was never

widely used. It was cumbersome to read, as Tycho found
Fig. 1. A quadrant with a nonius, made and used by Tycho Brahe 共Ref. 31兲. with the two nonius-equipped quadrants that he made around
1580, one of which is shown in Fig. 1.8 The forest of dots on
Tycho’s instruments would have been difficult to tell apart,
Nunes, who worked when Portugal was most actively estab- but some noniuses, such as those shown in Fig. 2, have every
lishing colonies and trading posts, invented several instru- fifth or tenth dot enlarged, showing that users were expected
ments to assist navigation, and studied the paths followed by to count the dots. This particular instrument also has a gradu-
ships on a constant compass bearing: Loxodromes spiraling ated alidade scale to save the user from having to count
toward the poles.7 His efforts to plot maps so that loxo- which arc the dot is on, and only 12 supplementary arcs, far
dromes appear as straight rhumb lines, while lines of latitude fewer than Nunes’s 44. Although the book containing this
and longitude appear horizontally and vertically, led eventu- plate does not describe the instrument, the instrument
ally to the Mercator projection. matches one now at the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Sci-
Nunes’s precision measuring device 共named from the enza in Florence, attributed to the London manufacturer
Latin form of his name, Petrus Nonius兲 fitted naturally into James Kynvyn ca. 1600.9
his navigational interests. At the time, angular measurements In addition to being difficult to read, noniuses were diffi-
such as solar altitudes were made using cross-staves, astro- cult to engrave. Dividing a quarter-circle into 90 equal parts
labes, and quadrants. These instruments typically measured required a high degree of skill to accurately construct the
to the nearest degree, or perhaps to a half or third of a de- easier angles via regular polygons and bisection 共from the
gree. The nonius improved the quadrant, though in principle pentagon, 72°, 36°, 18°, and 9°; from the equilateral triangle
it could be adapted to any angle-measuring instrument with 60°, 30°, 15°, and 7.5°; from the square, 45°兲, plus further
an alidade. The outer limb of the quadrant was divided into ingenuity for the non-Euclidean trisections and trial and error
90°, as usual. On an especially fine instrument, it might have divisions for individual degrees and halves or thirds thereof.
been further divided into half-degrees, perhaps thirds or We know from surviving instruments, notably astrolabes,
quarters. Nunes’s innovation increased precision to the order that instrument makers sometimes hastened this task by pro-
of individual minutes. jecting a divided arc through the center, and by duplicating
Just inside the usual arc, Nunes added another arc that divided intervals using a template, because such methods
divided the quarter-circle into 89 equal parts. Inside this 89- replicate discrepancies by reflectional and translational
part arc was another quarter-circle of 88 equal parts, and so symmetry.10,11 Dividing the other arcs was in most cases
on to the innermost one with 45 equal parts. The user had much more difficult due to the absence of well-known con-
only to see which of these marks the alidade aligned with. structions for them. Even when exact procedures were
For alignment with the ath mark of the arc divided into n known, anything beyond the simplest ones was inaccurate
parts, the angle is 90° ⫻ a / n. Calculating the angle involved due to errors compounding from the many steps of construc-
some arithmetic which, in the era of manual computation, tion. Nunes’s design involves constructing or otherwise lo-
was made easier, more reliable, and faster by a pre-calculated cating more than 3000 points.
table. Few noniuses were built, but the idea was not ignored.

369 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Alistair Kwan 369

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 Fig. 4. Ruler with a diagonal scale to measure hundredths of a unit. The
circles indicate the points used for a length of 1.47 units.
Fig. 3. Dividing a line AB into n equal parts.

makes it less legible as more lines are crammed into the

Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II’s pro-chancellor Jacob available space. Both of these problems were ameliorated by
Kurz 共Jacobus Curtius, 1554–1594兲 developed an improved diagonal scales, which came into use as early as the 14th
version of a quadrant for Tycho Brahe who moved to the century.
imperial court in Prague after losing his welcome in Den- A diagonal scale is shown in Fig. 4. The unit lengths are
mark. The outermost arc had 90 conventional degrees. Inside supplemented by an extra interval added to one end. This
it were 59 further arcs, each divided into 60 parts. The first of extra interval is divided into tenths, using a similar triangles
these arcs subtended 61°, the second 62°, and so on for 60 construction. We can now measure in tenths of units, trans-
graduated arcs in total, the innermost one subtending 119°. ferring distances on or off the ruler using a pair of dividers.
The outer scale, the conventional one, reads whole degrees. Ten more horizontals are then spaced evenly above the
The inner scales all read minutes: If the alidade coincides baseline, and the diagonal lines, called transversals, drawn
with a mark on the arc having 60 intervals spread over 共60 across each tenth unit. The intersections of these transversals
+ d兲 degrees, the fractional part of the angle is d minutes.12–14 with the horizontals gave hundredths. To take a length of
Curtius’s device was much easier to read than Nunes’s, but it 1.47 units, for example, we look for the vertical correspond-
involved locating and engraving over 5000 dots—many ing to 1, count back from the zero to find the transversal for
more than Nunes’s laborious version required, and all involv- 0.4, and count up from the baseline to find where the trans-
ing the awkward task of dividing an arc into 60 equal parts. versal intersects the horizontal for 0.07. The divider tips go
Another refinement was introduced by Christoph Clavius between the two points thus identified.
共1538–1612兲, now remembered mostly for his part in the Confining the fractional parts into a single block to the left
reform of the Gregorian calendar. Clavius is speculated to of the zero reduced the labor, and hence the instrument’s
have learned about the nonius while studying in Lisbon, cost, by eliminating the need to engrave transversals in every
where it was possible for him to be taught by Nunes himself. unit block to the right.
Clavius was later posted at the Collegio Romano, where he Transversals were applied to angle scales by drawing con-
designed a quadrant with 39 supplementary graduated arcs centric circles instead of parallel lines. The resulting division
subtending angles from 91° to 128°. In some respects, was only approximate, but for small angular intervals, it
Clavius’s arcs were like Curtius’s, but Clavius divided each could be good enough. Tycho included diagonal scales on
of his supplementary arcs into 128 parts so they could be several large instruments, placing a dot at each intersection
constructed simply by repeated bisection. Clavius’s aim was point along the transversals. One of his explanatory diagrams
to make construction easier and more accurate, but his de- shows 2° of arc divided into 10 min intervals, with transver-
sign still entailed much work.14,15 sal dots giving the individual minutes 共see Fig. 5兲. Tycho
The key point to draw from the nonius and its refinements also showed diagonal scales giving intervals of 10 arcsec on
is that astronomers were willing to invest a great deal in his famous wall-mounted quadrant of 2 m radius, and
precision measurement, but the skill and effort needed to claimed that he could measure to 5 arcsec—obviously by
make and use these devices discouraged their widespread bisecting the smallest intervals by eye—without difficulty.
use. Tycho’s published description is largely responsible for the

V. TRANSVERSALS
The problem of dividing lengths is much easier than di-
viding angles. As early modern instrumentation manuals
explained,16 any length can be divided arbitrarily into many
equal parts using the well-known and simple construction
shown in Fig. 3. Line AC is drawn branching off the given
line AB, and n equidistant points xi are stepped off using
dividers. Line xnB is joined, then the lines xiy i are con-
structed parallel to xnB, giving n equal parts of AB. The
parallel line construction recommended by the texts is, like
the previous explanation, from Euclid’s Elements.17
Dividing lines in this way is well suited to practical appli-
cations because the small number of steps limits construction
inaccuracies. The precision is limited mainly by the fineness Fig. 5. Part of a dotted diagonal scale shown in Tycho’s Mechanica 共Ref.
of the scriber, and subdividing the scale into smaller parts 33兲. The dots divide these two degrees of arc into individual minutes.

370 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Alistair Kwan 370

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widespread adoption of diagonal scales, though they had
been in scattered use at least since the 14th century.18 Most
diagonal scales are drawn with lines, though Tycho’s dot
design was used elsewhere. For example, the Museum Boer-
haave has a large quadrant with dotted transversals made ca.
1610 by the cartographer W.J. Blaeu who studied with Tycho
at Uraniborg. This instrument was commissioned by Wille-
brord Snel who likewise had visited Tycho at Uraniborg.
Many rulers with diagonal scales survive from the Renais-
sance through to the 18th century 共when they came to be
Fig. 6. Close-up of a scale in millimeters with a Vernier scale below it. The
supplanted by caliper jaws and Vernier scales兲, and diagonal dimensions show the arithmetically increasing offsets between correspond-
scales continued to appear on maps throughout the 20th cen- ing lines.
tury. Their primary advantage is that, due to the large spac-
ings, they are easy to construct accurately and to read. They
could be constructed also for intervals other than tenths and the other. When the caliper jaws are separated by an integer
hundredths; twelfths and powers of two were 共and still are兲 number of millimeters, the Vernier zero aligns exactly with a
commonly used in pre-decimal unit systems. millimeter mark on the main scale. The other Vernier lines
will misalign such that one line will be offset by 0.1 mm
VI. THE VERNIER SCALE from the next main scale line, the two by 0.2 mm, the three
by 0.3 mm, and so on. Sliding the Vernier scale 0.1 mm to
Due to its origin, the Vernier scale was originally called a the right 共by opening the jaws 0.1 mm兲 therefore brings one
nonius and apparently considered a refined version of it. The line into alignment, and misaligns the zero by 0.1 mm. Each
name “Vernier scale” came into use in French and then in time the Vernier scale advances 0.1 mm, another of its lines
English in the 18th century, after the astronomer Jérôme La- comes into alignment, and all other lines are offset. By iden-
lande, citing an historical study by Esprit Pezenas at the tifying the aligned line, we can read the Vernier scale’s po-
Marseille Observatory, wrote that “Nonius is not its inventor. sition, and hence the caliper jaw separation, to a precision of
… The true inventor of our device was Pierre Vernier who 0.1 mm.
publicized it in a small book printed at Brussels in 1631. … More generally, if the main scale divides the unit L into n
I believe, then, that it is just to restore to the true inventor his parts, and the Vernier scale has n parts spread over an inter-
rights, that is to call a Vernier, rather than Nonius, this val L ⫻ 共n ⫾ 1兲 / n, an alignment will occur each time the Ver-
method of division that he worked on.”19,20 The name “non- nier scale advances by a distance L / n2. For base 10, n = 10,
ius” persists, however, in some languages including German so the Vernier scale measures hundredths of the main unit.
and Danish. All the user has to do is look for the mark on the Vernier
In contrast to Nunes, Curtius, and Clavius who had added scale aligned with any mark on the main scale. There are
numerous subsidiary scales, Pierre Vernier 共1580–1637兲 usually 10 or 30 marks, far fewer than on a nonius. Smaller
added just one. He also made his subsidiary scale mobile so Vernier scales may require a magnifier. With practice, it be-
that it would contribute equally over the entire length or arc. comes possible to discern half-increments by comparing the
Vernier’s scale was also much easier to read, due to having offsets of adjacent lines, and even thirds, quarters, and fifths.
far fewer marks for the user to count. Vernier made his point There is nothing to prevent the Vernier scale in Fig. 6 from
by demonstrating an instrument that measured angles to the being spread over a wider interval, and Vernier recognized
nearest 20 arcsec. This precision was of the same order of that small instruments needed larger Vernier scales for leg-
magnitude that Tycho claimed for his huge wall-mounted ibility. There are disadvantages such as running out of room
quadrant, but Vernier’s instrument had a radius of only 2 ft, for the fixed main scale to slide along 共because it must be
compared with Tycho’s 2 m, and it was much easier to read adjacent to the main scale for reading兲, but also the advan-
than a nonius. The large radii of medieval instruments had tage of greater spacing between its lines. The interval must
finally been overcome. be chosen so that only one Vernier line aligns with a main
Although Vernier scales can still be found in many teach- scale line at a time. This criterion can be satisfied by choos-
ing laboratories, most students spend very little time with ing co-prime divisors 共no common factors other than 1兲
them. Therefore it seems worthwhile to give a brief explana- though few such possibilities are used. The main advantages
tion of their use. Vernier-equipped instruments have both a of using such a Vernier scale are legibility, and permitting
fixed scale in standard units, and a subsidiary Vernier scale in other unit systems such as sexagesimal angle measure, and
units of a slightly different size. Most commonly, Vernier twelfths, sixteenths, and so on in English units.
scale units are scaled to fit across a space 90 times wider than
they measure, greatly magnifying the detail which the user VII. SCREW DIALS
must see. Because length-measuring instruments are more
readily fitted with digital readouts than angle-measuring in- Vernier scales were not the only possibility, nor always the
struments, the only Vernier scales in undergraduate laborato- favored approach. The closely spaced lines are difficult to
ries are usually on spectrometers. Some of these read in base distinguish in the dark, for example, and very fine lines can
10 and some in base 60. require magnification even in the light. And reading them is
Let us consider the Vernier scale in Fig. 6 for measuring relatively slow. An alternative, which came into use around
millimeters. The main scale is divided into millimeters, and 1670, was the screw dial that Robert Hooked added to the
the subsidiary scale is 9 mm wide and divided into 10 equal alidade of a quadrant.21 Hooke, who competed with Johannes
parts. The Vernier scale is fixed to one side of the measuring Hevelius for the best methods for precision astronomical
instrument, say a caliper jaw, and the main scale is fixed to measurements, developed screw movements to completely

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avoid the problem of graduating the arc along the quadrant’s IX. CURVED TRANSVERSALS FOR ANGLES
edge. In spite of the high degree of skill employed in con-
structing those scales, there were errors due to the accumu- As mentioned, the precision offered by Vernier scales
lation of unavoidable inaccuracies at each step in each con- came at the cost of slower reading. When less precision and
struction. Hooke’s design involved a screw on the alidade greater speed were required, diagonal scales prevailed. They
meshing with gear teeth along the quadrant’s circumference were improved throughout the 18th century for the lower
so that, as the astronomer turned the screw, the alidade— precision instruments used in surveying.
with a telescopic sight attached—moved around the quad- The obvious problem in applying a diagonal scale to an
rant. By counting the number of turns, it was possible to angle-measuring instrument is that a straight diagonal does
deduce the angle through which the telescope had moved. not divide the sectors uniformly if the parallels are evenly
All the astronomer needed to know in advance was the num- spaced. Tycho considered the discrepancy small enough to
ber of gear teeth around the quadrant’s edge and the number tolerate, but with the advent of the Enlightenment, such com-
of turns needed to traverse them. To read the number of promises were deemed problematic. The French instrument
turns, Hooke added a large brass disk to the end of the screw, maker Guillaume Ferrier had early on applied curved trans-
and marked it off into a dial plate. On some instruments the versals to an instrument for Descartes, and the method was
dial plate turned past a fixed pointer, and on others, the plate taken up some decades later by Philippe de la Hire 共1640–
remained still, while a geared pointer spun over the gradu- 1718兲, and again by Nicholas Bion 共1652–1733兲 through
ated scale. whose Traité de la construction et des principaux usages des
The screw dial’s success bolstered Hooke’s arguments instrumens de mathematique it is best known.26 The curve
against Hevelius’s refusal to use telescopic sights, but neither chosen is a circular arc through three points: The two oppo-
the screw nor gears could be cut well enough to meet expec- site corners of the diagonal scale, plus the center of the in-
tations. Techniques greatly improved, however, and a version strument. The concentric parallels along the scale are en-
was put to important use by James Bradley in the 1720s.22 graved at uniformly separated radii. Bion’s description
The telescope with which Bradley serendipitously discov- shows a main arc divided into 5° increments, and the trans-
ered the aberration of starlight 共he was looking for the long- versals give the individual degrees.27
sought annual parallax to prove that the Earth orbited the The resulting scale is much quicker to read than a Vernier
Sun, and not vice versa兲 hung from a fixed hinge at the top of because it is larger, and thus does not require magnification,
a chimney. The side of the tube, near its base, rested against because the fiduciary points are widely separated. It also
the end of a screw running through a fixed block. By turning does not require deliberation over which of two nearly align-
the screw, Bradley could tilt the telescope very gradually. ing lines align best. Unlike the Vernier scale, Bion’s curved
The knob on the end of the screw was studded with small transversal appears to have fallen completely into disuse, re-
buttons to mark the angles through which it turned, making placed by scales cut using the symmetry method of the Duc
them much more visible, and even tactile, than the fine lines de Chaulnes, and later by the development of dividing
of a Vernier scale. Bradley’s telescope, minus its weight, engines.28 These advances made it possible to mark the units
survives in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.23 individually rather than by subdividing a larger interval. Due
to the relatively low precision required, no Vernier is needed.

X. WHY HAS THE VERNIER LASTED SO

LONG?
VIII. THE 96-PART QUADRANT
The mathematical ingenuity of the Vernier scale and sim-
Although the Vernier and screw dials provided excellent plicity of its construction have long been appreciated but
subdivision, they did not address the difficulty of dividing an these features alone cannot explain practicality. I suggest that
arc into 90° and parts of degrees. The problems are that there the Vernier scale’s longevity is due also to legibility, and
is no Euclidean construction for a single degree, and the hence our innate visual abilities, and that this factor is also
combination of exact constructions and approximations used important in the Vernier scale’s present decline.
to obtain single degrees involves a progressive accumulation Reading the earliest scales involved guessing the fraction
of error at every step. However, there is an exact construc- of the smallest marked interval, as can be seen in Ptolemy’s
tion for dividing a right angle into 96 equal parts: First con- or Tycho’s measurements. We are accustomed to base 10 and
struct the 30° and 60° angles, then repeatedly bisect into the metric system and commonly estimate fractions by eye in
intervals of 共15/16兲°. Such units are easily converted into tenths, but users of measuring instruments from antiquity
degrees by multiplication. through about the 17th century estimated predominantly in
This construction approach was invented by George Gra- halves, thirds, quarters, and fifths. This tendency toward
ham in 1725.24 It completely eliminates the need for trisec- simple fractions can be explained partially by visual hypera-
tions and trial and error approximations, and there was no cuity. Hyperacuity is the ability to discern details beyond
reason not to add a Vernier scale. Combining the two tech- what is expected from ocular and retinal geometry through
nologies reflects how they addressed different problems: One post-processing deep in the retina, in the optic nerve, and in
increased precision; the other, accuracy. the brain. The hyperacuity associated with visually dividing
Construction error could not be completely eliminated, an interval into a small number of equal parts lies behind
due to the impossibility of perfect compass control. Quad- tests for “bisection acuity,” the ability to judge the middle of
rants divided into 96 parts included a conventional 90° arc as a line segment.
well, and each arc was equipped with its own Vernier scale. The hyperacuity associated with detecting slight misalign-
We can see this combination of 96-part and 90-part arcs on a ments of two end-to-end line segments is fittingly called
quadrant that Graham made for Greenwich in 1725.25 “Vernier acuity.” Hyperacuity for misalignments is what

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 9
makes the nonius superior to guessing the fraction, and what Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, catalog entry 242, 3362,
makes the Vernier scale better still. Adults can typically de- 具catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/Quadrant_n06.html典.
10
Allan Chapman, “A study of the accuracy of scale graduations on a group
tect Vernier line misalignments subtending as little as a few of European astrolabes,” Ann. Sci. 40, 473–488 共1983兲.
seconds of arc at the eye, and the skill can be improved by 11
On the history of angle division more generally, see Allan Chapman,
practice.29,30 Dividing the Circle: The Development of Critical Angular Measurement
Let us consider what hyperacuity means for the scales we in Astronomy, 2nd ed. 共John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1995兲.
12
have described. Hyperacuity is thwarted by overcrowding, Tycho Brahe, “Letter from Curtius,” Astronomiae instauratae mechanica
which makes adjacent lines difficult to distinguish, and by 共Peter de Ohr, Wandesburg, 1598兲.
13
low contrast. Overcrowding is reduced by spreading out the Christophorus Clavius, Fabrica et usus instrumenti ad horologium de-
scriptionem per opportuni 共Bartholomaeus Grassius, Rome, 1586兲, pp.
marks, whether along the transversal of a diagonal scale, or 112–115.
on the expanded length of a Vernier scale. Contrast was typi- 14
Maurice Daumas, in Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eigh-
cally increased by engraving on an inlaid strip of silver or teenth Centuries and Their Makers, edited by Mary Holbrook 共trans. ed.兲
ivory, rather than on the brass, iron, steel, or wood used for 共Portman Books, London, 1989兲, p. 191.
15
instrument frames. 16
Reference 13, p. 116.
Progress in scale design is often thought of in mathemati- See, for example, Edmund Gunter, The Works of Edmund Gunter 共for
cal and mechanical terms: The development of new construc- Francis Eglesfield, London, 1653兲.
17
Euclid, Elements 共Green Lion Press, Santa Fe, NM, 2002兲, Book VI,
tions, symmetry tests, dividing engines, and other ways to prop. 9.
reduce fabrication error. But technique is wasted if the scale 18
Bernard R. Goldstein, in A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-
cannot be read. Historically, successful designs are distin- Scientist, edited by Gad Freudenthal 共Brill, Leiden, 1992兲, pp. 4–6.
19
guished as much by their exploiting of visual hyperacuities Jérôme Lalande, Astronomie 共Desaint & Saillant, Paris, 1764兲 Vol. 2, pp.
as by their mathematical ingenuity. In addition to being ac- 20
859–860.
curate and precise, the most widely used precision scales Pierre Vernier, La Construction, l’Usage, et les Propriétez du Quadrant
nouveau de mathematique 共F. Vivien, Brussels, 1631兲.
over the past four centuries—essentially the whole modern 21
Reference 11, pp. 87–88.
era—were the more legible ones. In conjunction with ad- 22
James Bradley, in Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of the Rev.
vances in manufacturing, legibility and speed of reading help James Bradley, edited by Stephen Rigaud 共Oxford U. P., Oxford, 1832兲,
to explain why the nonius failed, why transversals and the p. 94.
23
Vernier scale succeeded, and why digital readouts are now Royal Greenwich Observatory, inventory number AST0992,
replacing the Vernier. brief description, 具www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID
⫽AST0992典.
24
Reference 11, pp. 68–69.
a兲 25
Electronic mail: [email protected] Reference 11, pp. 68, 71–76.
1 26
Luke Hodgkin, A History of Mathematics From Mesopotamia to Moder- Nicholas Bion, Traité de la Construction et des principaux Usages des
nity 共Oxford U. P., Oxford, 2005兲, p. 30. Instrumens de mathematique 共M. Brunet, Paris, 1709兲. Expanded trans-
2
Nathan Sivin, Granting the Seasons: The Chinese Astronomical Reform lation by Edmund Stone, Construction and Principal Uses of Mathemati-
of 1280 共Springer, New York, 2009兲, pp. 183–190. cal Instruments 共John Senex and William Taylor, London, 1723兲.
3 27
Aydın Sayılı, The Observatory in Islam and its Place in the General Reference 14, pp. 190–191.
28
History of the Observatory 共Arno Press, New York, 1981兲, pp. 260–289. Reference 11, pp. 128–137.
29
4
John L. Heilbron, The Sun in the Church 共Harvard U. P., Cambridge, MA, Steven H. Schwartz, Visual Perception: A Clinical Orientation 共Appleton
1999兲, pp. 89–95. & Lange, Stamford, CT, 1999兲, pp. 200–202, 334.
5 30
Reference 3, p. 359. J. Saarinen and D. M. Levy, “Perceptual learning in vernier acuity: What
6
G. J. Toomer, Ptolemy’s Almagest 共Princeton U. P., Princeton, 1998兲. is learned?” Vision Res. 35 共4兲, 519–527 共1995兲.
7 31
W. G. L. Randles, “Pedro Nunes’ discovery of the loxodromic curve Reference 8, “Quadrans minor orichalcicus inauratus.”
32
共1537兲,” J. Navig. 50, 85–96 共1997兲. Robert Dudley, Dell’ arcano del mare 共Florence, 1646–1647兲, Book V,
8
Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae instauratae mechanica 共Peter de Ohr, Wan- Plate 44.
33
desburg, 1598兲. Reference 8, “Supplementum de subdivisione.”

373 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Alistair Kwan 373

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