Long mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins

Long mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins Long mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins Long mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins Long mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Mahogany strip brass pin gauge with eight pins, by James Watt, Glasgow, Scotland, 1758-1769. Used for positioning the drilling of flute finger holes. Possibly a B fl flute similar to RCM 326 FL 6.

James Watt eventually employed 16 people to run a shop in Glasgow making numerous items. In spite of saying that music was ‘the source of idleness’, he built instruments for sale, including flutes, an organ and a guitar for the wife of one of his early business partners, John Roebuck. This item is likely to have been made on the suite of flute-making tools which survives in Watt's workshop - using a gauge to mark the positions of the finger holes prior to drilling them would have speede up the manufacturing process.

Details

Category:
James Watt's Garret Workshop
Object Number:
1924-792/2369/1
Materials:
mahogany (wood) and brass (copper, zinc alloy)
Measurements:
overall long gauge (eight pins): 25 mm x 274 mm x 11 mm, 0.027kg
type:
pin-gauge and marking gauge
credit:
Major J.M. Gibson-Watt