Subject: [HM] OED seeks origin of term "marquois scale"
From: Jeff Miller (JeffM@sanctum.com)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2000 - 04:48:16 EST
I received the following e-mail and I will put this on my math words page,
but I hope it's also OK for me to pass it along to readers of this mailing
list. Please copy any replies to Mark Dunn, as I do not know that he
subscribes to this list.
====
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 09:12:03 GMT
From: mdunn@oup.co.uk (Mark Dunn)
To: JeffM@sanctum.com
Subject: Maths and the OED
Dear Dr Miller,
Would it be possible for me to place an appeal on your web site on behalf
of the OED? We're trying to determine the origin of an old drawing
instrument called the 'marquois scale', which was used in the 18th and
19th centuries for drawing parallel lines and perpendiculars.
It looks as though it was named after the inventor, Marquois, who
advertised the scales for sale in 1783, but we cannot trace this person.
Perhaps a reader of your site might be able to provide some information.
The advertisement, which is our earliest example of this term, appeared in
January 1783 in the Morning Herald, and runs as follows:
"Marquois' Parallel Scales, for Drawing all Kind of Plans... Sold by the
Inventor, at his Military and naval Academy, Charing-Cross, the corner of
St. Martin's lane."
The 'Military Academy' was probably just a small private school.
The term appears in various catalogues and treatises on mathematical
instruments in the 19th-century, but has now disappeared from use. It is
possible that 'marquois' comes from an old French name for a kind of
tailor's ruler, but the wording of the advertisement makes it reasonably
clear that it is a personal name.
If any of your readers can shed some light on this mystery, we would be
very grateful.
Yours,
Mark Dunn,
Senior Editor, New OED
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