A Common Design of Early Century English Friction Dividers

 In a recent post I outlined two often seen designs of early (18^th and early 19^th century) English wing dividers. One design I designated “Birmingham” the other “Lancashire” or Warrington”. In this post we’ll turn our attention to a common style of friction dividers for the same period. I currently have eight examples of the design below in my collection.

                                                                                       

 The title of this post refers to English tools, but as is the case with many hand tools of that period, several of these were likely made in Germany or other European countries utilizing designs popular in England and exported to that country. 

“Ogee Cone Joints” 

These dividers are typically five to eight inches in length and have the following characteristics: 

-        Filed ogee design on the upper legs with incised lines above and below the ogee

-        Short shoulders (just below main joint)

-        Five leaf, cone shaped main joint 

 

Five leaf joints have the advantage over three leaf joints of increasing the frictional surface area in the joint resulting in a joint that is more likely to keep a setting. I still marvel at the forging skill necessary to create a five leaf joint on a small pair of dividers.

In addition to the ogee design a “half moon (cyme) cone joint” variant is common and may be encountered more often than the ogee version.                                                                                          

 Of my eight examples only two are clearly marked as to a manufacturer. One of the half moon cone joint dividers has a “P.S.” stamped on the edge of an upper leg. These initials in early tools generally refer to Peter Stubs, a well-known Lancashire England toolmaker whose company produced tools from the mid-18^th century into the 19^th century. I would date this example to about 1790. A second example (the ogee cone joint photo above) is stamped T.H.B. & Co. for T. Hessen Bruch Co., a Philadelphia importer of high-quality German razors and tools from approximately 1873 to 1926. This points out that this design of friction divider was used over an extended period.

We'll end with an example different from the above. These are a fine early pair of probably German wing dividers that show fancy file work on the legs with some similarity to the designs discussed above.