I’m hoping a reader can identify this unusual tool or jig.
The legs are about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. The inner edge has a 45 degree bevel. The medallion has a large “Burroughs” in the center, “Adding, Bookkeeping, Calculating” on the top, and “Machines” on the bottom. The entire medallion is suspended on a bent piece of steel about .75 of an inch above the legs. Burroughs adding machines were quite popular in the early twentieth century, and the company was founded by beat writer William S. Burroughs’s grandfather.
Any guesses what is this device was for?
My guess is tear bar for adding machine tape that could be installed for either a right- or left-handed operator. Here’s a fun manual, though a quick peek didn’t show one… https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087322310;view=1up;seq=72;skin=mobile
R.
Roberta Lavadour ____________________ Mission Creek Press Desultory Press Pendleton, Oregon http://www.robertalavadour.com
>
Dear Jeff,
My husband tells me that it is a draughtsman’s set square. He says he saw draughtsmen using them at University College London in the early 60s when he was there. The nice thing about them was that they enabled one to draw a line perpendicular to an existing line quickly and easily without the risk of overshooting (which happened all the time with traditional plastic triangles).
Marianne
Roberta, this does make sense, given the inner bevel and size. Marianne, it definitely could do this, though why the Burroughs adding machine advertising?