This dividing engine was built at the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) from the design of Joseph Saxton. It was probably used to divide the two scales of the matrix that was part of the standard yard apparatus distributed by OWM to the states and custom-houses. This apparatus consisted of a brass yard end-standard, which fit between the jaws of a matrix consisting of two scales: a scale of 3 feet, with the first foot divided into inches and the first inch divided into tenths of an inch and a scale of tenths of a yard with the first tenth divided into hundredths of a yard.
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