Bronze sliding caliper of the Xin dynasty
Calibre de corredera de bronce de la dinastía Xin
- Date
- 9 · confidence high
- Place
- Chang'an (Xi'an), Shaanxi, China
- Credited to
- Imperial workshop of the Xin dynasty (Wang Mang)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A bronze caliper with a fixed rule and a sliding jaw, with an inscription dating it to AD 9. It made it possible to measure diameters, thicknesses and depths to within a few millimetres, and is the oldest known sliding caliper.
Several examples survive, some of unknown provenance (the AD 9 one is in a collection in Japan); it is placed at the capital Chang'an because of the authority that had it made, not by find-spot.
What it led to
- dimensional control of bronze and ceramic pieces in the Han
- sixteenth-century European sliding calipers and the modern vernier caliper