Paul Gustave Froment Invents the Micropantograph, Allowing Reductions of Up to 6,250 Times

In 1852 French inventor and engineer Paul Gustave Froment, builder of the original Foucault pendulum, invented the micropantograph. It operated by coupling two pantographs, not unlike the kind Thomas Jefferson used at Monticello to write in duplicate, so that their action was multiplied, allowing reductions of up to 6,250 times.

Perfected by N. Peters, a London banker and microscopist, the device was described in detail and illustrated in Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary II (1876) 1432, including:

"It was stated in 1862 by Mr. Farrants, that the Lord's Prayer, containing 223 letters (amen being omitted), had been written on glass with this instrument within the space of 1/356,000 square inch; at which rate the whole Bible might be inscribed within the 1/22 part of a square inch."