Christoph Scheiner, Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer who in 1603, invented the pantograph.

Christoph Scheiner, Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer who in 1603, invented the pantograph.

Image showing how a pantograph works.

Image showing how a pantograph works.

Detail map of Roma, Lazio, Italy Overview map of Roma, Lazio, Italy

A: Roma, Lazio, Italy

Christopher Scheiner Invents the Pantograph, the First Copying Device?

1603 to 1605

Between 1603 and 1605 German astronomer Christoph Scheiner invented the pantograph. This was probably the first copying device. Scheiner did not publish an account of this invention until 25 years later, when he issued Pantographice, seu ars delineandi res quaslibet per parallelogrammum lineare seu cavum mechanicum mobile in Rome, 1631.

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