Definition of "pentagraph" []

• A device used in surveying composed of four flat, straight brass rules, two of which are long and are connected by a double pivot at the end to create a "V" shape, and two of which are short and joined by a double pivot to create another "V" shape pointed away from the first, with the other ends of the short rules connected at the halfway mark of the long rules, so that the entire figure creates a parallelogram. (noun)

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• ""I have warmed up," he concludes, "an old idea, and can make a machine in which the pentagraph and the leading screw will all be contained in the beam, and the pattern and piece to be cut will remain at rest fixed upon a lath of cast iron or stout steel.""
• "The accompanying profiles were mostly taken by a pentagraph from the wax figures now exhibiting through the country by Pendleton & Curtiss, which are striking and accurate likenesses of the Africans, taken from life by Mr. Moulthrop, and are mathematically correct."
• "A small aperture in the wall, opposite the seat in which the person is placed whose profile is taken, conceals a camera lucida, which is placed in an adjoining apartment: and an assistant, by moving a point, connected by a pentagraph with the hand of the automaton, over the outline of the head, causes the figure to trace a corresponding profile."