Editing Pantograph (section)

=== Other uses ===

In another application similar to drafting, the pantograph is incorporated into a pantograph engraving machine with a revolving cutter instead of a pen, and a tray at the pointer end to fix precut lettered plates (referred to as 'copy'), which the pointer follows and thus the cutter, via the pantograph, reproduces the 'copy' at a ratio to which the pantograph arms have been set. The typical range of ratio is Maximum 1:1 Minimum 50:1 (reduction) In this way machinists can neatly and accurately [[engraving|engrave]] numbers and letters onto a part. Pantographs are no longer commonly used in modern engraving, with computerized  laser and rotary engraving taking favor.

The device which maintains electrical contact with the [[overhead line|contact wire]] and transfers power from the wire to the [[railway electric traction#Unit types|traction unit]], used in [[electric locomotive]]s and [[tram]]s, is also called a "[[Pantograph (transport)|pantograph]]".

[[Herman Hollerith]]'s [[Keypunch|"Keyboard punch"]] used for the [[1890 United States census|1890 U.S. Census]] was a pantograph design and sometimes referred to as "The Pantograph Punch".<ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Leon E. Truesdell | last = Truesdell | first = Leon E. | title = The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census: 1890-1940 | publisher = US GPO | year = 1965 }}</ref>

An early 19th-century device employing this mechanism is the [[Polygraph (duplicating device)|polygraph]], which produces a duplicate of a letter as the original is written.

In 1886, [[Eduard Selling]] patented a prize-winning calculating machine based on the pantograph, although it was not commercially successful.<ref>{{cite book|author=Selling, E.|title=Eine neue Rechenmaschine|year=1887|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|doi=10.3931/e-rara-18446}}</ref>

[[Longarm quilting]] machine operators may trace a pantograph, paper pattern, with a laser pointer to stitch a custom pattern onto the quilt.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Digitized pantographs are followed by computerized machines.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}}

[[Linn Boyd Benton]] invented a pantographic engraving machine for type design,<ref>{{cite book|author=Cost, Patricia.|title=The Bentons: How an American Father and Son Changed the Printing Industry|year=2011|location=Rochester, NY|isbn=978-1-933360-42-3}}</ref> which was capable not only of scaling a single font design pattern to a variety of sizes, but could also condense, extend, and slant the design (mathematically, these are cases of [[affine transformation]], which is the fundamental geometric operation of most systems of digital typography today, including [[PostScript]]).<ref name="Linotype2022">{{cite web|url=https://www.linotype.com/2382/linn-boyd-benton.html|website=www.linotype.com|title=Font Designer-Linn Boyd Benton|year=2022|author=Linotype|access-date=8 October 2022}}</ref>

[[Richard Feynman]] used the analogy of a pantograph as a way of scaling down tools to the nanometer scale in his talk "[[There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom]]".