Concern about errors due to slipping led to other designs ...

Cylinder rolling on a spinning spherical surface.

 


 

Design due to J. C. Maxwell (the E&M guy)

Since the design of the above instrument was submitted to the Society of Arts, I have met with a description of an instrument combining simplicity of construction with the power of adaptation to designs of any size, and at the same time more portable than any other instrument of its kind. I think that its simplicity, and the beauty of the principle on which it acts, render it worth the attention of engineers and mechanists, whether practical or theoretical.

                            -- J. C. Maxwell, 1856

 

Polar & Linear