Machine used to mark off equal intervals accurately, usually on precision instruments.
Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach (17721826), a German maker of astronomical instruments, designed an early dividing engine, and Jesse Ramsden (17351800), a British pioneer in the design of precision tools, designed dividing engines of great accuracy for both circles and straight lines and produced highly accurate sextants , theodolites (see surveying ), and vertical circles for astronomical observatories.