the.com/pantograph
the spring-loaded arm that drinks lightning at 200mph and never spills.
means A pantograph is a hinged, often spring-loaded framework used either to copy or scale drawings via linked arms, or to draw electric current from an overhead wire to a moving train or tram.
from Coined in the 17th century from Greek 'pantos' (all, every) and 'graphos' (writing/drawing) — literally 'writer of everything' — for the jointed instrument that traced and copied any figure. When electric railways arrived in the late 19th century, engineers borrowed the name for the similarly hinged arm that reaches up to the wire, because it looked like the same scissoring linkage.
- copy machine
- Original pantograph scaled drawings via linked parallelograms
- naming
- Greek for write-all, the universal tracer
- rail power
- Presses on overhead wire to grab electricity
- carbon strip
- Sacrificial contact wears down to spare the wire
- high speed
- Aerodynamic design keeps contact at 350 km/h
pantograph on parisian metro — overhead catenary system supplying power to metro trains in paris since 1900
da vinci's drawing pantograph — mechanical device sketched by leonardo da vinci in the 1480s for proportional copying