profilometern.

1895 I. K. Funk et al. Standard Dict. Eng. Lang. II. Profilometer, an instrument composed of sliding rods adjustable to the contour of the face; used in craniometry for transferring to paper the profile of a living person.

1939 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 18 Nov. 1903/2 A description of Dr. Joseph Safian's profilometer is found in his book ‘Rhinoplastic Surgery’.

1925 Mansfield (Ohio) News 19 Dec. 1/4 The adoption by the [state highway] department of an instrument known as a profilometer for use in seeing how well finished work measures up to specifications.

1949 G. Schlesinger Factory xi. 219/1 Generally the Profilometer provides only ‘average’ readings..determining the roughness of the surface without producing conclusions as regards the waviness.

1966 R. Ashworth Highway Engin. xii. 254 The profilometer consists of a 16-wheeled articulated carriage arranged so as to support the recording gear at a constant height above the continuously arranged level of the road surface at these 16 wheel points.

1976 J. Halling Introd. Tribol. ii. 21 In the profilometer a very fine diamond stylus..is drawn over the surface irregularities... The vertical movement of the stylus..is measured and amplified, usually electronically.

1999 Functional Ecol. 13 869/2 Two-dimensional profiles were measured..using a laser Scantron Proscan 1000 surface profilometer, which has a vertical range of 20 mm and a resolution of 1 μm.

1971 T. F. J. Quinn Applic. Mod. Physical Techniques Tribol. i. 32 The more conventional methods of optical microscopy..and surface profilometry..are often too coarse for this approach.

1996 New Scientist 25 May 44/2 Optical profilometry, a NASA technique for mapping the craters on the Moon, was used to obtain an objective assessment of the degree of wrinkling.