Activities with the mathematical machines: pantographs and curve drawers

The practice of using tangible instruments in Mathematics was historically included in the work of mathematicians. In the Laboratory of Mathematical Machines, different types of activities are organised with copies of historical geometrical instruments, called Mathematical Machines. The laboratory sessions, carried out in this Laboratory, follow a particular \u2014laboratory format\u201c which is a transposition of the idea of mathematics laboratories used in pedagogical studies, and also developed by the Italian Commission for Mathematics Teaching. In this article, after having explained in detail the various stages of a laboratory session, which has also been experimented upon by the workshop participants, some analysis elements of such activities are discussed