Object Details
- distributor
- B. K. Elliott Co.
- Theodore Alteneder and Sons
- Description
- This six-inch wooden ruler is beveled and coated with white plastic along both long edges. One side is divided to 1/50" and numbered in both directions from 0 to 6. The number "50" is printed below the three-inch mark, and the center of the rule is marked: ALTENEDER. The other side is divided to 1/32" and numbered in both directions from 0 to 6. The number "32" is printed below the three-inch mark, and the wooden part of the rule is marked: B. K. ELLIOTT Co. PITTSBURGH – CLEVELAND. It is also marked: R. S. C. It is also marked: U.S. ST'D.
- Theodore Alteneder began making drawing instruments in Philadelphia in 1850, and the firm remains in existence as a manufacturer of photoengraving equipment. Byron Kenneth Elliott (b. 1870) opened a store in Pittsburgh in 1897 that sold drawing, surveying, and optical equipment. The shop closed in 1980. The donor's father, Robert S. Condon, used this instrument.
- The date for this object is uncertain. Theo. Alteneder & Sons made a 6" opposite bevel scale with white edges and these divisions as model 2232 from 1940 (when it cost $1.35) to at least 1958 (when it cost $3.25). However, according to catalog illustrations, the company mark during this period had the firm's full name around a circle, while this object has only "Alteneder" in a straight line. The scale does not appear in the 3rd, 5th, or 1948 7th editions of B. K. Elliott catalogs.
- References: "Byron Kenneth Elliott," in History of Pittsburgh and Environs (New York and Chicago: American Historical Society, 1922), 35–36; Alteneder Drawing Instruments (Philadelphia, 1940), 26; Alteneder Drawing Instruments (Philadelphia, 1958), 26; Catalogue and Price List of B. K. Elliott Co., 3rd ed. (Pittsburgh, n.d.), 134, 140; Catalogue and Price List of B. K. Elliott Co., 5th ed. (Pittsburgh, n.d.), 135; Catalogue and Price List of B. K. Elliott Co., 7th ed. (Pittsburgh, 1948).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Robert B. Condon
- 20th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0793.01
- accession number
- 1991.0793
- catalog number
- 1991.0793.01
- Object Name
- rule
- scale rule
- Physical Description
- plastic (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: .4 cm x 17.8 cm x 3.5 cm; 5/32 in x 7 in x 1 3/8 in
- place made
- United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Scale Rules
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Drafting, Engineering
- Rule, Measuring
- Record ID
- nmah_904788
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-3388-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
