Object Details
- Description
- This European brass rule consists of twelve segments, ten that are 10.5 cm (4-1/4") long and two that are 9.6 cm (3-3/4") long. The segments are riveted together end to end to form a rule about 104 cm (41") long. On one side the rule has scales for Paris and London inches, numbered by ones from 1 to 36. The other side has scales for Venice and Vienna inches, numbered by ones from 1 to 36. On each of the four scales, the first inch is divided to 1/12" and the rest are divided to 1/2".
- According to the rule, the Paris inch was 1-3/32" long, the London inch was 1", the Venice inch was 1-1/8", and the Vienna inch was 1-1/32". These lengths are within range of the pre-metric system national standards reported by contemporary arithmetic textbooks and modern historians.
- References: Charles Hutton, A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary, new ed. (London, 1815), ii:35–36; Philip E. Stanley, A Source Book for Rule Collectors (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 2003), 242–252.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Hermon W. Farwell
- 18th century
- ID Number
- MA.335403
- accession number
- 319921
- catalog number
- 335403
- Object Name
- rule, folding
- scale rule, folding
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: .1 cm x 105 cm x 1.1 cm; 1/32 in x 41 11/32 in x 7/16 in
- place made
- Europe
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Scale Rules
- Measuring & Mapping
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Rule, Measuring
- Record ID
- nmah_904468
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-6229-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
