Object Details
maker
Eugene Dietzgen Company
Description
This three-foot wooden rule was sold as part of a set of instruments for blackboard use. It is divided to 1/8" along one edge and numbered in red for feet and in black for inches. A horizontal handle in the center of the rule assists with positioning it against the blackboard, and a round hole at the right end is for hanging the instrument. The lower right corner is marked: DIETZGEN (/) MADE IN U.S.A. (/) 1298-B.
The Eugene Dietzgen Company of Chicago began numbering its blackboard drawing instruments individually by 1910, when it priced the four pieces at $1.25 each or $5.00 for the set. However, through at least 1938, the handle on the ruler was shaped like a knob, not as a horizontal bar. For related object, see 1999.0117.02.
The instrument was used by Margaret G. Aldrich teaching mathematics at Montgomery College, established as Montgomery Junior College in Takoma Park, Maryland.
References: Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 7th ed. (Chicago, 1904), 151; Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 9th ed. (Chicago, 1910–1911), 194; Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 15th ed. (Chicago, 1938), 210.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Montgomery College, Takoma Park, Md.
date made
ca 1950
ID Number
1999.0160.01
catalog number
1999.0160.01
accession number
1999.0160
Object Name
scale rule
rule
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 2 cm x 92.6 cm x 5.3 cm; 25/32 in x 36 15/32 in x 2 3/32 in
place made
United States: Illinois, Chicago
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Women Teaching Math
Science & Mathematics
Scale Rules
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Rule, Measuring
Education, College
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_694519