Japanese Scale Rule
date: label: date made
content: before 1876
notes: label: Description
content: This 60 cm brass ruler is divided to millimeters along one edge. The scale is not numbered. The other edge is divided into 20 units of 1-3/16" (3 cm). Each unit is thus roughly equivalent to the <i>sun</i>, a traditional Japanese unit of length that is 1/10 of a <i>shaku</i>, a "foot" measure. Four of the units are subdivided into 50 parts; the other 16 are subdivided into 20 parts. Each unit is marked with a small "0." The fifth and fifteenth units have a row of three zeroes above the "0." The tenth unit has a zero, a row of three zeroes, and another zero.
label: Description
content: The Japanese Empire Department of Education displayed this rule at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. It then was held by the Museum of the U.S. Bureau of Education before transfer to the Smithsonian in 1910. For more information, see MA.261298 and MA.261313.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Japan
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Rule, Measuring
label: Subject
content: Expositions and Fairs
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Scale Rules
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.261292
label: accession number
content: 51116
label: catalog number
content: 261292
objectType: label: Object Name
content: rule
label: Object Name
content: scale rule
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .3 cm x 61.2 cm x 3 cm; 1/8 in x 24 3/32 in x 1 3/16 in