Carrington's Patent Rolling Parallel Rule
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: patentee
content: Carrington, James
notes: label: Description
content: A 14" trapezoidal mahogany frame with metal end pieces covers two mahogany rollers that rotate on metal shafts. A paper label is marked: CARRINGTON'S PATENT PARALLEL RULER, FOR COUNTING HOUSES, &C. The label is decorated with an eagle over a shield with arrows in its claws. The eagle's beak holds a banner marked: E PLURIBUS UNUM.
label: Description
content: On April 14, 1832, James Carrington of Wallingford, Conn., patented a parallel ruler that was later manufactured by William Hill of Wallingford. The rollers were raised in order to prevent ink from smearing as the ruler was moved across a drawing. In 1849 the U.S. House of Representatives ordered six dozen of the rulers from R. Farnham, a stationer in Washington, D.C., for $2.30 per dozen. This suggests the rules were used relatively widely for a significant period of time. Before he built a dam and factory in Wallingford around 1830, Carrington was a supervisor and inspector at the Harpers Ferry and Springfield armories.
label: Description
content: References: "American Patents," <i>The Repertory of Patent Inventions</i> 15 (1833): 24; "Power, Factories, Invention," in <i>Centennial of Meriden: June 10–16, 1906</i> (Meriden, Conn.: Journal Publishing Co., 1906), 245; U.S. House of Representatives, <i>Contracts for Stationery</i>, 31st Congress, 1st Session, Miscellaneous, No. 16, December 31, 1849 (Washington, D.C., 1850), 16–17; Hiram Williams Beckwith, <i>History of Montgomery County, Together With Historic Notes on the Wabash Valley</i> (Chicago, 1881), 246; Merritt Roe Smith, <i>Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology</i> (Cornell: University Press, 1977), 203, 207, 229.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Wallingford
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
label: Subject
content: Business
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Parallel Rules
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.293320.2818
label: accession number
content: 293320
label: catalog number
content: 293320.2818
objectType: label: Object Name
content: parallel rule
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.2 cm x 35.6 cm x 4.9 cm; 7/8 in x 14 1/32 in x 1 15/16 in