Rule Hand Marked by Robert F. Roche
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
name: label: maker
content: Keuffel & Esser Co.
label: maker
content: Roche, Robert F.
notes: label: Description
content: Robert Frederick Roche (b. about 1839), an immigrant from Ireland, apparently purchased this 20-inch wooden rule as a blank straight edge and then marked it by hand. One side has a proportional scale marked up to one billion; an evenly divided scale numbered by ones from 1 to 12, with each unit equivalent to 4 cm; a logarithmic scale; a scale labeled PERCENTAGE; a scale labeled under 2 Percent; and a proportional scale numbered by ones from 2 to 13, with the number 6 miswritten as 8. The upper left corner of this side is missing. The right end is marked: Robert (/) F. Roche. A hole near the right end is for hanging the rule.
label: Description
content: The other side has a proportional scale of units that is numbered by ones from 2 to 17 and labeled TENS at the right end; a logarithmic scale of tenths that is labeled UNITS at the right end; a proportional scale of roots and powers numbered by ones from 2 to 14; a proportional scale numbered by ones from 11 to [3]0; a scale of equal parts numbered by ones from 1 to 12, with each unit equivalent to 4 cm; and a scale of equal parts numbered by ones up to 47, with each unit equivalent to 1cm. The left end is stamped with an eagle logo and the word: TRADEMARK. This end is also marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER (/) N.Y.
label: Description
content: Although the instrument was marked by Keuffel & Esser, by 1880 that firm sold no 20-inch straight edges. James W. Queen of Philadelphia did offer a 20-inch wooden straight edge for 30¢ in 1874, but one edge was beveled while both long edges of this instrument are straight. By 1877, like K&E, the shortest wooden straight edges offered by Queen were 24 inches long.
label: Description
content: In 1864, Roche served in the U.S. Army at Fort Columbus in New York Harbor. According to a patent he received in 1878 and a notice of his son, Roche was stationed at Fort Foote in Maryland from at least 1871 to 1878, when this installation that provided defense to Washington, D.C., was abandoned and Roche moved his family into the District of Columbia.
label: Description
content: References: James W. Queen & Co., <i>Priced and Illustrated Catalogue . . . of Mathematical Instruments</i> (Philadelphia, 1874), 46; James W. Queen & Co., <i>Priced and Illustrated Catalogue . . . of Mathematical Instruments</i> (Philadelphia, 1877), 46; <i>Catalogue and Price List of Keuffel & Esser Co.</i>, 13th ed. (New York, 1880), 116; Robert F. Roche, "Improvement in Adding Sticks" (U.S. Patent 206,136 issued July 16, 1878); "New Inventions," <i>Scientific American</i> n.s., 39, no. 9 (August 31, 1878), 133; "Roche, Sidney," <i>Who's Who in the Nation's Capital</i> (Washington, D.C.: The Consolidated Publishing Company, 1921), 335. MA.311957 is an example of the patented device.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Maryland, Fort Foote Village
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Rule, Measuring
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.1080.02
label: accession number
content: 1984.1080
label: catalog number
content: 1984.1080.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: rule
label: Object Name
content: scale rule
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .3 cm x 50.5 cm x 4.8 cm; 1/8 in x 19 7/8 in x 1 7/8 in