Tape (Chesterman)
name: label: maker
content: James Chesterman & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This brass and leather case of this steel tape is marked "CHESTERMAN'S PATENT / SHEFFIELD" and "100 Ft." The tape itself is graduated in 100ths of a foot on one side, and links and poles on the other. It has joints every 20 feet.
label: Description
content: James Chesterman (1795–1867) was an English metal worker who, in 1821, received a British patent for a method of using a spring to rewind measuring tapes. In 1842 Chesterman and James Bottom patented a woven cloth tape that incorporated strands of wire. Chesterman's 1853 patented process for heat-treating long strips of steel led to the manufacture of steel tapes that remained virtually unchanged for over 50 years.
label: Description
content: <i> Scientific American</i> called attention to Chesterman & Co. in 1869, noting that their patent steel tape "is about the most unique thing of the kind we have ever seen," and mentioning its portability, neatness, and exact measuring capability. W. & L. E. Gurley was offering Chesterman steel tapes by 1871, describing them as "made of a thin ribbon of steel, which is jointed at intervals, and wound up in a leathern case, having a folding handle." Gurley went on to say that these tapes were the best on the market, but at $17, their "great cost" prevented their general use. Gurley also sold Chesterman tapes of cloth reinforced with wire; these cost just $5.25.
label: Description
content: Ref: "Steel Measuring Tapes," <i>Scientific American</i> 21 (1869): 216.
label: Description
content: W. & L .E. Gurley, <i>Manual of the Principal Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying</i> (Troy, N.Y., 1871), p. 132, and price list.
label: Description
content: James Chesterman & Co., <i>Chesterman's Patent Measures, Engineers' Tools, &c.</i> (Sheffield, n.d.), pp. 16–17.
label: Description
content: Douglas J. Hallam, <i>The First 200 Years. A Short History of Rabone Chesterman Limited</i> (1984).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Sheffield, Sheffield
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: W. & L. E. Gurley. Manual of the Prinicipal Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying; 17th Edition
label: Related Publication
content: Scientific American
label: Related Publication
content: James Chesterman & Co.. Chesterman's Patent Measures, Engineers' Tools, &c.
label: Related Publication
content: Hallam, Douglas J.. First 200 Years: A Short History of Rabone Chesterman Limited
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Roberdeau Buchanan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.328413
label: catalog number
content: 328413
label: accession number
content: 97135
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Measuring Tape
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 3.175 cm x 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: tape: 3/8 in x 100 ft; .9525 cm x 30.48 m
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/2 in x 4 3/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 3.81 cm x 12.065 cm x 11.43 cm