Accession No
4222
Brief Description
30cm scale, by Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd., English, 1923
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd.
Class
weights & measures
Earliest Date
1923
Latest Date
1923
Inscription Date
Material
metal (steel); wood
Dimensions
length 313mm;breadth 23mm; thickness 17mm box length 334mm; breadth 5mm; height 61mm
Special Collection
Cambridge Instrument Company Collection
Provenance
Donated by the Cambridge Instrument Company.
Inscription
‘C & P.I.CO LTD. Cambridge C 36719 No 51479’ (obverse)
Description Notes
Scale with no divisions. Engraved on one side: ‘Distance between marks = CMs: at ˚C’. Engraved on other side: ‘Temp Coeff: Per Degree ˚C
Between ˚C’.
Box, with Certificate of Examination inside.
Complete.
References
Events
Description
Scale Rule
A straight rule with a scale engraved along the length is the simplest instrument for making linear measurements, and has been used since antiquity. However, scale rules were not commonly used for making scale drawings until around 1550 in Northern Europe. Anthropomorphic dimensions such as the foot were commonly used for the scale.
Scale rules can be straight or folding and often have even scales on one side and diagonal scales on the other, which enable the user to divide any measurement into 100 parts. They were often decorated by the maker, demonstrating artistic as well as mathematical skills (although they became more purely functional from mid 18th century). They were usually made of brass, silver, ivory or boxwood.
FM:39870
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