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A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible form of ruler. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fiber glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings with metric units and sometimes additionally imperial units. It is a common measuring tool. Its flexibility allows for a measure of great length to be easily carried in pocket or toolkit and permits one to measure around curves or corners. Today it is ubiquitous, even appearing in miniature form as a keychain fob, or novelty item. Surveyors use tape measures in lengths of over 100 m (300+ ft).
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Uses
Tape measures that were intended for use in tailoring or dressmaking were made from flexible cloth or plastic. Today, measuring tapes made for sewing are made of fiberglass, which does not tear or stretch as easily1. Measuring tapes designed for carpentry or construction often use a stiff, curved metallic ribbon that can remain stiff and straight when extended, but retracts into a coil for convenient storage. This type of tape measure will have a floating tang on the end to aid measuring. The tang will float a distance equal to its thickness, to provide both inside and outside measurements that are accurate. A tape measure of 25 or even 100 feet can wind into a relatively small container.
Design
The design on which most modern spring tape measures are built was patented by a New Haven, Connecticut resident called Alvin J. Fellows on 14 July 1868. According to the text of his patent, Fellows' tape measure was an improvement on other versions previously designed.2
The spring tape measure has existed since Fellows' patent in 1868, but did not come into wide usage until the early 1940s, when it slowly began to supplant a common folding wooden design of carpenter's ruler.
United States
Some tapes sold in the United States have additional marks in the shape of small black diamonds, which appear every 19.2 inches (490 mm). These are known as 'black truss' markings, and are used to mark out an equal trusses lengths for roofing materials (five trusses per standard 8 feet (2.4 m) length of building material).
References
Readers Digest, The Complete Guide to Sewing Readers Digest Association,1995 ISBN0-88850-247-8
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- This page was last modified on 1 December 2008, at 16:22.
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