Mr. Recovery's folding ruler

[rickf]

I know this is not going to mean much to most of the members we have now but the few older guys we have here will understand and get a kick our of this. Mr. Recovery was always known for his old school wooden folding ruler. Everything that he measured for people was done, and displayed, with that ruler. It became his own personal trademark. Well Mr. R, I have one better!!! I picked these up as part of an auction with some other machine tools the other day. Notice the markings on the steel rule, they go all the way to 100ths!!! How good are your eyes? Mine are not that good.

[Hambone]

Yeah, but Dan can measure 6ft., sorry you came up a little short. Cool ruler though.

[m3a1]

Size matters, Rick...no matter what they tell you.

[Mr. Recovery]

HaHaHa good one Rick-O!

[Mark]

The slide rule was replaced by the calculator? Forgot how use slide rule, may even have one stuck somewhere, but it probably got tossed.That folding ruler is very unique, I used a folding ruler(wood, fiberglass) for work a lot.

[rickf]

I used to know how to use a slide rule, I will look it up on the computer (isn't that kind of ironic?) since I have absolutely nothing else I can do! Even my outside plans are trashed by ongoing rain for the last four days.

[raymond]

Steel one made in pre-WW2 Germany. Found it after my father in law passed.

[Hambone]

Only the old timers know how to use a ruler, the younger would have to look on Youtube.

[Mark]

Aw, not an old timer yet, got 30 years to go! LOL

[rickf]

Well, define old timer. I have 20 years to go to be an old timer if that is Mr. Recovery years!!
Raymond, I remember when you showed that before on one of the ruler discussions, That is a rare piece there. Now you got Dan drooling all over again.

[SEABEE62]

WOW...I really like those rulers . Normally I just use my thumb....hold it up and eyeball it. Its good ! SEABEE

[Mark]

Ya, I second using hand/ thumb , a fist with thumb extended was 6 inches, finger joints--inches.Like a cornfield sag!

[Surveyor]

A different sort of folding "ruler."

[rickf]

Surveyors chain, an actual form of measurement dating back to even older than Mr. R!!!!

[rickf]

I was a rodman for a while, mostly down in the Southeast US and I was always interested in the job. I knew I would never get as far as the surveyors job but I am always the curious type and I could just never figure out the measurements. Such as why do they use 10'ts of an inch on the rod? Where did the "chain" measurement come from? And there is a LOT of land to this day still measured in "chains".

A chain (ch) is a unit of length. It measures 66 feet, or 22 yards, or 100 links,[1] or 4 rods (20.1168 m). There are 10 chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in one statute mile. An acre is the area of 10 square chains (that is, an area of one chain by one furlong).