early development of zig-zag rules, part 2, The

The Stanley trademark consisting only of the "Stanley" name had been used on Zig-Zag rules since 1897. But, it wasn't until 15 October 1907 a registered trademark (no. 29,747) was issued for it (Figure 1). Shortly thereafter, on 22 October 1907, Mr. Irvin Besse, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was granted patent no. 868,905 for symbols or arrows painted on rules (Figure 2).

...which is adapted to suggest by its indication of direction the end of the rule from which a measurement is taken in measuring from a given point...1

Besse must have been an employee of Stanley because this patent had been filed on 29 January 1904, and these directional arrows were shown on the rules fairly soon after in Stanley's 1905 catalog (no. 34). Both the now official registered Stanley trademark and Besse's directional arrows can be seen in Figure 1.

Stanley continued to expand its Zig-Zag rule line by adding more models. In 1905, Stanley offered twenty-eight different models including metric/ English markings. all were six-inch fold models.

Stanley introduced the four-inch fold narrow Zig-Zag rules in the 1907 (no. 34) catalog (Figure 3). The four-inch fold size was obviously copied from the German rules. (German manufacturers were the first to use this size fold.) Offered in 2-, 3-, and 4-foot lengths, model numbers ,302, 303, and 304 were yellow enamel, and numbers 602, 603, and 604 were white enamel.

The number of rules Stanley offered in the 1907 catalog had increased to thirty-six different models or sizes.

On 13 July 1909 Christian Bodmer of Stanley was granted a patent (no. 928,174) for the improvement of spring joints. This joint consisted of plates with recesses and tenons featuring a hall-lock device with a leaf-spring load (Figure 4). It's a feature still used on Stanley rules today.

Hubert P. Richards of Stanley received a patent, no. 1,026,367, on 14 May 1912 (Figure 5) for a quicker method of making the spurs for holding the friction plates to the rule sticks. This consisted of four eyelet spurs (Figure 6) instead of the D punch spurs (Figure 9, left side).

Christian Bodmer and Edmund A. Schade again combined their talents and received a patent on 2 December 1913 (no. 1,080,192) for another folding-rule joint (Figure 7). On this joint, the tenon and mortise plates did not wrap around the rule stick. This joint was attached to the rule stick through five pointed fastening tangs located on each side of the plates and pressed into the wood sticks (Figure 7).

By 1915), the Stanley Company offered 135 different rules with four basic styles of figuring: Regular, Style T, Style F, and Style M (Figure 8).2 The Regular style was marked at 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. on the outside of the rule. Style T marked each foot with a larger figure than the inch mark. On Style F, the numbers commenced on the inside of the rule, allowing the rule to lie flat, and it marked each foot 1 F, 2 F, 3F etc. Style M had regular English marking on one side and metric marking on the other side.

By 1916, Edmund A. Schade was working on an improvement on Christian Bodmer's Ball Lock Joint of 1909. Schade found that if he reshaped the spring it would help prevent the rule joint from stretching. (Compare the springs in Figure 9; the earlier spring is on the left and the later one on the right.) He received a patent on this reshaped spring on 22 May 1917 (no. 1,227,206) (Figure 10). Unfortunately, this feature cannot be seen from outside the rule joint.

Meanwhile, another man with an inventive mind had worked out a new process for making rules by using aluminum strips that were subjected to a blanking die and finishing die, which produced a rule stick with the graduations and numerals raised above the rule surface (Figure 11). Patent no. 1,211,458 for the rule manufacturing process was granted on 9 January 1917 (Figure 12) and on 4 December 1917 patent 1,249,132 (Figure 13) for the rule itself was granted. The inventor was a well-known New Jersey businessman, Philip J. Leavens of Bridgeton, who, in 1911, sold the Stanley Company his business of Jersey vises. Leavens later acquired the Gage Tool Company (April 1917); he then sold that business to Stanley in 1919. Sometime during the period of 1917 to 1919, Leavens sold his aluminum rule patents to Stanley. These rules, Stanley numbers 423 through 426, were offered by the Stanley Company as early as 1919 (Figure 14). Figure 15 illustrates a close-up of thejoint used on Leavens' style rule. The Leavens aluminum Zig-Zag rules were manufactured by Stanley from 191.9 to 1935.

On 1 May 1920 the Stanley Rule and Level Co. and the Stanley Works merged, and with this merger new models of Zig-Zag rules emerged and a refinement of the rule line began. This will be the topic of next and final article on Zig-Zag rules.

Notes

1. Patent Gazette, vol. 130, 2,202.

2. Stanley Tools, Catalog No. 34, (New Britain, Connecticut: The Stanley Rule and Level Company, 1915), 16-17.

Walter Jacob writes a regular column on the history of Stanley tools for The Chronicle.

Copyright Early American Industries Association Jun 2003
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