These "Sterling" cloth tapes were produced by the Lufkin company through the 1940s, they were sold alongside the steel measuring tape they introduced in 1890. Previous Lufkin post here.
These "Sterling" cloth tapes were produced by the Lufkin company through the 1940s, they were sold alongside the steel measuring tape they introduced in 1890. Previous Lufkin post here.
4 comments:
Now they’re made of fiberglass.
I'm pondering why a fabric tape would be preferable to a steel one, possibly the weight?
Flexibility mainly. They are used a lot in surveying and layout work. They are available in tenths of inches for surveying. Funny story, I once represented a line of measuring devices as a manufacturer rep. My buddy and I were laying out a pole barn type shed one time so I grabbed a couple fiberglass tapes and we each had one. We started laying out the holes for the supports and he was drilling them with his post hole driller on his tractor when we started noticing they weren’t looking square from side to side. He checked his side and gave me a measurement like 22 feet 11 inches. I look at my tape and said mine only had 10 inches per foot! At that point I realized I had grabbed an inch tape and a tenth of a foot tape. Oops. The holes were drilled and we weren’t going to re-drill them so we built a crooked shed. Looks kinda funky but it’s still standing after twenty years.
Also there’s less issues with temperature changes and the length of the tape changing with FG or cloth over steel tapes.
Post a Comment