Measuring tape

A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible ruler and used to measure distance.

It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fibre glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings. It is a common measuring tool. Its design 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).

Tape measures that were intended for use in tailoring or dressmaking were made from flexible cloth or plastic. They are named "sewing tape". These types of tape measures were mainly used for the measuring of the human's waist line. Today, measuring tapes made for sewing are made of fiberglass, which does not tear or stretch as easily. 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 or hook on the end to aid measuring. The tang is connected to the tape with loose rivets through oval holes, and can move 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. The self-marking tape measure allows the user an accurate one hand measure.

The first record of a people using a measuring device was by the Romans using marked strips of leather, but this was more like a regular ruler than a tape measure. On July 14, 1868, a patent was filed by one Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Connecticut. Fellows' rule, although crude and flimsy, was the first attempt to make a spring tape measure. On 3 January 1922, Hiram A. Farrand received the patent he filed in 1919 for his spring tape measure. Sometime between 1922 and December 1926, Farrand experimented with the help of The Brown Company in Berlin, New Hampshire. It is there Hiram and William Wentworth Brown began mass-producing the tape measure. Their product was later sold to Stanley Works.

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