Architect's scale
An architect's scale is a ruler, a tool for measuring distances, used in countries that employ the U.S. customary units or Imperial units. It is traditionally made of wood and painted yellow, although they are now commonly made of plastic. It is just over twelve inches long, so that the measuring ticks at the limits of zero and twelve inches do not become unusable by wearage. The Architect's scale was originally used in making drawings for buildings of traditional materials and furniture, commonly called blueprints, in scale. Its use was continued as buildings became made of steel and glass, but as the switch to metric SI building standards is advancing, this is declining. This scale has a cross-section like an equilateral triangle, which enables the scale to have six edges indexed for measurement. One edge is divided into sixteenths of an inch, while the other ones are labelled quite curiously. This is to enable one to mark off measurements in ten traditional scales, counting from either end. Here is an example of the traditional use of the term, scale: "the scale of three-eighths-inch-to-the-foot". The scales which the Architect's scale can make easy to mark off may include the following. These are paired as to being read along the same edge from right-to left and from left-to-right, in the following examples: - three-inches-to-the-foot, or the proportion of 1:4
- one-and-one-half-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:8
- two-inches-to-the-foot, or 1:6
- one-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:12
- one-half-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:24
- one-quarter-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:48
- one-eighths-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:96
- one-sixteenths-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:192
- three-eighths-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:32
- three-quarters-inch-to-the-foot, or 1:16
Since Britain has become metricized, and Australia before it, only the USA has a living, legal need for these instruments. In Canada they might be used for home improvements. In the twenty-first century, those which are commonly purchased in the US are actually made in Germany.
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