Tuesday Open Line


Almost every home has at least one. They can be made out of cloth, plastic, or metal. Seamstresses and tailors use them, as do professional craftsmen and weekend do-it-yourselfers. It’s the tape measure, patented on this date in 1868 by Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Connecticut. His version had a feature still found today — a spring click lock to hold the tape at any desired point. One notable tape measure was 600 feet long and gold plated. It was presented to New York Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle in 1956 to honor his longest home run, launched against the Washington Senators in 1953. Tape measures are sure to be found at the nation’s more than 15,000 hardware stores, which employ more than 133,000 American workers. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.