When it comes to patented rulers, it’s difficult to concieve of anything more basic than this particular example. It consists simply of a pentagonal section ebonised rod with the end imprint “REG. No. 659657”, and was issued as a promotional ruler by C.W. Kellock & Co., a long-established firm of ship brokers. In addition, the rule is lettered in gold: “A SOUVENIR OF H.M.S. “BRITANNIA”, in reference to the 1860 battleship (originally the HMS Prince of Wales) later turned cadet training ship that was broken up from July 1916.
The registered design number dates to the first quarter of 1917, so it likely marked the first time that Kellock had hit upon the idea of a ruler for recycling the timber of old ships. However, they had previous form with desktop accessories made out of scrapped vessels, having issued promotional desk blotters both before and after the First World War.
For comparison, I have photographed the end of Kellock’s rule alongside the earlier Harrison’s patent octagonal-ended rule of 1907 (of which there is a short description in an earlier post). It’s interesting that a decade on Kellock went for a registered design; perhaps by then even the Patent Office had had enough of applications for wooden sticks of subtly-differing profile.
So now I have the eight-sided Harrison rule, six-sided AW Faber, five-sided Kellock’s, four-sided Kern, and a few dozen three-sided scales. If anyone comes across a heptagonal ruler, please let me know.
