Engineer's scale
Any scale is called an engineer's scale and is a tool for measuring distances and transferring measurements at a fixed ratio of length. It is commonly made of plastic,or aluminum and is just over 12 inches (305 mm) long, but with only 12 inches of markings, leaving the ends unmarked so that the first and last measuring ticks do not wear off. It is used in making engineering drawings, commonly called blueprints, blue lines or plans in a specific scale. For example, "one-tenth size" would appear on a drawing to indicate a part larger than the drawing on the paper itself. It is not to be used to measure machined parts to see if they meet specifications.
In scientific and engineering terminology, a device to measure linear distance and create proportional linear measurements is called a scale. A device for drawing straight lines is a straight edge or ruler. In common usage both are referred to as a ruler.
In the United States this scale is divided into decimalized fractions of an inch, but has a cross-section like an equilateral triangle, which enables the scale to have six edges indexed for measurement. One edge is divided into tenths of an inch, and the subsequent ones are directly marked for twentieths, thirtieths, fortieths, fiftieths, and finally sixtieths of an inch. Referred to as 1:10, 1:20, 1:30,1:40, 1:50 or 1:60 scale. Typically in civil engineering applications, 1:10 (1"=10')is used exclusively for detail drawings. 1:20 and 1:40 scales are used for working plans. 1:60 is normally used only to show large areas of a project.
The engineer's scale came into existence when machining parts required a greater precision than the usual, binary fractionalization of the inch as in the architect's scale for houses and furniture. They were used, for example, in laying out printed circuit boards with the spacing of leads from integrated circuits as one-tenth of an inch.
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