Hi Chris & All

Chris opines about why some tailors rules were curved and why there were
so many different types. I only have a guess about the former, but do
know a bit more about the latter.

I had quite a few different types of tailor's rules, squares, etc., in
my collection and did some research on several of them. Plus I've also
seem many more for sale that I didn't have. I concluded that there were
over 100 different types of tailoring "systems" created and patented or
copyrighted in the late 1800 - early 1900 time frame. Each such system
had some unique type of rule at its heart and was the main thing that
the system creator made any money off of.

But I don't know that a curved rule was part of any such system and
suspect it might predate the big rash of those. I'd always assumed that
some parts of a dress or such had curves in the fabric and the curved
rule was used to measure around that curve. I don't recall/think that
they'd give you a straight line reading (like a hem to floor dimension)
- only a reading around the arc of a curve.

Best Wishes,
Bob