The Clapboard Gauge: One Man, Straight Siding, Even in the Wind

"In Fig. 1, E is a shank, to the upper part of which is secured the wedge or lip F, that is forced up between two pieces of siding to hold the hook in place. On the outside of this shank is secured by means of the thumb-screw J the slider or standard H, that forms a rest K on the top and terminates in the piece L, to which is jointed the gage M." "In the way siding is usually put on, compasses have to be used to measure the distance and then set-nails driven in, which consumes much time and mars the siding with the holes after the nails are withdrawn, and does not insure as much accuracy of measurement as where two or more of these hooks are used, if they are adjusted and placed in the siding just alike."

**Shank and lip.** For each gauge, saw a shank 30 × 3 cm from hardwood board and glue a thin wedge-shaped lip across its top face to slip up under the bottom edge of a board. Screw a cross-piece across the shank just below the lip so it bears against the face of the course below and squares the gauge. **Slider.** Saw a slider 12 × 3 cm, cut a slot 6 cm long down it with the coping saw, and hold it on the shank with a bolt and nut through the slot, so it can be set to the exposure. Screw a block across its top as the rest the next board sits on. **Spring.** Screw a curved strip of spring steel to the slider so it presses the new board against the wall. **Test.** Screw a plywood sheet upright as the wall and cut strips 10 cm wide from pine board as siding. Nail the first strip level. Set both gauges to 7 cm exposure, hook them under it, rest the next strip on them, and nail it. Repeat for eight courses. Side a second sheet by marking each course with the ruler and pencil. Measure each course's exposure with the caliper on both walls and compare the spread.

**Stephen Inman** of Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois, received US 33,199, dated 3 September 1861. His slider was adjusted by ratchets and a hand-screw, the gauge was jointed so it could be lifted when a board had to be scribed round a window, and he did not claim the metal siding hook itself, only the cross-piece combined with the gauge. **Honest limits.** Hardwood, a slotted slider and a spring-steel strip stand in for his hook, ratchet slider and springs, and a plywood mock wall for a building. The notebook's per-course errors are examples, not measurements. Your caliper readings are the result.