Acme Ruler

While the focus of this site is vintage Canadian made pencils, it is fun to take the occasional side trip to explore other vintage office and school supplies. Nostalgia is a powerful force which inspires many people to collect a variety of objects. For just about every type of vintage object, you'll find a devoted group of passionate collectors. Vintage wooden rulers are no exception. I've recently found a few vintage wooden rulers made by the Acme Ruler and Advertising Co. of Toronto, Ontario. The Progress is Fine blog has some wonderful information about them.

The Acme Ruler and Advertising Company, Ltd. has a long history in Canada. It was established in Toronto, Ontario prior to 1925 and made a variety of office and school supplies including rulers. It was located in the east end of Toronto. In the 1940s and 1950s it was located at 512 Rhodes Ave. It moved a short distance to 600 Victoria Park Ave in the early 1960s (between 1960 and 1963) where it stayed until 1972 when the factory moved to Mount Forest, Ontario. The company was eventually purchased by Acme United, an American company which started off as the Acme Shear Company (there were lots of companies named Acme back in the day).

School Rulers

School rulers are the traditional 12" rulers that appear on students' back to school supply lists. Some have inches on one side and centimetres on the other. Most of these ruler have a metal strip so that you can draw a crisp, straight line. Below are Acme rulers of the same design in a variety of different lengths. 

Acme 12 inch ruler

Acme 15 inch ruler with diamond logo

Acme 16 inch ruler

Acme 24 inch ruler with diamond logo

The ruler below could be some type of engineering or architects ruler. I'm not sure how to use the different scales that appear on the sides of the ruler.

A lot of the school rulers that I come across have students' names or other notes written on them. I think this is part of the charm of these rulers. They have been used and have story to tell. 

Advertising Rulers

Acme Ruler made hundreds if not thousands of different advertising rulers for a variety of different Canadian companies. Part of the fun of these rulers is the look into the past of these companies.

The Lunenburg Milling Company was established in 1917 at 388 LaHave Street in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. The company milled flour as well as selling feed and grains. By 1956 the company was operating under the name of Shur-Grain Feeds by Canada Packers Ltd. The building was torn down in March 1983 (now home to the South Shore Centre). This ruler doesn't have the "Acme Made in Canada" text so it is possible that this was made by some other company.

Model Craft Hobbies Ltd was a company from Toronto, Ontario that manufactured mainly model aircraft kits. They also made lots of other kits and toys. They were located at 56 Esplanade St until the mid-1940s when they moved to 66 Wellington St W. I've seen a number of these 6" advertising rulers online so they must have been fairly common.

In the News

Le Canada, Wednesday October 14, 1942
Toronto fire damages $20,000 TORONTO 12. (CP)
  For the 2nd time in a year, firefighters have had to fight a two-alarm blaze at Acme Ruler & Advertising Co. establishments on Rhodes Avenue, at the eastern end of town. The damage amounts to $20,000.