‘As long as you need to be able to draw a straight line, hopefully rulers will have a place in the world.’

In the final episode, host Nihal Arthanayake is joined by Senior Production Manager at Ordnance Survey, Jim Goldsmith, and Copy Services Assistant at the National Railway Museum, Chris Valkoinen, to explore the long history of the ruler.

Journey to ancient Sumer where you’ll find the oldest surviving ruler, explore how measurements were a point of conflict in the French Revolution, and discover the role of Alexander Hamilton (from the musical!) in bringing technical drawing skills to Britain.

This episode was inspired by some of the rulers in the Science Museum Group Collection. Our incredible collection contains more than 7 million items which illustrate the impact of science, technology, engineering and medicine on all our lives.

A Brief History of Stuff is a Storythings and Science Museum Group production. Find out more about this episode on our website. You can discover more stories about the everyday objects around you in our Everyday Technology series, and find out why the kilogram was redefined in 2019 in this blog post.

Follow the Science Museum on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more insights into the collection and use #ABriefHistoryOfStuff to join the conversation on social media. You can discover more about the history of Ordnance Survey on their website, and research our technical drawing archives at Search Engine at the National Railway Museum. You can pick up copies of Chris Valkoinen’s Railways: A History in Drawings from late August 2021.

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If you have an idea for a future episode or want to share your thoughts on our podcast, please email us via podcast@sciencemuseum.org.uk.