In 1876, Justus Roe of Patchogue, New York, decided to go into the business of manufac­turing steel tape measures. Roe was a surveyor by trade. He wanted to make a measuring tool to replace the heavy ‘chains’ they had to use in surveying

The steel tapes were selling so well that in 1900 a fac­tory was built in Patchogue where orders could be handled from start to finish. The tapes needed to be checked on a flat surface because holding them in sus­pension would produce a catenary which would make it difficult to check the correctness of the measurement. This was done on a 100-foot board. The factory was built 103 feet long to accommodate the board needed to check 100-foot tapes.

In 1960, the company moved to River Road bordering the Patchogue River. At that time it was apparent that a faster way to print the tapes was needed. The printing press they were using produced only 6,000 feet per man per day. They had been improving the press with creative in­novations since the first one was installed, and by 1960 they had a press that could produce 200,000 feet per man per day, which was a benchmark press for the industry.

Roe International was purchased by Irwin Tool Company, which renamed it Irwin Measuring Tool Company. It was an interesting merger, for the Irwin Tool Company’s history also went back to the nineteenth century and both had founders who gave up profes­sional careers to manufacture tools. Charles Irwin, a pharmacist in Ohio, bought a blacksmith’s patent rights or a solid center auger bit and formed Irwin Auger Bit Company in 1884. Irwin Measuring Tool Com­pany continued the Roe tradition of producing world-class tape mea­sures under the leadership of its president, Carol Basset.

In 1990, Carol Basset bought the company and renamed it U.S. Tape. The company was reorganized to make it more efficient. Whereas before each worker’s job was specialized, now workers were assigned to cells working as teams.

U.S. Tape was sold again in 1998 to RAF Industries, the present owners. Keeping the name U.S. Tape, they ex­panded to include a forestry product line, added a pri­vate label program which has been successful and continued to make tapes for the United State govern­ment. U.S. Tape remains one of the last companies manufacturing tape measures in the United States. By being able to offer more personal service and fill or­ders faster, they are able to compete with companies that are outsourcing. The company Justus Roe founded in 1876 is still producing steel tape measures. This many years of innovations and creative im­provements on the steel tape measure is truly a remark­able achievement.