The first patent for a steel tape measure was granted in Britain ... create the almost absurdly large bell silhouettes found in hoop skirts called crinolines. “A really fluffed-out, layered ...

A really fluffed-out, layered hoop skirt could use 180 feet of the wire ... Chesterman decided to put graduated marks on very long steel tapes, so he could market them to surveyors as a ...

(Courtesy of Raeford Brown) correction An earlier version of this op-ed incorrectly stated that University of Georgia administrators declared a ban on hoop skirts in the spring. The decision to ...