But I don't use it as a rule

This is the middle of a 100foot metal tape I got from my father. The company, LS Starrett Co still exists and makes interesting tools, but not measuring tapes. They are still based in Athol Mass.
Unusually these days it only has imperial measurements and no metric markings. Presumably this is because  it is from the USA and they don't use that system.
I seldom use it but it was the only one I could find this morning. It still worked very satisfactorily.