school and office products manufacturer owner acme united corporation website c thru ruler home the c thru ruler company was formed in 1939 in bloomfield connecticut 1 by jennie r. zachs a schoolteacher who saw the need for transparent measuring tools such as rulers triangles curves and protractors . over the years the company developed a strong reputation in the school and craft markets for high quality measuring devices and for specialized products for drafting designing and drawing . during the 1990s the company expanded into the paper crafting and scrapbooking fields under the little yellow bicycle and d j views brands . in june 2012 acme united corporation bought the ruler lettering and drafting portions of c thru ruler . the scrap booking part of the business continues to be managed by the zachs family under the little yellow bicycle inc. name . contents 1 history 1.1 jennie zachs 1.2 1940 1969 1.3 1970 1989 1.4 1990 2012 2 c thru ruler as acme united brand 3 references 4 external links history edit jennie zachs edit jennie r. zachs born in 1898 was the daughter of benjamin and julia zachs who emigrated from russia to the united states in the early 1900s . 2 she graduated from high school in hartford ct. a few years later she graduated from college and became a schoolteacher . 2 while teaching she developed the idea that when students would be able to see through their rulers it would make the tool much more useful in the classroom . as a result ms. zachs started the development of two transparent rulers made out of plastic . in 1939 she founded c thru ruler company in bloomfield connecticut 3 and designed a whole family of transparent measuring tools like rulers triangles curves and protractors . shortly after she engaged a supplier to mill the tools out of plastic sheet and began to attend different trade shows and conventions for blue printers and art materials dealers to sell the products . she noticed that the transparent measuring tools could effectively replace wood and metal measuring devices for many applications in drafting designing and drawing . 1940 1969 edit only one year after founding the company jennie zachs took in two partners to handle the expansion of c thru . edward zachs her brother joined c thru and anna zachs her sister became an investor . on october 14 1946 c thru ruler company was formally incorporated in connecticut . in 1957 edward s son ted also started working at the company . the following years sales representatives were hired and the products line was significantly expanded through a distribution arrangement with letraset a manufacturer of dry transfer rub on lettering and lettering tapes . 1970 1989 edit in 1970 letraset decided to start selling its own line of transparent tools . in response thereto c thru acquired a small manufacturer of dry transfer lettering products and started offering its own line of vinyl lettering . one year later ted zachs bought out the other family members and became the sole shareholder of c thru . in 1983 jed zachs the son of ted joined the business and in 1985 another small acquisition was completed which expanded the line of adhesive backed vinyl letters and stencils for signage purposes . 1990 2012 edit in 1993 ross zachs ted zachs younger son also became part of the company . jed oversaw manufacturing and related operations while ross played a key role in the creative and marketing sides of the business . the following year c thru s owners saw that scrapbooking was growing rapidly and decided to enter that market with a line of stencils templates and rulers . in the same year it also created the deja views brand and began to sell to hobby and craft dealers primarily small independent stores and a few chains including michaels 1 which only had a handful of stores at that time . to expand the design and paper crafting business a new brand called little yellow bicycle was launched in 2008 with a differentiated line for independent retailers . in june 2012 the non scrapbooking part of the business was sold to acme united corporation . acme united purchased the inventory tooling brands and other intellectual property for approximately 1.47 million . in 2011 revenues for the c thru ruler part of the business reached about 2.7 million . 4 the zachs family continued to focus on the design and paper crafting business under the little yellow bicycle inc. name with ted zachs as president . 5 c thru ruler as acme united brand edit after the acquisition the c thru products were gradually integrated into acme united s westcott product family which mainly consists of rulers scissors and other school and office products . so the identity of c thru in most cases has become westcott . references edit a b overview oems rulers . sliderulemuseum.com . retrieved on december 8 2012 . a b jennie r. zachs obituary . legacy.com . retrieved on december 9 2012 . jennie r. zachs obituary . legacy.com . retrieved on december 9 2012 . acme united corporation acquires assets of the c thru ruler company . businesswire.com . retrieved on december 8 2012 . the c thru ruler company sells ruler lettering and drafting business . littleyellowbicycle.typepad.com . retrieved on december 8 2012 . external links edit acme united corp. website westcott website little yellow bicycle website letraset website v t e acme united corporation subsidiaries c thru ruler camillus cutlery company clauss cutlery company pac kit first aid kits physicianscare first aid and medications westcott rule company retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title c thru ruler & oldid 678440315 categories companies based in connecticutmathematical toolstool manufacturing companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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