Arthur Claude Ruge

Arthur Claude Ruge ( born July 28, 1905 in Tomah, Wisconsin, † April 3, 2000 in Lexington, Massachusetts ) was an American engineer. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an inventor of the strain gauge.

Ruge wanted to explore an earthquake-proof water tank and its extension in 1938. However, the then usual static measurement methods were unsuitable for this purpose and Ruge ventured a try: He stuck a thin resistance wire on tissue paper and fastened the whole of the water tank. He noted a change in the decaying voltage across the resistor wire when shaken. This voltage curve could be both positive and negative, and he had a relatively stable zero. So Ruge, 1938 invented the Seismological Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the electrical resistance strain gauges.

Ruge achieved this breakthrough as he fastened the measuring wire on a carrier film and a so freely movable measuring instrument created. Later Ruge brought the strain gauges to mass production, ushering in the triumph over the hitherto conventional strain gauges.

Around the same time, but independently of him, also invented Edward E. Simmons a strain gauge ( patent Simmons: August 1942 patent grant Ruge June 1944).