 Receiving a $3,000 investment, Gerber patented his Variable Scale and founded the Gerber Scientific Instrument Company in Hartford, Conn. to produce and market the device.Before the widespread use of digital computers, performing computations based on graphically recorded data and curves was extremely time-consuming and complex.The Gerber Variable Scale—which used a triangular calibrated spring as a computing element to eliminate all scaling and conversions between numerics and graphics—provided means for quick, efficient calculations, and became known as the greatest engineering tool since the slide rule.