Abstract: A method and an apparatus for automatically measuring the thickness and the roughness of elongated articles, such as wooden boards. The device comprises a housing having an opening therethrough to receive at least a portion of a board to be measured. At least one contact probe is provided in the housing and is biased against at least one surface of the board to sense irregularities in the flatness of the surface along a measured length thereof. A measuring circuit is connected to the contact probe to provide a measurement signal representative of the sensed irregularities and variations in thickness. A distance measuring device is also provided in the housing to measure the distance of displacement of the board past the contact probe. An output display means indicates selected ones of the measurements obtained. A computing means accumulates measured values of the means, minimum and maximum thickness, for a group of boards and permits the extraction of such statistical information.