'A' through 'Kor'
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Robert Adams - Enfield, South Australia. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society,
Graduated with a Electro-Technology Diploma from the SA Institute of Technology in 1970, using
a slide rule (Thornton P221) and with a Engineering Degree in 1979 using a electronic calculator
(HP25). Joined the Electricity Trust of South Australia in 1968 and worked in a variety of
distribution, transmission and generation fields. Managed the Test and Investigation Department
of the Electricity Trust of South Australia and currently works as the Principal Strategist in
Asset Strategies for ElectraNet SA. Started collecting slide rules approximately 10 years ago
and has currently 400+ rules in the collection. A main focus of the collection is Electro
slide rules and rules that have hyperbolic functions.
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Peter Alfeld - Salt Lake City, UT. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society,
Mathematical Association of America, and American Mathematical Society. Professor of
Mathematics at University of Utah. He studied at the University of Hamburg for three years
and then moved to Dundee,Scotland to do graduate work. After marrying a California wife, they
moved to Salt lake City, Utah. Peter's favorite slide rules Faber-Castell 2/83N and Aristo Hyperlog.
His website at U of U.
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E. Charles Alvarez - United States. Educator and author of electronic books used
in junior collegs, including Using the Slide Rule in Electronic Technology (1965) and
Fundamental Circuit Ananysis 1983. After service in the U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine,
Alvarex graduated from San Fernando State College and later became an associate professor at
Pierce Colleg in Woodlandhills, California in 1955. First class FCC license and was a member
of Institute of Radio Engineers and contributor Industrial Electronic Engineering.
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Isaac Asimov - (1919-1992) United States. Author of Science fiction novels as well
as math books including An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule (1965). Slide rules
were mentioned in many of his futuristic 'Robot' novels.
Born in Russia, and immigrated to the United States at age 3.
Asimov attended New York City Public Schools, including Boys' High School, in Brooklyn,
New York. Graduated from Columbia University in 1939, returning to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948.
During World War II he for three years working as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental
Station. After completing his doctorate, Asimov joined the faculty of the Boston University
School of Medicine, with which he remained associated thereafter. From 1958,
in a non-teaching capacity, he turned to writing full-time. Asimov's personal papers
from 1965 were donated to the university's Mugar Memorial Library.
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John Vincent Atanasoff - (1903-1995) Theoretical Physicist and Electrical
Engineer. Father of the First Digital Computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer or
the ABC, built by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University
during 1937-42. Atanasoff had developed a photographic film based slide rule
(approximately 100 feet long) which would give him computational accuracies of
6 to 8 significant figures for solving gas constants. Although he used many
index marks to help correct errors in the expansion of the film, the medium
was hard to control. Frustrated with not finding a solution to this problem,
he contemplated an alternative to the slide rule and the rest became history.
(reference: John V. Atanasoff II, Boulder, CO) Scans of his three slide rules
at ISRM were provided by the Iowa State University Library,
Atanasoff Archives.
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Bruce E. Babcock, Phd - Amanda, OH. Principal Illustrator, Journal of the Oughtred Society.
Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Eclectic Collector of oddities. Mechanical Engineer in heavy industry.
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Colin Barnes - Fordham, Cambridgeshire - England.
Collector. Oughtred Society Award 1996. Member of UKSRC and contributing author to
The Gazette and Slipstick. Helped put together the display at the
National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. Colin Barnes started his working life as an
apprentice in the shipyard of Vosper Ltd. in Portsmouth, England. He moved to the West Indies
where he was the manager of a small shipyard before setting up his own construction and design
business specialising in steel framed buildings and private housing. On his return to England
he started an architectural and industrial model making business which he ran until retirement.
He started collecting slide rules nearly 20 years ago and joined the Oughtred Society in 1993
becoming an Oughtred Society Award winner in 1996. As a founder member of the U.K. Slide Rule
Circle he produced the Circle's first newsletter as Hon. Editor in 1998, a post he continues to
hold. Colin also started producing the Slide Rule Gazette in 2000 with his co-editor, Peter Hopp
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Auguste Beghin - France. Produced his R?e des Escoles in France in 1907.
This had a displaced scale by √10 and, with the Mannheim rule, became another
standard used by a number of manufacturers. He also produced his R?e ?alculs in 1898.
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Mayer (Maeir) Berlin - Milano, Italy. An engineer who founded of TECNOSTYL in 1948, a
slide rule and technical instrument company in Milano, Italy. Mayer Berlin's sons, Gino and Guido
Berlin, still operate the company today.
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Carl M. Bernegau - President of K&E from 1942 to 1945. Carl was a son-in-law of the K&E founder married
to Louise Keuffel. His influence stimulated company growth during
the difficult Depression years. Under his leadership, K&E achieved true stature as an instrument manufacturer,
and built a tough, relilient production team, tempered by the rigorous demands of war, ready to meet the new
demands of peace after WWII.
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Calvin Collier Bishop - Pasedena, CA. Author/Inventor/Teacher. Professional Electrical Engineer.
and teacher. Graduate of Syracuse University. Taught at the Buffalo Technical High School, University of Buffalo,
the YMCA Institute of Technology, and the Engineering Society of Buffalo. In 1955 he retired
from California Institute of California. Best known for his text Slide Rule, A practical Guide to its Use also know as
The Slide Rule and How to Use it published by Barnes and Noble. Also wrote Electrical Drafting and Design
and Alternating Currents for Technical Students. Co-authored US Patent #1945140 Surgical Electrode issued Jan 30, 1934.
His slide rule book is downloadable in the ISRM library.
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Donald Black - Talent, Oregon. Co-editor, Journal of the Oughtred Society.
Handles mailings for the Society.
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Rick Blankenhorn - Fallbrook, CA. Dealer. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Owner of The Gemmary, source of
slide rules and other antique instruments.
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Hans Bloemen - Germany/Netherlands. Collector. Member of the Dutch Circle of
Historical Calculating Instruments (KRING - Rekenlinialen). His collection at
Calculator Museum
is focused on early Electronic calculators as well as slide rules.
Hnas writes: "I collect early electronic calculators since beginning of 2001. At first I started to collect old computers and all calculators I could get,
but space ( I had over 1600 different calculators) forced me to decide that I had to specialize myself. The key collection is the early
nixie tube desktop calculators, early pocket calculators of the brands Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, Litronix and the
russian brand Elektronika. Besides those brands I also search for calculators of calculating devices, which are special or
are the start of a new era in calculating"
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Henry Alison Blundell - (1896-1990) Grandson of Henry Blundell, the founder of the
family business, Blundel Brothers Limited. Henry took a personal interest in the company's fledgling
slide rule line and with the help of an employee and German immigrant, Fritz Hammelburger,
designed an innovative process for making inexpensive slide rules.
They co-authored the British patent # GB602286.
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Wilfred J. Boos - United States. (1934-1989) Became president of Acu-Rule Mfg Co. in 1946.
Lived in Clayton, Missouri circa 1949. Inventor of record of U.S. Patent 2,594,857 which was
assigned to Acu-Rule in St. Louis, MO. The patent was filed in 1949 and issued in 1952. An
implementation of this patent is the Charvoz-Roos 105D. It is believed that Boos operated
Acu-Design for a short time, independant of the Acu-Rule Company, to provide scale artwork
to other slide rule manufacturers.
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Bernard (Bernie) Carter Boykin - (1921-2011 ) Born in Ruxton, Maryland. He earned
a BS degrees in Chemistry from Williams College in 1942/43 and another in Chemical
Engineering from John Hopkins University in 1954. During World War II he was a
radar officer in the United States Navy. Bernard manufactured the Boykin RotaRule
from his home in Ruxton, Maryland. His design was started in 1957, with manufacturing
commencing in the early 60's. Though based on the expired patent of Dempster's
RotaRule, last built in 1948, Boykin improved the slide rule with better materials
and scale arrangements. One change was dividing the scales using decimal degrees rather
than minutes and seconds. About 200 units were sold prior to 1973. He owned Boykin
Electro Tech and in 1991 founded the Whitby/Brewer (Yacht) Association. As of 2009
he was active at age 85 and enjoyed sailing with his wife Carolyn.
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William E. Breckenridge - United States. Author of many early slide rule
instruction manuals for the Polyphase (1924) and Polyphase Duplex (1938, 1944, 1954)
slide rules for the Keuffel & Esser Company.
Associate in Mathematics, Columbia University, New York City.
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Joost (Jobst) Bürgi (Buergi) - Lichtensteig, Switzerland . (1552-1632) Swiss clockmaker
and mathematician. He invented logarithms independently of John Napier, since his method is
distinct from Napier's. Napier published his discovery in 1614, and this publication was
widely disseminated in Europe by the time Bürgi published in 1620, at the behest of
Johannes Kepler. There is evidence that Bürgi arrived at his invention as early as
1588, six years before Napier began work on the same idea. By delaying the
publication of his work to 1620, Bürgi lost his claim for priority in historic
discovery. Bürgi was also a major contributor to prosthaphaeresis, a technique for
computing products quickly using trigonometric identities, which predated logarithms.
The lunar crater Byrgius is named in his honor.
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Alfred E. Busch - President of Keuffel & Esser from 1961. Alfred was a grandson of the K&E
founder (His mother was Ottilie Keuffel Busch). K&E experienced its most rapid
growth under his presidency. It was a period marked by emphasis on science-oriented technology,
a diversification of product lines, a strengthening of market position in the united States and overseas.
Perhaps the most significant event during his reign was hi direction of the company toward public
ownership in 1965, with the new attitudes and flexibility which this step created.
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Florian Cajori - (1859-1930) Emigrated to the United States from Switzerland
in 1875. Educated at Wisconsin University and John Hopkins and later was Dean
of mathematics at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1889 through 1918. Cajori received his doctorate from Tulane University.
He is best known amongst slide rule historians for his book History of the
Logarithmic Slide Rule (5.6MB PDF) published in 1909, in which he described 256
designs of slide rules since 1800, 90 of which were produced in the first nine
years of the 20th century. Florian Cajori was one of the founding members of the Mathematical Association of America
and served as its second president in 1917. The Colorado College Mathematics Department first hosted a MAA Rocky Mountain Section meeting in
1920 and has done so seven times in the 20th century.
More Cajori history from Colorado College
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Olivier Cassou - Bordeaux, France. Agronomist. and farmer by profession. Member of the
Federation Nationale des Syndicats d'Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA) and
of the Chamber of Agriculture. Collector of curiosities.Contributor of
scans to ISRM.
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Guillermo Castarés - Argentina. Collector. Started collecting slide rules and some
electronic calculators in 2002. He is the webmasters of the first spanish written sliderule site, now renamed
"INSTRUMENTOS DE CALCULO - COLECCION CASTARÉS" (www.idccc.com.ar) and member of ARC (Spanish Speaking
Slide Rule Forum). Website
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Clay Castleberry - Oroville, California, USA. Collector, Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Contibutor of scans to ISRM and donor of slide rules to the ISRM Loaner program for schools.
Retired county engineer/director of public works. Collection is focused on K&E, Pickett
and Gilson. Favorite SR is his K&E 4081-3 from went he attended Oregon State College.
(now OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon.
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Trevor J. Catlow - Southeast England. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society. Retired computer software specialist. Trevor bought his first slide rule, an Aristo Scholar,to use at school, and his second one about 2007. Since
then his collection has grown to about 80 rules, but he still has the
Scholar. Contributing author to the Journal of the Oughtred Society.
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Cyril B. J. Catt - Australia. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Was
captivated by the magic of the slide rule in grade school. Used a 5 inch FC addiator
model through RAF radio school, Bachelor's ( Agric. Science; Farm Management; Dunelm)
and Master's (Economics; UNE) degrees. As farm management adviser in Western Australia,
and regional farm management research economist in New South Wales, he favoured shirt
pocket portability of Concise circular rules for field work. Serious researcher and
collector since 1995, now with an eclectic mix of some 300 slide rules. Particularly
interested in history of Australian slide rules. Frequent contributor of information
to International Slide Rule Group and to the ISRM.
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Jim Cerny - New Castle, New Hampshire, USA. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Creator of the Oughtred Society?s original website, advanced slide rule researcher and
collector; has premier collections of 10 cm slide rules, Logarex slide rules,
and Faber-Castell slide rules with addiators on the back. Helped the ISRM
curator in the early stages of collecting.
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Edwin J. Chamberlain - Etna, NH. Collector/Author/Arctic Engineer/Conservationist.
Fellow of the Oughtred Society and on its Board of Directors. Specializes in collecting "long scale"
and "decimal keeping" slide rules and their histories. Ed has written many articles about these slide
rule types and welcomes new data concerning them. Also interested in slide
rules dating before the early 1900's including early K&E and Lenoir/Tavernier/Gravet slide rules.
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Henri Chatelaine - (c.1878) Paris, France. Instrument maker. Designed and manufactured the
Calculigraphe, a pocket watch style slide rule,based on the Boucher's System.
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Henry Coggeshall - Inventor of the Coggeshall slide rule in 1677. It was intended to facilitate measuring the dimensions, superficies, and solidity of timber. With his original design and later improvements, Coggeshall's slide rule brought the tool its first practical use outside of mathematical study. It would remain popular for the next few centuries.
Coggeshall first described this apparatus in a paper he released in London. After improving the design, he republished his work under the title A Treatise of Measuring by a Two-foot Rule, which slides to a Foot (1682). He released a highly modified version in 1722 titled The Art of Practical Measuring easily performed by a Two-foot Rule which slides to a Foot. By 1767, seven revised editions had been released.
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Martine (Tina) Cordon - United Kingdom. Collector. Graduate Electronics Engineer working as a Geophysical Wireline Logging Engineer for an oilfield service company. Currently working in the rainforests of Gabonand has worked in 37 different countries so far. Favourite slide rule is the Hemmi 153.. Slide rule collection may be seen at
Tina's Page
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William Cox - United States. Inventor of the Engineer's (duplex) slide rule,
US Patent #460,930 in 1891. Author of many early slide rule instruction manuals for the
Mannheim (1891-1915) and duplex slide rules for the Keuffel & Esser Company.
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Guus Craenen - The Netherlands. Collector/Author. Wrote two books about the Nestler Company,
Albert Nestler: Innovation und Qualit? Part I and Part II.
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Allan Reginald Cullimore - (1884-1956) United States. Author/Speaker/Educator. Wrote the The Use of the Slide Rule
(see ISRM K&E and Books Libraries to download) published by Keuffel & Esser in 1915,
while the dean of the college of Industrial Science at Toledo University. Cullimore wrote several slide rule instruction manuals for
Eugene Dietzgen Company as director of The Newark Technical School (founded in 1881) in New Jersey.
Later renamed, New Jersey Institute of Technology. He was president of NJIT from 1920
until 1949 and was responsible for the development of the Newark College of Engineering in 1930.
Honorary Doctorate by Rutgers College on June 14, 1943. 1951 Benjamin Garner Lamme
Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. Major in the First World War. Graduate of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Who's Who of America. Today, the New Jersey Institute of Technology issues an annual award named for Cullimore
and there is a Cullimore Hall named in his honor..
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Philip Dalton, LTJG. - (1903 - 1941) United States Military Scientist best known
for his invention of several slide-rule flight computers the most famous being
the E-6B Dead Reckoning Computer. a circular slide rule with
a slide used as an aid in aviation navigation and pilotage. As a graduate of Cornell University
and serving as a US Naval Reserve Pilot, Dalton took an interest in slide-rule flight
computers. His first models were designed in the early 1930s but it was not until
1932 that the first revision of the E-6B, originally known as the "Dalton Dead
Reckoning Computer", came into existence. He died in a plane crash soon after going
on active duty as a flight intructor. More Biography (12KB PDF).
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Andrew D. Davie - Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Collector. Fellow of the
Oughtred Society. Oughtred Society Award 2001. Founder of the Slide Rule Forum
discussion group on his Slide Rule Trading Post website, predecessor of the
International Slide Rule Group, who began internet communication among the world
slide rule community. Famous for his Java Slide Rule, now called
UniVirtual Slide Rule Emulator
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Richard Davis - Las Vegas, NV. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Retired Electronics Engineer in the semiconductor industry. Collects most all slide
rules, has a comprehensive collection of Reiss mill finish aluminum slide rules,
but prefers the spiral scale cylindrical versions. Favorite is the Rotarule.
Richard organized the 2008 and 2009 west coast OS spring meetings. Contributor
to the ISRM SR Loaner program. Chairman and host of the new OS Winter Meeting
which was held February 2008/2009.
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Philippe Deau - Versailles, France. Member of the Oughtred Society. Prefer saying
to be first a Slide Rules Lover and then by consequence a collector. Actively monitors the
ISRG message forum. Originally worked in Electronic Engineering, and now acting as Sales and
Marketing Manager in technical software activity (C compilers for embedded applications).
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Robert De Cesaris - Granite Bay, California. President of the
Oughtred Society and very advanced collector of slide rules and mechanical
calculators. Expert on pocket watch slide rules and Fuller slide rules.
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Oscar de Leon - (1917-1994) Distributor. Founder of Odelco, De Leon Import & Export
Corporation, in the Phillipines which was incorporated in 1952. In 1948
Odelco became the Pacific Rim distributor for Hemmi slide rules. Hemmi
designed the Odelco logo and imprinted it on rules shipped to them.
Oscar De Leon established the ODELCO housing subdivision around 1965,
which is a community in Quezon City, and the school was named for him. Portrait provided
by his son, Oscar de Leon, Jr, who is the current president of ODELCO.
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John (Jack) R. Dempster - (1903-1964) Designer and manufacturer of a
sophisticated circular slide rule in Berkeley, California from about 1928 through
1948*. John graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1925 with a
degree in mechanical engineering. He patented (US patent 01849058) and manufactured
two models of his slide rule, starting with the model A and finishing with the model
AA and produced 2500 of these slide rules from his home in Berkeley. Dempster slide
rules carried some 23 scales, including 50 inch spiral C and D scales some models had
surveying stadia scales. These slide rules are quite rare with some 25 known specimens
in the hands of collectors. *Excerpted from "The Dempster RotaRule" by
Rodger Shepherd, JOS Vol 7, No 1, Spring, 1998.
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George Dennert - (1900-1992) Grandson of Johann Christian Dennert,
the co-founder of Dennert & Pape, and son of Richard Dennert. Became joint
owner of D&P, along with his cousin Christian Dennert (1896-1944) son of
Jean Dennert, after death of their parents, Jean (1916) and Richard (1924)
in 1924. Created the brand name DUPA for the slide rules.
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Hans Dennert - (1926-2000) Born in Hamburg Germany to George
Dennert, and great-grandson of Johann Christian Dennert, the co-founder of
Dennert & Pape, later Aristo. Graduated from Darmstadt University with an
engineering degree, and one year later he took over the company from his
father in 1952. Aristo became one of the largest slide rule manufacturers
in the world, but ceased production in 1978. Hans continued to provide
assistance to slide rule collectors and was a highly sought after lecturer
up until his death in 2000.Oughtred Society Award 2000.
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Irene Dennert - Germany. Member of RST. Oughtred Society Award 2000.
Along with husband, Hans, helped in preserving, organizing and sharing the
extensive Dennert/ARISTO archive and collection with museums and collectors,
and intensively supported, published and presented studies of the history of their company
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Johann Christian Dennert - (1829-1920) co-founded of the firm
Dennert & Pape (D&P) in 1862. Patented (DRP 34583) celluloid scales laminated
on wood slide rules in 1886. Became the sole owner of D&P when Martin Pape
died in 1884. Children Richard (1865-1924) and Jean Dennert (1869-1916)
join (1869-1916) join the company as managers in 1904. J.C. Dennert worked
until age 80 in 1908, died in 1920.
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Friedrich Diestelkamp - Munich, (Bavaria) Germany. Collector of Addiators.
His Addiator.de website (in German) has the best history of the company
Addiator Gesellschaft founded by Carl Kübler in 1920. Frederick was able to visit
with Margot Schaffhirt-Kuebler, the grandaughter of the founder, and to obtain first hand biographical data.
When Friedrich got a Walther WSR160 from a friend he started to collect mechanical
calculators. When he saw first electronical calculators disappearing from market he started
to collect pocket calcs. "When my cupboard crashed down I decided to collect small calcs instead of
big ones.", he said. Friedrich donated most of his collection of mechanical calculators to
HNF Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum
the world's biggest computer museum in Paderborn, Germany.
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Eugene Dietzgen - (1862-1929) Born in Uckerrath, Germany he immigrated to America between
1878 and 1881 at the wishes of his father Joseph, a socialist philosopher, in order to escape the
draft of the Kaiser as well as to hide some of his father's socialist literature. Eugene settled
in New York where he worked for Keuffel & Esser, as their Midwest sales rep. He subsequently
founded his own engineering supply house in 1885, as both a dealership and manufacturers'
representative in Chicago, Illinois under the name of Luhring & Dietzgen. This later became
just Eugene Dietzgen Compnay and was incorporated 1917. Eugene was very working-class conscious
and provided his factory workers with many amenities not found in the mid 19th century. He died
in Chicago on December 1, 1929. His son, Joseph E. Dietzgen, continued to work in the company.
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Joseph E. Dietzgen - Son of Eugene Dietzgen, founder of Eugene Dietzgen Company.
Joseph E. Dietzgen, continued to work in the company after his father's death, residing in Winnetka, Illinois,
and had a U.S. Patent #2,369,819 issued in 1945 for a Log Log Duplex slide rule and later
U.S. Patent #2,543,313 in 1951 for a belt clip for a slide rule sleeve. The business moved
into manufacturing Diazo drafting media. In 1968, Joseph E. Dietzgen, president of Eugene Dietzgen Co.
presented a talk at the annual IABPAI (now IRgA) convention encouraging the industry to
embrace the growing digital computer graphics technology for drafting (i.e. Computer Aided Drafting or CAD).
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Tom Dilatush - San Diego, CA. Collector. Member of the Oughtred
Society. Contributor of scans to ISRM. Practicing software engineer ex-executive.
Enjoys collecting computing devices and documents them on his
website hosted by ISRM.
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Hubert van Dongen - Netherland. Collector. Member of the Dutch Circle KRING (Rekenlinialen). Associate of ISRM.
Hubert specializes in collecting and document Faber-Castell slide rules on his website
My Faber-Castell slide rule collection which is hosted on ISRM with other associates.
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Deborah Douglas, PH.D. - Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fellow of the
Oughtred Society. Curator of Science and Technology, MIT Museum. Deborah is
cataloging the K&E company slide rule collection. Member of the Oughtred Society
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Arthur Frederick Eckel - United States. Inventor and
manufacturer. Originally of Chicago. Cofounded R.C.Pickett & A.F. Eckel Company in 1943 with Ross C.Pickett to make aluminum slide rules.
while residing in Evanston, Illinois. He left the company in 1948, which was then renamed P&E.
A U.S. 1949 patent #2.466,983 was issued to A.F. Eckel with Louise Pickett being the assignee.
Has several United States patents (eg #2615630) and his wife Myrtle Elizabeth (Scott) Eckel is
shown as the attorney. Eckel later formed Precision Scale Company located in Phoenix, Arizona,
producing all-metal slide rules to limited markets. George Washington University in Washington D.C. shows an
A.F. Eckel as having graduated there in 1922. His estate sale in Phoenix produced several
unfinished slide rules.
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Gunnar Englund - Sweden. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Long time avid researcher and collector of slide rules. Electrical Engineer 1960. Swedish Army 1961. ASEA Vasteras, Sweden/Paris, France (now ABB) 1962 - 1964. Siemens Erlangen, Munich, Stockholm 1965 -
1974. CEJ Johansson 1975 - 1977. GKE Elektronik AB (Gunnar's own company) 1978 onwards. Gunner and his son work together in GKE doing analogue/digital equipment for steel
and paper works. www.gke.org website (Swedish).
Began collecting after retirement and now has over 400 slide rules. The IWA System WERN disks are his favorite
as he had met both Carl and George Wern, the two brothers that created this tool in the mid 1950's.
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Dr. Ovid Wallace Eshbach - (1893-1958) United States. Co-authored (with H. Loren Thompson) most of the modern post-WWII era Dietzgen Instruction manuals. Began as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Lehigh University, then Eshbach was hired to aid in student recruitment and placement for AT&T and MIT (1925).
Eshbach's diligence in organizing and administering the program was most evident during the Depression years of 1932 to 1937. When no work was available for the students participating in the MIT co-op program, he began the "Eshbach Handbook" project emplying young men, who had been laid off, to work on the project. The result was the Handbook of Engineering Fundamentals published in 1936 as one of the Wiley series of handbooks. Later President of the Western Society of Engineers. The Ovid W. Eshbach Award was established in 1948 by the first graduating class of what was then the Technological Institute, and was named in honor of the first dean (1939) of the institute. The picture is from 1952 where he is enjoying a conversation with Dr. Lillian Gilbreth and Dot Merrill of the Society of Women engineers during a dinner at the 1952 American Society of Civil Engineers Centennial of Engineering in Chicago, Illinois.
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Hermann Esser - (1845-1908). Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. Hermann Esser
and Wilhelm J. D. Keuffel were partners in the firm of Keuffel & Esser which was founded in July 1867.
The firm was incorporated in New Jersey in February 1889 and became Keuffel & Esser Company.
They first manufactured surveying instruments in 1885. Hermann was born at Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany in 1845.
He retired from Keuffel & Esser Co. in 1902. He was back in Bad Godesberg am Rheim, Germany in April of 1902
and died there in April 1908, the same year as Wilhelm Keuffel.
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Artur Ewert - (? - ?) Germany (GDR). An engineer working for the Reiss company in Leipzig, and
designed the Reiss Duplex 3227 slide rule (1965). He wrote a book "Modernes Stabrechnen" (modern use of the slide rule)
which was published in Leipzig in 1969.
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Anton Wilhelm Faber - (1758-1810) The second generation of the company, Faber-Castell, was known as A.W. after Kaspar's son Anton Wilhelm who took over in 1784. The little family firm flourished; Anton Wilhelm was able to buy land and increase the rate of production. This was a phase of expansion. Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Georg Leonhard Faber - (1788-1839) Georg Leonhard Faber headed the pencil factory, of what is now faber-Castell, from 1810. These were very difficult times, politically and economically, and he was unable to prevent business from falling off. Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Kaspar Faber - (1730_1784) Original founder of what is now Faber-Castell. The cabinet-maker Kaspar Faber produced his own pencils in Stein and sold them in the market at Nuremberg from 1761. This date is considered to be the founding of the company.
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Lothar von Faber - (1817-1896) Following the death of his father Georg in 1839, Lothar Faber took over the pencil factory of A.W. Faber in Stein at the age of 22. After gaining experience by working for stationers in Paris and London, the major international trading centres of the day, he began to put the family business on quite a new footing. It was he who developed the modern quality pencil, defined standards for length and grades of hardness that still apply, and was also the first to make hexagonal pencils. He marked his pencils with the name A.W. Faber - and so the world's first branded writing implement was born.
Lothar traveled to all important European countries and visited the New World, founding his first sales company in New York in 1849. There followed subsidiaries in London (1851) and Paris (1855) and agencies in Vienna (1872) and St. Petersburg (1874). By acquiring a graphite mine in Siberia in 1856, he secured the company a source of the best graphite then available. Five years later he celebrated the centenary by opening a factory in Geroldsgrun in north Bavaria. This originally made school slates but later became one of the world's major producers of slide rules.
Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Baroness Otillie von Faber - (1877-1944) In 1898 Wilhelm von Faber's eldest daughter and designated heir Ottilie von Faber married Count Alexander Alexander zu Castell-Rudenhausen, a member of one of Germany's oldest noble families. Her grandfather Lothar had stipulated in his will that all his successors must bear the name Faber. And so the new company name Faber-Castell came about. Count Alexander took over the business in 1900.
Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Wilhelm von Faber - (1851-1893) Son of Lothar von Faber, his only child, Wilhelm entered the company A.W. Faber in 1873 and was designated successor in 1877. He lost his two sons Lothar and Alfred Wilhelm at the ages of three and four. Wilhelm, a sensitive and artistically inclined person, suffered greatly from this loss and himself died tragically young at the age of just 42. He left a widow, Bertha, and three daughters: Ottilie, Sophie, and Hedwig. His elderly father Lothar again had to take over control until his own death in 1896. Then the A.W. Faber company was run by Lothar's widow Ottilie until the turn of the century.
Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Count Alexander von Faber-Castell - (1866-1928) In 1898 Count Alexander Alexander zu Castell-Rudenhausen, a member of one of Germany's oldest noble families married Wilhelm von Faber's eldest daughter and designated heir Ottilie von Faber. Her grandfather Lothar had stipulated in his will that all his successors must bear the name Faber. And so the new company name Faber-Castell came about. Count Alexander took over the business in 1900.
In 1905 Count Alexander introduced the famous green Castell 9000 pencil. As a symbol to a new high quality that would hold its own against all comers, he chose the picture of the 'jousting knights' of the pencil. In stylized form they are again part of the Faber-Castell trademark.
Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell - (1941- ) Current President of Faber-Castell.
Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell took over in 1978, and the same year began producing
wood-cased pencils for the cosmetic industry. The next two decades saw the founding of a series of foreign subsidiaries and factories, including Malaysia (1978), which has since become the world's largest india-rubber eraser
factory (1980), a production plant in Indonesia (1990), and a logistics centre in the
Czech Republic (1996). Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Count Roland von Faber-Castell - (1905_1978) After the death of Count Alexander in 1928, his son Roland succeeded as head of the company. In 1931/32 Faber-Castell took over the Johann Faber pencil factory that had been founded by Lothar von Faber's brother Johann, and with it the Brazilian subsidiary Lapis Johann Faber in Sao Carlos.
It was under Roland's watch that all slide rule and calculator manufacturing ceased in 1976. Picture donated by A.W. Faber-castell Co. (copyrighted)
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Jorge Fabregas - Spain. Collector. Jorge's popular and extensiveSpanish slide rule
site is reglasdecalculo.com and
he moderates ARC Spanish
Speaking Slide Rule Forum and collector group which gathers together frequently.
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Wayne E. Feely, PhD - (1931-2011) Rydal, Pennsylvania. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society and
contributor to the JOS. Wayne was born and raised in Brooklyn,
New York where he graduated from high school. He was a graduate of
the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in Brooklyn and received his doctorate in chemistry
from the University of Rochester in 1957. He served in the United States Army, being honorably discharged in 1962
after reaching the rank of First Lieutenant in the Chemical Corps. Wayne worked for 36 years as a research
chemist for Rohm and Haas, a multi-national chemicals manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, until his
retirement in the early 1990's. He accumulated 21 U.S. Patents during his career. Wayne is best known amongst slide rule
collectors for his expertise on Fuller and Thacher cylindical slide rules.
Wayne outlived his wife Jeanette, They had 3 children, Bennett, Susan and Janet and two step-sons
Chuck and Chris, and at his death at age 79, eight grandchildren.
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Robert (Bob) Finch - Albuquerque, NM. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Broadcast/Studio engineer. Collection is focused on whatever intrigues Bob, like electrical and
Vector/Log. Picketts are his favorite.
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Gary Flom, M.D. - Stockbridge, GA. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Active on of ISRG. Ear, nose and throat Doctor and head and neck surgeon. Recieved his
Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, then
attended Chicago Medical School followed by post graduate studies at Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, MN and St Louis Univ. Gary has a wide range of collecting interests including
mechanical calculators. His favorite slide rules are pocket duplexes, pinwheel
calculators and abaci. Coordinator of the Swap Sheet Online, source of many new
ideas for Society projects and activities (including the new winter meeting in Las Vegas).
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Foo Cheow Ming - Yishun New Town, Singapore. Collector. Originally a Civil Servant
and is now in practice as a private lawyer. Discovered
large caches of new-in-box old stock slide rules (over 20,000, mostly Hemmi, Faber-Castell, Aristo, and Flying Fish/Shanghai brands) in Singapore and Malaysia bookstores in 1997, which were gathered up and sold by Walter Shawlee. See this
web page on his finds. Contributor of scans to ISRM.
Foo writes: My first slide rule was a Staedtler-Mars 544DLL, a little beauty clad in a brilliant blue/white plastic casing. I first bought it in the early
seventies and kept it for the next 20+ years. But even after the advent of cheap calculators, I found my love for slide rules undiminished. I guess people
still love slide rules for the very same reason classic cars or antiques are so loved. In many ways they are reminders of a kinder, slower, more genteel past.
They are like the sceptres of the high priesthood of science and engineering. " His personal collection numbers around 300 slide rules.
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Harold Fowler - (1879 - ? )
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William Henry Fowler - (1853 - 1932 )
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Peter Fox - Upperton Bonsail, Derbyshire, England. Collector. Member of UKSRC. Contributor of rare British slide rules scans for the ISRM galleries. Became a structural engineer in 1975, used a Faber Castell 1/92 and a 52/82 until the advent of electronic calculators. Worked at Imperial Chemical Industries (I.C.I.) beginning in 1976, then for British Coal Coking Division in 1981 heading up the Civil Engineering Design Office. Following the miners strike and the collapse of the British Coal Industry in 1984, Peter set up as a consultant. retired in 2008.
Collecting slide rules began when his father, an antiques dealer, gave an Everard Rule by Edward Roberts and now he concentrates on boxwood rules. Peter also enjoys astronomy and classic sports cars.
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Dr. Paul W. Frame - Oakridge, Tennessee. Author/Curator of Oak Ridge Associated Universities On-Line Museum.
The purpose of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum Collection is to chronicle
the scientific and commercial history of radioactivity and radiation. The Nuclear Slide Rules
is the most complete collection in the world and is the property of the not-for-profit ORAU Foundation.
It is located at theProfessional Training Programs (PTP) training facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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Dr. Sam Friedman - Columbia, S.C. Collector, Member of Oughtred Society. Radiologist with
specialization in Nuclear Medicine. He first became interested in slide rules at age 13, as part of
a Mathematics class unit in historical technology. After receiving a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering at Rice University
in Houston, TX, Sam went on to receive his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, also in Houston, and
then completed a Radiology Residency and Nuclear Medicine Fellowship at UAB in Birmingham, AL. He
has been in private practice in Columbia, S.C. ever since. Sam began collecting slide rules in earnest
several years ago, and has concentrated on large, classroom-sized rules, which now completely cover
most open wall-space in his home office.
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Sergei Frolov - Russia. Collector of Soviet Era slide rules displayed at
his web site.
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João Roberto Gabbardo - Brazil. Collector and contributor of Brazilian SR scans to ISRM.
Professor at Escola Técnica Estadual Parobé State Technical School Parobé
Education Management industry.
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H. Joseph Gerber - (1924-1996) United States. Inventor/businessman. Gerber immigrated to Hartford, Conn., from Austria in 1940, and completed high school in two years while working full time.
1947 graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Inventor of the Gerber Variable Scale slide rule. It was the first product to launch the Gerber Scientific Instrument Co. Gerber, who held nearly 650 patents, was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1994, given to him by U.S. President Bill Clinton. Several of his inventions are on display at the Smithsonian Institution.
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Werner Girbardt - Greifswald, Germany. Member of Ougtred Society. Shares the 2009 OS
Award with Werner Schmidt for organising four international science and technology symposia at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in
Greifswald, for setting up the
Rechentechnische Sammlung museum collection which includes an information rich on-line catalogue of the slide rules and other calculating instruments from the collection.
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Herbert (Herb) Gold - Silverlake (Los Angeles), Ca.
Collector and member of Oughtred Society. Retired from Computer Project Management.
Collects all slide rules and mechanical calculators.
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Louis Gotlib - West Chester, PA. Teacher. Member of the Oughtred Society. Serious slide rule collector.
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Edmund Gunter - London, England (1581 - 1626), Created a number line (the Gunter Scale) in 1620, in which the positions of numbers were proportional to their logs which graphically represented the work of John Napier. In 1623 he published a description of this scale that is composed of two scales of the logarithms from I to 10 placed end to end. Although Napier conceived of the logarithm allowing multiplication or division to be accomplished by addition or subtraction, Napier relied on look up tables.
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Danforth (Danny) W. Hagler - Inventor/Executive. In 1960, Danforth W. Hagler, who's
family ran Georgia Iron Works, Grovetown, Ga., conceived and designed the GIW Hydraulic Slide
Rule. His brother Tom, wrote the manual. Before its invention, each engineer in the engineering
department had a large, thick notebook with about 100 pages of graphs. The slide rule incorporated
many hydraulic pump and pipeline formulas. One side of the slide rule contained engineering
formulas involved with performance of a pump while the other side contained everything necessary
for pipeline and production calculations.
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Chris Hakkaart - Netherlands. Chairman of the Dutch Circle
for Historical Calculating Instruments (KRING).
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Joseph Halden - Manchester, England. Founder of J. Halden & Co. Maker of
drawing and Surveying Instruments. In the 1870's he worked as a stationer at Gleave Street in Liverpool.
Partnered with A.G. Thornton in 1878 as a wholesale drawing material importer and mounting paper
manufacturer. After a few years they split apart. He retired in 1892 and the company was taken over by his son.
Joseph had two patents which wer e issued around 1900. The company considered its
Calculex circular calculator to be about the cheapest and most
serviceable model available.
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John Lionel Halden - ( - 1966) Manchester, England. Grandson of Joseph Halden. Became technical director of
J. Halden & Co. Maker in 1941 and held that position for 24 years.. He took an active part in research and development and
patented photographic ammonia developing apparatus. Under his guidance, the company continued to
prosper. The works were extended in the 1960s to provide an enlarged engineering
department for the manufacture of photocopying machines and a warehouse for drawing
office supplies. J. L. Halden died in August 1965 at the age of 49. He had recently been appointed
chairman of the company. The firm continued until it was taken over by the Ozalid Group at the beginning of 1969.
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Prof. Dr. Chris M Hamann - Berlin, Germany. Member of RST. Professor at University of Technology,
Berlin. Practice Areas: Former head of the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence, Application of expert
systems, Evolution strategies and genetic algorithms, Simulation of Neural Networks, Positional Logical
Algebra, Fuzzy logic.
Website
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John Caulfield Hannyngton, Major General - (1807-1886) Tyrone,UK. Inventor of the Hannyngton Slide
Rule used in astronomical computations. Son of Thomas Knox Hannyngton of Dungannon
and father of John Child Hannyngton. Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. His best known and largest work
is a Table of Haversines, Natural and Logarithmic, used in computing distances for the
Nautical Almanac. Image from the
South Kensington Science Museum
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Prof. Maurice Leslie Hartung - (1902-1993) United States. . Studied Mathematics at Cornell College, Iowa, and in
September 1926 was accepted as a member of the American Mathematical Society. He received his PhD in 1931 from the University of Wisconsin
for his thesis "On a Family of Integral Equations with Discontinuous Kernels". He joined the University of Chicago School of Education as associate
professor, then was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Education. He was the primary author of the widely used New Math textbook series,
"Seeing Through Arithmetic", published by Scott Foresman. In 1977 he received the Distinguished Life Achievement Award of the Illinois Council of
Teachers of Mathematics. Prof Hartung wrote most of the manuals for Pickett slide rules and may have been the inventor of the DFM and DF/M scales.
In retirement he contributed to professional journals and worked on logic and geometric puzzle games.
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David Hecht - Alexandria, VA. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Donor of slide rules to ISRM and its SR Loaner Program. David's first
SR was a circular Pickett 101-C, which he acquired in high school. His
interest led his parents to give him a K&E 68-1210 as a graduation
gift. After college, David worked fifteen years for the U.S. Navy as a contracting
officer and is now retired from Civil Service. His slide rule collection specializes in Picketts
and he enjoys traveling to board game conventions.
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Robert Anson Heinlein - (1907-1980) Prolific author of science fiction books about space travel
that inspired many of us. His books were strewn with mentions of slide rules, used in plotting courses through
space as well as engineering applications. His personal slide rule was most likely a K&E 4081 as the 20 inch
long version was specifically mentioned in Have Space Suit Will Travel and as a Navy midshipmen,
graduating with a bachelor's degree in Naval Engineering from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, he was probably
issued a K&E there as well. Science Fiction Writers of America made him the first 'Grand Master of Science
Fiction' in 1975.
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Jiro Hemmi - (1878-1953)
Jiro Hemmi is the father of Hemmi slide rules. He was born in Tokyo and graduated in 1890 from
primary school in Chiba Prefecture. At the age of 13 he became
artisan in Nakamura measuring instrument workshop where he started making scales. He started to
study slide rule fabrication at age 17 (1895). After many tries, Jiro Hemmi made his first slide rule
using Moso bamboo plywood, a species of bamboo found mainly in Japan.He got passionate about his
work, and when he was asked to make copies of a Mannheim slide rule, he was already the best
scale maker of his time in Japan.
In 1912, Jiro obtained a patent for the method to make slide rule with no defect using treated moso bamboo,
followed by patents in England and France (1917), and in the United States, China and Canada in 1920.
In 1917 the SUN mark is established as the Hemmi trademark. Being the symbol of Japan itself,
A fire badly damaged the wooden house used by Jiro Hemmi as a shop and workshop in Sarugaku district in
Tokyo in 1924. Hisashi Okura, an expert in international trade, visited Jiro Hemmi, who was in a difficult situation because of the fire,
and offered to participate in the business management. They founded the Hemmi Workshop as a partnership company in 1928.
They worked together to differentiate Japanese slide rules from those built in the US and Germany.
In 1933 Hemmi Worksop became a limited company. During the Second World War, Hemmi made slide rules used
for battleship artillery calculations and to design the battleship Yamato.
Jiro retired from Hemmi Slide Rule in 1941 for health reasons.
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Herman van Herwijnen - (1929-2004) Dutch slide rule collector and author of the
Slide Rule Catalogue© and co-author of Calculating on Slide Rule and Disc with IJzebrand
Schuitema. Married to Diny van Herwijnen. Member of the Dutch Circle of Slide Rule
Collectors Graduated with Mechanical Engineering degree from Technical University
Delft in 1954. Spent two years in the Dutch Air Force followed by 13 years woking in
Venezuala for Dutch Royal Shell. Had his own firm, Infro Software, and lectured at
Shell and Technical University Delft up until his death. Herman last attended the
IM 2003 Swap Meet. Oughtred Society Award 2003.
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Curt Herzstark - (1902-1988) Designed the CURTA Calculator in the 1930s in Vienna, Austria. By 1938,
he had filed a key patent, covering his complemented stepped drum, Deutsches Reichspatent (German Empire Patent)
No. 747073. His work on the pocket calculator stopped in 1938 when the Nazis forced him and his company to concentrate on
manufacturing measuring instruments and distance gauges for the German army.
Herzstark, the son of a Catholic mother but Jewish father, was taken into custody in 1943, eventually finding
himself at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Ironically, it was in the concentration camp that he was encouraged
to continue his earlier research which saved his life.
The Russians had arrived in July, and Herzstark feared being sent to Russia, so, later that same month,
he fled to Austria. He began to look for financial backers, at the same time filing continuing patents
as well as several additional patents to protect his work. The Prince of Liechtenstein eventually showed
interest in the manufacture of the device, and soon a newly-formed company, Contina AG Mauren,
(aka Contina Ltd Mauren) began production in Liechtenstein.
His patent rights provided a modest income while CURTAs were being manufactured.
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Masatoshi Hiroshi - Japan, circa 1912. Inventor of the bamboo slide rule
and recieved a Japanese Patent
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Peter Holland - Germany. Collector. Oughtred Society Award 2010. Member and webmaster of the
GermanRechenschieber
Sammler Treff (RST). Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Hosts the ISRM Slide
Rule Loaner Program in Europe.
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Flemming Holme - Vonge, Denmark. Recent owner of UTO, a Danish company, founded by
Kal Kruuse and Poel Larsen that made slide rules
and continues to make modern slide charts.
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Peter M. Hopp - UK. Collector/Author. C.Eng. MBCS. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Member of UKSRC and co-editor the Slide Rule Gazette. Oughtred Society Award 1999. Wrote the
reference book on slide rules
Slide Rules Their History, Models and Makers.
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Richard Smith Hughes - Ridgecrest, California. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Member of UKSRC. Retired Electrical (analog) engineer. Prolific author of technical slide rule articles and researcher of antique Egyptian coffins. Appreciates unique general purpose slide rules, favorites being
the RotaRule, FC Statifix, 2/84, 2/84N, and hyperbolic.
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Ted Hume - San Angelo, TX, USA. Oughtred Society Award 2010. Fellow of the Oughtred Society and past OS director.
Retired structural engineer. In the past, when actively collecting and selling,
Ted specialized in Post slide rules, his favorite being the Versalog.
Co-author, Post Slide rule Archive
hosted on the Slide Rule Universe website. Editor and contributing author of the The Oughtred Society
Slide Rule Reference Manual. Editor of Joe Soper's book K&E Salisbury Products
Division Slide Rules. In late 2009, Ted became an associate editor of the
Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS). Advisor to the curator at ISRM.
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Kiyoshi Ichimura - Japan ( 1900-1968). Founder of Ricoh Co., Ltd. Born the son of a poor farmer
in the Saga Prefecture Miyaki, went to Chuo University (law department) 1920, became director of the
Daito Bank in Beijing, China, returned to Japan. Riken Kankoshi Co., Ltd., formed in 1936 to make and market
sensitized paper which became Riken Optical Co. in 1938.in 1946 Ichimura was appointed president (until his death in 1968).
Ichimura's first major innovation was the RicohFlex III camera. Introduced in 1950, this was the world's first
mass-produced twin-lens reflex camera (1957). The company expanded into copiers and watches, as well as slide rules.
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Marten C. Jensen - Redlands, California, USA.
Donor of personal SR's and others in his collection to ISRM.
Born in New York City in 1932, he fought in the Korean Conflict Veteran (U.S. Air Force)
after High School. 1958 BS degree in Electrical Engineering New Mexico State University.
Marty used the Pickett 4-T (in the gallery) quite extensively during college with the
Pickett 800-T as a backup. He remembers carrying the Pickett 120 or the Aristo 89 Reitz
pocket rules in his breast pocket at his first few jobs out of school. His first position
out of college was with El Paso Natural Gas Company as a power engineer used the T&T Motor
Calculator (which was issued to him by the company) for laying out lighting and electric
motor circuits at natural gas pumping and processing stations. Marty was then given a small
Concise circular calculator when he was employed at GE Defense Systems in Syracuse, NY.
The rest of the SR's he owned (now in the galleries at ISRM) were used during his 20
years at Motorola Semiconductor in Phoenix, AZ, where he was employed as a reliability
engineer. His last job was at TRW Systems Integration Group (in San Bernardino, CA), where he was
responsible for overseeing the work of guided missile contractors and parts suppliers,
and used only computers and electronic calculators. Marty has been retired since 1998.
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Dieter von Jezierski - Stein, Germany. Collector/Author. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Honorary member of UKSRC. Oughtred Society Award 1997. Expert on Faber-Castell slide rules; retired
long time employee of Faber-Castell; frequent attendee of the Society?s west coast
meeting. In 1977 wrote and published Slide Rules: A Journey Through Three
Centuries, the first modern book on the history of slide rules. Author of more than 30 articles in JOS, Gazette, Skid Stick and RST1997. recipient
of the Oughtred Society Hall of Fame. Picture is from an IM 2001 meeting in Gespr?.
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Heinz Joss - Zurich, Switzerland, Oughtred Society Award 1998. Member of Oughtred Society and
Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST). Retired D?ikon architect in and now the proud owns over 2600 different Rechenschiebern (slide rules). Favorites are the Loga cylindrical slide rules. Wrote many articles, some appear in German at www.rechenschieber.org
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Johann Kaeser - Germany. Collector. Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST)
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George Keane - Festus, MO, USA. Historian. George compiled the history of the Festus Mfg. Co.
and its successor The Acu-Rule Mfg. Co. (1938 - 1969). Donor of Acu-Math slide rules to ISRM's
Slide Rule Loaner program. Now retired, his background was Computer Programming. George's Acurule website is hosted by ISRM.
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Karl Keller - President of K&E from 1946 to 1949. Karl was married to Margarete Keuffel, a daughter
of the K&E founder. Karl set about reorienting the company to a new technical
and industrial environment. Company operations were decentralized. Manufacturing functions were regrouped to take
advantage of specialized facilities at a number of locations. At the same time, K&E initiated a long-term
program of product diversification.
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Adolf W.(Ot) Keuffel - Ot was the younger brother of Carl W. Keuffel and was a director of K&E from 1941
until he retired in 1964 as Vice President and Secretary of the Company.
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Carl W. Keuffel - President of K&E from 1950-1961. He was the son of the 2nd cousin
(Wilhelm L.E. Keuffel of Texas) of the founder Wilhelm J.D. Keuffel. As president he gave impetus
to an extensive research and development program. His scientific and engineering background enabled him
to make valuable contributions to product design as well as R&D organization. Under his leadership, K&E
became active in new fields such as miniturization and optical metrology.
Carl W. Keuffel is credited
with perfecting during WWI the manufacture in the United States of optical glass when it became
impossible to procure it from Germany. This was critical for the U.S. war effort.
From "Partners in Creating - The First Century of K&E - 1867-1967". and Gerd Keuffel.
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Gerd Keuffel - Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Great grandson of Wilhelm J.D. Keuffel,
co-founder of Keuffel and Esser Company and one of the world's nicest people. His visit to the
OS west coast meeting was highly regarded by the attendees.
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Wilhelm G. Keuffel - Son of the founder of K&E, W.J.D. Keuffel, Wilhelm was president from 1908 to
1942. His business policies were founded on his father's motto: "The best; first, last and always."
As president, he headed a team of K&E executives who led the company sucessfully through the Depression
and two world wars. In the same period, K&E expanded its product line to thousands of different items
and its distributor network to scores of cities in the U.S. and Canada.
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Wilhelm Johann Diedrich Keuffel - (1838-1908). Inventor, entrepreneur
and holder of many U.S. Patents dealing with slide rules. Born at Walbeck in
Thuringen, Germany. Originally employed in the hardware business in Germany and
Birmingham, England he emigrated to Hoboken, NJ in 1866. Keuffel joined with
Herman Esser to become partners in the firm of Keuffel & Esser in July 1867
and sold imported drafting equipment. Wilhelm bought out Esser in 1902.
Wilhelm died in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1908, the same year as Hermann Esser.
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Craig Kielhofer - New York, USA. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. One of the Moderators of the popular Yahoo Group Sliderule - The International Slide Rule Group.
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Otis Carter Formby King - (1876- ?). United Kingdom. Electrical Engineer. Inventor of the
Otis King's Patent Calculator a handheld cyclindrical slide rule. Otis King calculators were
patented in the UK and the USA and manufactured for over 50 years from 1921-1972. Otis King was
born on February 11, 1876 at 1, Thorncroft Villas, Hammersmith, London,
Middlesex, England. Otis King biography by ancestor Susan Richards (2002)
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Satoru Kimura - Ohtsu, Japan. Collector. Engineer.
Member of Keisanjyaku
the Slide Rule Lover's Group. His favorite slide rule is a Hemmi 160, Inductive
Statistics rule.
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Prof. Karl Kleine - Germany. Collector. Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST) .
Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Contributing author to the OS Bulletin.
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Ron Knapp - Rancho Murieta, CA. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Oughtred Society board of directors. Avid collector, buyer and seller of slide rules and calculators.
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John Knott - Bolton, UK. (1919-2005) Collector and founding member of the UKSRC (and a
possible catalyst for its formation), and an early member of the Oughtred Society. He exhibited
his slide rules at his hometown Museum in Bolton in 1988 and 1996/7, in Salford Museum in 1989, and
in Manchester Science Museum in 1993. Retired from the General Railway Signaling Co of Rochester USA, working
in the UK near Manchester. where he had finished up as Manager of the Quality Control Department. Biography contributed by Colin Barnes, 2007 OS Bulletin.
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Jochen Konrad-Klein - Germany. Collector. fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Treasurer and main OS contact for the "Rechenschieber-Sammler Treffen - RST" members.
He organizes the regular meetings and specializes in Aristo slide rules.
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Michael V. Konshak - Louisville, CO. - Collector. Oughtred Society Award 2009.
Fellow of the Oughtred Society (and OS webmaster) and member of UKSRC. Graduated from
Colorado State University - Pueblo, Mechanical Engineering (1981). Vietnam Combat veteran
US Navy (1965-1969). Product development engineer in the areas of computer mass storage
with 34 U.S. and world patents. for Digital, LMS/OSI, Optoech, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems.
Curator of ISRM.
Owned an inexpensive Pickett 140-ES in college and now enjoys researching and archiving
slide rules and related history. Mike's favorite SR for working ISRC problems is the K&E
Decilon, but favors the feel of the K&E 4081-5 and Post Versalog II for working math
computations. Author of magazine articles on computer databases, slide rules and
high-powered amateur rocketry, he has also written five feature length screen plays.
Appeared on BBC's and Nicklodean's Robot Wars, Comedy Central's Battlebots, and Discovery
Channel's Robotica. Retired as of 2011.
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Robert Koppany, O.D. - Hawthorne, CA. - Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Practices as an Eye Care Specialist and owns his own clinics. Bob has written and published
eight books, is a leading scholar in the works of Frank Loyd Wright. He created the graphics
for the OS Slide Rule Reference manual and is the current editor of the
Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS).
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Hans Kordetsky - Cham, Switzerland - Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society and
Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST). Author of many articles for RST. One is a study and history of
Artur Ewert and Reiss Slide Rules (in German).
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'Kra' through 'Z'
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Klaus Krämer (Kraemer) - Berlin, Germany. Member of the Oughtred Society and
Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST). Author of papers on slide rules on the RST
Rechenschieber-Brief.
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Dr. H. John Krijnen - (1946 - ) Netherlands. Member of KRING. Contributor of scans to
ISRM. Retired Anesthesiologist and pain specialist who read Medicine at Leiden University. John bought his first slide
rule in 1960 (Sun Hemmi 66) and later used that and other slide rules in his practice to calculate dosages of
various drugs. In the photo, he carries a Pickett N3P behind the stethoscope. John published two books and
six articles on the Great War and maintains an interest in slide rules, photography, pistol marksmanship and painting.
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Kal Kruuse - Vonge, Denmark. Co-founder of UTO, a Danish company, founded with Poel Larsen
that made slide rules and continues to make modern slide charts.
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Carl Kübler (Kuebler) - (1875-1953) Berlin, Germany. Founder of the "Addiator" company.
He studied textile engineering until 1892/93, at the
textile school in Karlsruhe and worked his way up at textile factories in Elmshorn and Düsseldorf.
During this time he met his wife Schüder Martha and had applied for several patents in the textile sector.
With the patents he took off around 1910 and joined the textile factory in Fürstenberg an der Oder
(Eisenhüttenstadt). 1n 1925 he left this company over royalty disputes, and after a law suit,
he was awarded compensation. The young
family (the son Hans-Wolfgang was born in 1909, the daughter Margot in 1913) moved to Berlin.
Carl wanted to become an entrepreneur and searched for a
suitable product to manufacture. Around 1917, Carl Kübler bought a model of a slide adder which
was a registered patent of Otto Meuter (1892-1970). Carl paid Otto a small royalty and developed his famous Addiator based
on this design. In 1920 "Addiator" was founded and under his sole leadership
he produced various versions. With his son Hans-Wolfgang, he invented a combination of
slide adder and slide rule, which was produced together with Faber-Castell.
Immediately after the WWII, he gave the company to his daughter Margot and retired to his small house
in village Bliesendorf, west of Berlin, where he died at the age of 78.
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Hans-Wolfgang Kübler (Kuebler) - (1909-2003) Berlin, Germany. Son of Carl Kubler,
the founder of the "Addiator GmbH". Hans-Wolfgang workrd on incorporating the Addiator into
Faber-Castell slide rules and during the war supported the military contracts of the Third Riech.
After his sister, Margot, was given control of Addiator GmbH, Hans-Wolfgang started a separate
business in 1950 making slide adders called Addimult in Donaueschingen.
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Margot Kübler, later Schaffhiert-Kübler - (1913-2002) Berlin, Germany.
Daughter of Carl Kubler,
the ounder of the "Addiator". Margot was given control of the company just after WWII.
She married Carl Schaffhiert who died in 2001.
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Ronald E. Kuc - Pennsylvania, USA. Collector/Dealer. Contributor of scans to ISRM.
Retired HVAC Designer. CADD Drafter, Teacher. Member of the Ohio State Teacher-Trainer Cadre.
PA Projects included: 3 Rivers Stadium, Heinz Hall, Benedum Center, Biotechnology and Bioengineering Facility.
National projects included: Detroit Renaissance Center, IBM Facility-Fishkill, Morgantown Energy Technology Complex.
Ron's collection includes 200+ slide rules, mostly POST and his personal favorite is the Versalog.
Received his first Versalog as a Christmas gift in 1961.
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Dr. Günter (Guenter) Kugel - Moers, Germany. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Member of RST. Dean of the German slide rule collectors. Trader and friend of slide rule
collectors around the world.
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Dr. Klaus Kühn(Kuehn) - Alling, Germany. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred
Society. Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST). Oughtred Society Award 2004.
Donor/Associate of the ISRM Slide Rule Loaner in Europe. Author of many articles about
slide rules and logarithms listed on Rechenschieber-Brief. Klaus's business is
provides consulting services in visualization, analysis and optimization of workflows
with the help of computer simulation as
The Institute of Applied Simulation.
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John Kvint (1934-2009) - Denmark. Collector, slide rule historian. Designer of slide rules,
and later slide charts, for the Danish firm LINEX. Made specially commissioned slide rules for UTO.
Renowned speaker and presenter of papers at IM2007 proceedings.
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Poel Larsen - Vonge, Denmark. Co-founder of UTO, a Danish company,
founded with Kal Kruuse that made slide rules and continues to make modern slide charts.
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George Lee Lawrence - (1901-1976) Born in Ottawa, Illinois. Founded Lawrence
Engineering Services in 1930 in Chicago, a family slide rule business, that had roots in his father's
photography business. In 1935, Lee uprooted and moved over 160 miles south to Wabash,
Indiana, then later to Peru, Indiana. His 2nd wife was Vivian nee Breyer (1916-1973) who divorced
Lawrence in 1947 and took the business, renaming it Engineering Instruments, running it
with her new husband Frank Bozarth. Preferring the name Lee, he went on to start a plastics company
AGP Corporation making plastic cursors for other slide rule manufacturers, like Acumath.
AGP became sucessful making plastic toys. His 3rd wife was Nellie Mowbray (seen in Photo when enlarged).
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Dr. Chris Leech - Congleton, Cheshire, UK. Collector. Member of Oughtred
Society and UKSRC.
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Helmar Lehmann - (1911) Leipzig Germany. Mathematics and Geophysics at Leipzig University.
He worked for some time as a meteorologist and in 1946 became a teacher of Mathematics and Physics at various institutions
including the Karl Marx University. In 1966 he published "Der Rechenstab und seine Verwendung" on the use of slide rules.
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Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz - (1646-1716) Germany. Mathematician, physicist, philosopher,
theologian, historian and inventor, developed a calculator in 1694 that became the next generation of
the Pascaline. He introduces the use of a handle to multiply
and divide to store the results in calculators.Each turn make the cylinders turn one or part of a
revolution. Deep into the 20th century this principle will be used in calculators. Leibnitz also
wanted to develop a generalized symbolic language and an algebra to go with his machines, so that:
"the truth of any proposition in any field of human inquiry could be determined by simple calculation."
This quest was unsuccessful, but he did invent the calculus and devised and promoted much of modern
mathematical notation still in use today. On the subject of calculation, Leibnitz wrote in 1685:
"It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could
safely be relegated to anyone else if machines were used."
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Frederic H. Leubuscher, CE - President of K&E's Salisbury Plant in Lakeville,
Connecticut from 1951-1978. Also designed famous gardens at Duke University.
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William (Bill) Lise - Japan. Collector/SR Historian. Member of Keisanjyaku, the Slide Rule Lover's Group
in Japan. Bill is the founder of Lise & Partners, Inc. and comes from a background in engineering and
provides patent translations and interpreting for US patent litigation involving Japanese entities.
Born in the US, Lise first came to Japan in 1967 as a language specialist for the US Navy. After returning
to the US and obtaining a BS in electrical engineering, he joined what was then Western Electric, and
worked in millimeter microwave and fiber optics laboratories.
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Dr. Brian Beynon Lloyd - (1920-2010) Oxford, UK. CBE, MA, DSs. Emeritus Fellow of Oxford University's Magdalen
College and former chairman of the Health Education Council. Founding director of Oxford Polytechnic in 1970, which later became
Oxford Brookes University. He also served as chairman of the Health Education Council and in 1983, was made a CBE in
recognition for his work raising awareness of the dangers of smoking. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
One of the earliest members of UKSRC (1994).
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Rodney Lovett - Addlestone, Surrey, UK. Collector. Member of UKSRC. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Oughtred Society Award 2007. Created an extensively used search engine for comparing past
eBay prices and other facets of slide rule information available on his Website
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Prof. Dr. Jörn Lutjens - Hamburg, Germany. Collector and member of
Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST).
Teacher at the State Vocational School of Mechanical Engineering and Steel,
Seminar director at the National Metals Technology Institute
and as Professor of Professional Pedagogy and Didactics at the University of Hamburg.
His website, in both German and English is the
Jörn's Online Museum
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Richard F. Lyon - Los Altos, CA. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Authority and large collector of Otis King cylindrical slide rules.
See his Otis King Website
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Ronald (Ron) E. Manley - England. Avid collector. Member of the
Oughtred Society and United Kingdom Slide Rule Circle (UKSRC). Deciminator of slide rule prices, current
and in recent past and other slide rule information on
Ron Manley's Slide Rule Site
which has been around since 2000.
Rons interests extend into climatology which can be seen at his website
Climate Data Information.
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Victor Amedee Mannheim - (1831 - 1906). France. He was a 19 year old student
when he proposed the application and labeling of A, B, C and D scales in 1850.
which slide rules of that type were later called Mannheim in his honor. He later
became a French army artillery officer.
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Eric Marcotte, Ph.D. - Canada. Collector. Neuroscience research background,
with expertise on new and emerging technologies. Eric's popular Slide Rule
website features his
personal collection, along with tips on cleaning and using slide rules.
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Nicola Marras - Italy. Collector, promotes through exibits and educational courses the
memory of old calculating devices and ancient navigation systems.
Nicola wants young people to understand that the world as we see now, skyscrapers, highways,
atomic power, space exploration and the electronic computer, was possible because of simple tools like slide rules.
His main event every year is the exibit at Cagliari festivalScienza.
His goal is the construction of a permanent museum of calculus.
Nichola Marras's Calcolatoria Website (both in Italian and English).
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Gonzalo Martin - France. French/Spanish collector . Retired from the telephone industry.
Started collecting mechanical calculators
in 1994 then later included white slide rules. His favorite slide rule is the French Graphoplex.
Gonzalo's popular European slide rule site, written in French and Spanish
is Photocalcul.com
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Tom Martin - United Kingdom. Menber of The Oughtred Society. Member of UKSRC.
Originally a Surrey man, Tom left school to become a laboratory technician
at the Brewing Industry Research Foundation whilst studying for a "traditional" External B.Sc. in
chemistry and botany at the University of London. On graduation he moved into industry, first a
glucose refinery in Greenwich and then back into brewing, initially in Warrington and then Burton
upon Trent - retiring, after 42 years, as Technical Director of Carlsberg Tetley.
Tom was a Unique (brand) slide rule user at school but found an Otis King early in his career which continued
to meet his calculating requirements. He really discovered slide rules when his father inherited the
tool box of a neighbour who had been a ships' carpenter early in life. In the bottom of the damp box
and smelling strongly of vinegar were two 12 inch 4-sided Everard type rules together with a collection
of (mainly incomplete) sectional gauging rods. This opened a curiosity which has not gone away!
Tom's main slide rule collecting interests are in rules associated with traditional crafts and trades.
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Kate Matthews - Sonora, CA. Collector. VP and Fellow of the Oughtred Society .
Geological Engineer and private business owner. Prefers collecting early K&E's. Her
favorite is the 1915 column cursor model.
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Steven Mays - Beaverton, OR. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Advanced slide rule researcher and collector.
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Jerry McCarthy - United Kingdom. Researcher. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Author of a series of in-depth papers and presentations at International Meetings (IM's),
articles and supporter of the activities of the UKSRC. Jerry's day job is to write
software, in areas such as cryptography and internationalization, for a global computing company
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Clark McCoy - Roseville, CA. Collector. Membership Secretary and
Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Webmaster for the popular McCoy's
K&E Catologs website. Retired Engineering manager
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David_McFarland - Ranch Palo Verdes, CA. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Retired Socialogist. Collection consists of slide rules and other computational devices.
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Jerome (Jerry) McKenna Memphis, TN. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Advanced collector of many types of slide rules. Software Developer who got into computer
programming when the cost of slide rules for meteorology was the same as that of an HP 41CX.
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Ross R Middlemiss - (1903-2001) In 1946, Middlemiss was a Professor of
Applied Mathematics at Washington University and edited the basic manuals for the
Acu-Rule slide rule company. Born in Marysville, Kansas, He received his advanced
training in mathematics at the University of Colorado and taught there until 1929.
Professor Middlemiss taught at Washington University for the next forty years,
During the period from 1936 through the 1950's, he authored several books including
a widely popular calculus textbook which was used in Washington University College
courses until the late 1970's. In 1966 he was presented with a Washington University
Distinguished Faculty Award (given annually at the university's Founders' Day
celebration). In 1969, he retired as Professor of Mathematics and was given the
status of Professor Emeritus.
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Marion Moon - Orange, California, USA. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Retired Software/Systems Engineer at Hughes Aircraft Co. BSEE University of Kanasas.
Collects End-of-Era Slide rules from worldwide manufactures. Contributor of scans to the ISRM.
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John Mosand - Trondheim, Norway. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Advanced collector and researcher of Aristo slide rules, frequent contributor to the
Journal of the Oughtred Society and the Bulletin. Proofread the ISRM's Slide Rule
Terms and Encyclopedia. Retired architect. Education: Architecture, Art history,
Graphic design. Played 12 years as a professional oboist with the Trondheim Symphony
Orchestra. Appeared extensively in chamber music concerts.
He writes: "My favorite slide rule? That might be the one I worked with in my High
School and University days and in my profession until I bought my first calculator.
It is a pocket version of the Faber-Castell Darmstadt."
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Kees Nagtegaal - Netherlands. (1949 - ) Collector. Member of the Dutch Circle of
Historical Calculating Instruments (KRING - Rekenlinialen).
Studied mathematics at Leiden University. Since 1970 has been a high school math teacher (HAVO and VWO).
He says: "I found my first calculator in 1999. It is an original Odhner 24. I saw it in Amsterdam in an antiques and collectible shop
This Odhner was the start of my calculator-collection (or calculator-obsession)."
Kees specializes in collecting and documenting mechanical calculators and slide rules on his website
Mechanical Calculator - I recalculate.
His collection has more than a hundred mechanical calculators (Odhner, Brunsviga, Facit, Addiator, Produx, etc.), addingmachines
(Comptometer, Burroughs, Plus, etc), counters (Durant, Record, Hengstler, Dux, etc), slide-rules (Aristo, Nestler,etc) etc.
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Riki Nakamoto - Aiea, Hawaii. Collecter, Member of the Oughtred Society.
Engineer at Pearl harbor Shipyard. Collects whatever he thinks is a neat gadget.
Riki's favoites are the Picket B1, N904 and N901 Simplex Math.
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John Napier - (1550-1617) Edinburgh, Scotland.
- Lord John Napier (latinized Nepero), Baron of Merchiston.
Published the logarithm in 1614, after 20 tears of developing the tables, which made
it possible to perform multiplications and divisions by addition and subtraction
and was the foundation for all future slide rule designs. Ex: a*b = 10^(log(a)+log(b))
and a/b = 10^(log(a)-log(b)).
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Albert Nestler - (1851-1901) Manufacturer. Founded Beck & Nestler in 1878 with Theophil Beck.
When Beck retired, the firm became just Nestler.
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Albert Nestler - (1877-1961) Technical Director of Nestler AG.
Albert and his brother Richard Nestler were the sons of the founder Albert Nestler.
After the death of Albert Nestler in 1901, By 1955, both sons had expanded the factory with 600
workplaces. Note: In this painting he is leaning at a dividing machine for slide rules).
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Jürgen Nestler - Hausach, Germany. (1940- ) Great grandson of founder of Albert
Nestler Co. in Lahr, Germany. Jürgen was a manager in factories providing injection
molds as a supplier for the automobile industry and was a member in
the german VDI (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, Society of German
Engineers). His apprenticeship was in the Nestler factory and after his education, constructed constructed amny of the machines. A generous benefactor of the Oughtred Society, to which
he donated 50 new Nestler slide rules for inclusion at no cost to buyers in the OS
Slide Rule Learning Kit. Jürgen contributed the Nestler family portraits shown in this gallery
along with other useful information including some personally owned slide rules. He donated a large collection of Nestler slide rules to the State Museum for Technology and Labor in Mannheim, Germany.
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Richard Nestler - Germany. (1878-1956) Commercial Director
of Nestler. He and his brother, Albert, were the sons of the founder Albert Nestler.
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Fred C. Ninger - (1915-1992) ? Born in Hoboken NJ (home of Esser and Keuffel). Best known for 46 years in pharmaceutical research, producing over 20 patents and the research for Lipitor among other drugs. Developed the Medical Slyd-Rul in 1946, a measures conversion tool for doctors, offered as a giveaway by Ciba and other drug companies of the day. Over 15 years, developed other Ruls including Elemental for chemistry students, Pharmaceutical, Photographic and Colorist for chemical manufacturers. With his brother Harold, sold over half a million Ruls.
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Hitoshi_Nori - Tokyo, Japan. Collector. Engineer.
Member of Keisanjyaku
the Slide Rule Lover's Group. Hitoshi's Website
offers loans to teachers and is listed as part of ISRM's Slide Rule Loaner Program.
Note: use Google's
Lanquage Tools to translate this web page from Japanese to English or...
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John W. Nystrom - (1825-1885) Philidelphia, Pennsylvania. United States. Born in Sweden, a
civil engineer, inventor and author. Nystrom received many patents for inventions such as a marine
steam engine, a refrigerator, and calculating machines. His slide rule invention
(U. S. patent #7961, the first in the united States)
was filed with the United States Patent Office on March 4, 1851. Nystrom is most noted for his proposal
to switch from base 10 to base 16 as defined in his 1862 publication titled Project of a New System
of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base.
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Hisashi Okura - (1892-1960)
Hisashi Okura, the founder of Hemmi Slide Rule Co., Ltd.(1933) was born in Kumamoto prefecture, in the south of
Japan. Born in the Otsuka family, a family with a member in the government Cabinet during the Meiji era, he
married the oldest daughter of the Okura family, owner of the then Okura brewing company (now Gekkeikan Sake)
and became member of the family. In 1924, Hisashi had proudly found a Japanese Hemmi's slide rule in a shop in
London when was traveling around the world. Jiro Hemmi had experienced some business setbacks because of a
fire in his shop, and when Hisashi came to visit Jiro in 1925, he offered to help expand the business.
He assisted Jiro Hemmi in managing his shop and actively promoted exportation
to respond to demand from foreign countries. They formed a partnership in 1928.
Hisashi directed the development of slide rules which could compete
with the well-known ones from other countries. He also implemented a research department in which he
committed to developing original Japanese slide rules.
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Takeshi Okura - Tokyo, Japan. Current President and CEO of
Hemmi Slide Rule Co, Ltd and
FT Okura Inc. It
is assumed that Mr. Okura is related to the founder of Hemmi Slide Rule, Hisashi Okura (1892-1960),
possibly his grandson.
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Michael O'Leary - (1951-2003) Vermont. Was a prolific Slide Rule Collector and provided
stimulating and moderating internet discussions on the Yahoo Forum International Slide Rule Group (ISRG).
Researched and published comprehensive studies and catalogues, especially on Keuffel & Esser and Pickett slide rules. Oughtred Society Award 2002.
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Robert (Bob) K. Otnes - Palo Alto, CA. Collector and advanced researcher of
slide rules and mechanical calculators. Member and Co-Founder of the Oughtred Society with Dr. Roger Shepard.
Bob was editor of the Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS) for 18 years. Oughtred Society Award 1993.
Featured in 2001 LA Times article
He received a BA in maths, astronomy and English
literature, an MS in math and physics and a Ph.D in engineering specialising in communication theory and
applied math.He has co-authored some books, now out of date, on signal processing.
Excluding two years in the US army, his first job was as a programmer trainee at Douglas Aircraft in 1958.
So he was in computing in the early days (the IBM 794 in use had tubes),
He retired as an Electrical Engineer from the L-3 Com company.
Bob has a fair collection of slide rules, calculators (including 10 arithmometers), log tables,
planimeters, analogue devices, old books on these subjects, etc. He is in the process of
writing two books. One on K&E slide rules before 1915, the other on small adding devices,
with and without carrying mechanisms, with an emphasis on American designs.
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William Oughtred - British (1574-1660) An ordained Anglican minister, is
considered the true inventor of the slide rule (1625) by taking two Gunter's lines
(scales) and sliding them relative to each other thus eliminating the dividers. He
also introduced the "x" symbol for multiplication, as well as the abbreviations "sin"
for sine and "cos" for cosine in his Clavis Mathematicae (1631), composed for
instruction of his pupil, the son of the Earl of Arundel. Oughtred was born at Eton,
and educated there and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he became fellow. Being
admitted to holy orders, he left the university about 1603, and was presented to the
rectory of Aldbury, near Guildford in Surrey; and about 1628 he was appointed by the
earl of Arundel to instruct his son in mathematics. He corresponded with some of the
most eminent scholars of his time on mathematical subjects; and his house was generally
full of pupils from all quarters. Oughtred published, among other mathematical works,
Clavis Mathematicae (The Key to Mathematics), in 1631; a treatise on navigation
entitled Circles of Proportion and the Horizontal Instrument, in 1632, which described
the first slide rules and also sundials, works on trigonometry and dialling, and his
Opuscula Mathematica, published posthumously in 1676.
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Prof. Joseph (Joe) Pasquale - San Diego, CA. Professor at University of California, San Diego, Engineering.
Teaches a popular slide rule class to engineering students. Pasquale was recognized as
an exemplary teacher, mentor and leader within the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering (CSE) at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Joe's bio at UCSD.
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Prof. Giovanni Pastore - Policoro (Matera), Italy. (1954 - ). Graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino in 1978. Before graduating Fiat Mirafiori in Turin offered an employment contract, and worked for five years to design cars, dealing with structural calculations. Since 1982 he lives and works in Policoro (Matera), where he holds the professional engineer and a teacher Assistant at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cosenza. Wrote the book Antikythera E Regoli Calculatori Computers (2006) which covers Science and Technology of the Greek astronomical calculator and Instructions for using the mathematical logarithmic slide rules, reinforced concrete and special, with many examples of calculation. Giovanni's website (in many languages)
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Eugene Paulin - Luxembourg. Collector. Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST).
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John Wickersham Pickett - (July 14, 1926 - ) Son of Roswell Colvert Pickett, co-founder
of Pickett and Eckel Co. Born in Chicago, John worked in the marketing of P&E after receiving his
MS in Business from the University of Southern California. He founded Pacific Leather Works to
make leather sleeves for Pickett in 1953 and became president of Pickett & Eckel in 1957.
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Roswell (Ross) Colvert Pickett - (Mar 27, 1892 - Dec 23, 1969) Co-founder of Pickett
and Eckel Company in Chicago in 1943 with Arthur Eckel. His background skills were as a printer, which he used to
create printed scales on a cardboard model, then progressed quickly to all-metal bodied slide
rules. His oldest son was Allen Roswell Pickett. His second son, John W. Pickett, later took
over the reigns of the company. Ross was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetary, CA. (Geneology
information found in Margo Louise Pickett's family Bible purchased at a garage sale in Chicago
around 1980 by John Albert.)
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Charles N. Pickworth - (c1900) Whitworth scholar and author. Wrote the
Instructions for the Use of A.W. Faber's Improved Calculating Rule
and The Slide Rule, A Practical Manual, LOGARITHMS FOR BEGINNERS,
THE INDICATOR: ITS CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION; THE INDICATOR DIAGRAM: ITS ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION ;
ETC. .
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Otto van Poelje - Netherlands. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Oughtred Society Award 2008. OS board of directors. Active member, international
contact and webmaster of the Dutch Circle
for Historical Calculating Instruments (KRING);
frequent contributor to the OS Journal and to the OS Bulletin, which was his
original idea for the OS to publish; creator of The Oughtred Society Award program;
source of many new ideas for the Society. Has many contributions to the OS Journal
and Slide Rule Gazette, and is Regional Director-Europe for the International
Slide rule organizations. In late 2009, Otto became an associate editor of the
Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS).
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Osborne Ingle Price - (September 30, 1930 - June 3, 2008) One of the original founders
(and Fellow) of the Oughtred Society that met together in 1991, in which he acted as the publicty
director. Compiled the the list of American slide rule patents. He studied mechanical engineering
at the Stevens Institute in Hoboken, NJ, earning his degree in 1955. After a stint in the U.S.
Navy he ran his father's business, Magnetic Devices. He relocated to Los Altos, CA. He is survived
by his wife Elfried in San Jose, CA.
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John Prince III - (November 13, 1941 - December 16, 2005) Born in Austin Texas. John
graduated from Southern Methodist University Magna Cum Laude with a B.S.E.E., and he earned an
M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Worked at Texas Instruments,
then as a professor at Clemson University. In 1983
became a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Arizona.
John specialized in collecting K&E rules, with a strong interest in Pickett. In 2002, John
described how he started with slide rules back in 1960: "I used a K&E 4181-3. We were mandated
to use either a 4081-3 or 4181-3 in our freshman slide rule class.
I chose the cheaper (very important to a married 18 year old) rule and never
regretted it despite the dire predictions from some faculty about dimensional stability and
durability." Among John's awards were the 1988 Inventor Award by Semiconductor Research Corp.,
the 1988 Semiconductor International Technology Achievement Award and the 1991 Arizona Innovator
of the Year. He is survived by his wife Martha in Tucson, AZ.
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Bryan Purcell - Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
United States. Collector. High school math and physics teacher. Member of the Oughtred Society.
Contributor to the Journal of the Oughtred Society. He enjoys trips with his wife to various science museums, planetariums, and the like.
Created his educational website Cosmic Quest Thinker
Bryan says he is aspiring author of soon-to-be books on slide rules, math and science, and others.
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Liu Qinglin - Bejing, China. Dealer. A mining engineer in the coal industry. Liu finds
Chinese slide rules and sells them on eBay. This is where most of the Chinese SR's that collectors
have came from.
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David Rance - Sassenheim, The Netherlands. Collector/Author. Fellow and 2011 Award winner of the Oughtred Society. Member of the German Rechenschieber Sammler Treffen (RST), the UKSRC and the Dutch KRING. Regularly presents at Int. Meetings (IM's) and publishes articles in the JOS, SR Gazette and newsletters of the national organisations. Now retired but previously worked 25 years for Shell International - ending up as a Global I.T. Strategist. In 1991, while unpacking a moving box, David came across his long-forgotten slide rule. He was intrigued and soon a schizophrenic idea was born: "What else could a computer man collect but analogue slide rules!" He is especially interested in acoustic and desktop slide rules but also in anything with a "whacky" or unusual scale. David has his own website.
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Joseph Griffith Reed - (1867-1969) Australian Physicist and Radio Engineer.
Designed the Reed Electronic engineer's slide rule (1935) made by the Service Slide Rule Co.Sydney in Sydney.
Trainee engineer, P.M.G.'s Department,
1913-21; engineer, Coastal Radio Service, 1921-22. Radio operator R.A.N. 1914-19. Engineer,
A.W.A. Ltd., 1922-50. Radio engineer, Overseas Telecommunications Commission, 1950-62.
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Hermann Robert Reiss - (1844-1911) Original founder of East German precision
instrument company that was located in Bad Liebenwerda (1882) as a mail-order house
for office and drawing supplies. Later REISS developed into a well known maker of
precision instruments (eg. theodolites, planimeters, drafting machines) and the
largest manufacturer in the region. In 1912, after the founders death, their first
REISS slide rule came on the market. Models with extended root-scales (STELLFIX)
were made in 1920. This gave a 10" slide rule the precision of a 20". After WWII
the company became a GDR-run business and exported slide rules to the eastern and
western world. REISS was well known for their beautiful light metal slide rules.
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David Riches - UK. Collector. Member of UKSRC. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Donor of scans of rare British slide rules for the ISRM galleries. His website is:
Mathematical Instruments
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Ronald van Riet - Netherlands. Collector. 2009 Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Member of
Dutch Circle of Slide Rule Collectors (KRING). Ronald still has the Aristo 903LL that served him
through high school and Technical University Delft (Electronics) later supplemented by an HP calculator.
He spent his professional working life in software engineering and has not used slide rules other
than through his pastime passion of flying where he has been a proficient user of the E6B flight computer.
Ronald has always remained interested in technical tools and when he saw in a flea market a 2 metre
demonstration slide rule of his beloved Aristo, he became hooked on slide rules and they became his
new collecting passion.As a licensed pilot, his main interest in flight computers and their use in navigation.
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Max Rietz - (1872-1956) German engineer from Erfurtof who designed the
"System Rietz" layout of scales, a modification of the Mannheim set of scales,
which was patented (DRGM 181110) in 1902. The Rietz system becomes the universal
slide rule of mechanical engineering and was first produced by manufacturer,
Dennert & Pape.
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William (Bill) K. Robinson - Phoenix, AZ. Collector.
Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Boeing Engineer. Leading researcher of
slide rules with hyperbolic scales. Author of
Listing of all Known Slide Rules with Hyperbolic Scales located at Oughtred.org.
Favorite SR is his 4088-3 purchased in January 1944
Bill's website
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Dick Rose - Columbus, Ohio, USA. Collector/Dealer. Sells new and used slide
rules on-line from an extensive inventory along with other instruments at
www.rose-vintage-instruments.com.
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L.W. Rosenthal - United States. Inventor of the multiplex slide rule (Dietzgen).
Author of the manual Mannheim Multiplex Slide Rules (1905, 1908, 1911) and
Mannheim And Phillips Slide Rules: Theory and Practical Application (1915)
and others published by Eugene Dietzgen Co.
Associate member of American Institute of Electrical Engineers (existed between 1884-1963).
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Paul Ross - Fair Grove, Missouri, USA. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
World's leading authority on Post slide rules and perhaps also Hemmi slide rules, has largest
Post collection and possibly largest Hemmi collection; co-authored the Post slide rule
archive with Ted Hume (see
Slide Rule Universe; he authored the Hemmi Slide Rule Catalogue Raisonne, which may be viewed
on his website The Slide Rule
Trading Co., he also is a world class contract bridge player.
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Werner Rudowski - Bochum,Germany. Collector. Member of Oughtred
Society and Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST). Oughtred Society Award 2009.
Werner Rudowski studied process engineering and was involved in heat exchangers and special
equipment for the chemical industry for about 40 years. At the beginning of my career he was
posted to London for seven months and for about four months to Tokyo.
In the early 70s he developed a slide rule for designing air coolers. It was made by ARISTO.
Researched deeply (mainly English and German historical 17th to 19th century slide rules),
resulting in high quality ground-breaking publications for in the JOS, Skid Stick and
the SR Gazette as well as for the RST and Proceedings. Since 2004 he wrote 29 papers. Retired Engineer.
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Harold (Dave) David Rueb - ( 1939 - 2009) Martinez, CA. Was an avid K&E slide rule collector.
Structural engineer for 40 years, 37 years as the owner of H.D. Rueb Structural Engineer.
Obtained his Architectural Engineering Degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo ('61). Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity.
Upon graduation, he served our country as a Captain of the Civil Engineering Squadron in
the U.S. Air Force ('62-'68). Dave was stationed at Duluth AFB in Minnesota and Elmendorf AFB
in Anchorage, Alaska. Master's Degree in Structural Engineering at UC Berkeley ('69).
Dave engineered over 5,000 buildings in 10 states, including churches,
public schools, office buildings, retirement centers, country clubs, shopping centers, commercial
buildings, medical buildings and private residences. A few examples of his projects included the
Alhambra High School, Longs Drug Stores and the prison retrofit at Alcatraz Island.
He is survived by his wife Leslie Marie (Olson) Rueb and three sons.
See Harold David Rueb Obituary
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Thomas A. Russo, Sr. - Wilmington, DE. Russo was in the business equipment
and systems industry for over 45 years. He joined Remington Rand in 1954, holding
various management and executive positions. He left in 1971 to form the Delaware
Office Equipment Company, Inc. where he served as president until his retirement
in 1997. His second book on the subject of business machines, Antique Office Machines:
600 years of Calculating Devices, is a classic of its kind, and his collection
of office technology, including slide rules, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.
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Ryouta_Saitou - Tokyo, Japan. Member of Slide Rule Lovers group in Japan.
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Simon van der Salm - Hilversum Noord - Holland. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred
Society. Member of KRING Historische Rekeninstrumenten. CEO at
Exact Education.
Concentrates collection on Pickett brands and Electric, Electronic and Statistical slide rules.
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Warren Salomon - Miami, FL. Collector. Unusual combination of probate litigation
attorney and slide rule enthusiast. Avid researcher and collector of Hemmi 50 cm slide rules
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Chris Sangwin - Birmingham, England. Educator. Lecturer in Applied
Mathematics at the University of Birmingham. Created a
template for making Napier's Bones (Rods)
popular amongst collectors wishing to make replicas.
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John J.G. Savard - Alberta, Canada. Nuclear Physicist. John says "My first slide rule was a Mannheim from
Engineering Instruments Ltd. of Peru, Indiana, but I received, also as a Christmas present, a better one while still in
Junior High, a Ricoh No. 121. While at University, I bought myself a Sterling Decimal Trig Log-Log, but wound up
sticking with the Ricoh until I could afford a pocket calculator. And I used several of those on my way to
earning a Master's degree in Nuclear Physics." John currently works as a computer programmer.
John Savard's Web Page has instructions
on slide rules along with with other topics in mathematics, science, computers, chess and
gaming. John has created several slide rule scale templates that may be used to construct
linear and circular slide rules available at ISRM's
Slide Rule Scales - Build Your Own SR
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Wojciech Sawicki - Warsaw, Poland. Collector, Engineer, Author. Graduate of the
Warsaw University of Technology. Written over 150 books. His extensive slide rule (suwak
logarytmiczny in Polish) collection was displayed at Warsaw Polytechnic in 2005. His
website in Polish (use Google Translate tool to read
in other languages).
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Robert Schembre - Anaheim Hills, California, USA. Collector. Member of Oughtred
Society. Donor to the ISRM Slide Rule loaner Program. Project Engineer on Defense Projects.
Prefers Pickett brand slide rules, electronic and pocket slide rules as well.
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Daemen Heinrich Schmid - Manufacturer. Founder of the Swiss company Daemon-Schmid,
Zurich, Switzerland, which later became Loga. Asigned over 10 patents related to cylindrical
(roller) slide rules and mechanical calculators.
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Dr. Werner H. Schmidt - Greifswald, Germany. Member of Ougtred Society.
Professor of Numerical Analysis and head of the computing technical library at Ernst Moritz
Arndt University Greifswald, Institut for mathematics and computer science. Shares the 2009 OS
Award with Werner Girbardt for organising four international science and technology
symposia at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in
Greifswald, for setting up the
Rechentechnische Sammlung museum collection which includes an information rich on-line
catalogue of the slide rules and other calculating
instruments from the collection.
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Georg Schreiber - Collector. Member of Rechenschieber Sammler Treff (RST)
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Ir. IJzebrand Schuitema - Netherlands. Collector/Author. Fellow of the
Oughtred Society. Oughtred Society Award 1995. Wrote several technical and historical
publications about slide rules and history, the
most known is Calculating on Slide Rule and Disc September 2000 and May 2003,
Astragal Press, coauthored with Herman van Herwijnen. Graduated as a Civil Engineer
from the Technical University Delft, South Holland, the Netherlands. Retired in 1986
from a career in civil engineering, management and university lecturer. Member of the
Dutch Circle of Slide Rule Collectors and one of the world's foremost authorities on
the subject of slide rules. Donor of slide rules for the ISRM slide rule loaner program in Europe.
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Conrad Schure - Freehold, NJ. Collector, Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Oughtred Society Award 1994. OS 2nd VP and Treasurer.
One of the worlds most advanced researchers and collectors of rare slide rules and related
instruments; prolific contributor to the OS Journal. Has hosted the East Coast meetings of the OS.
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A.R.(Dick) Schwartzer - (1933-2005) Professional Electrical Engineer.
Retired from the Salt River project in Arizona in 1991. Founder of the Slide Rule
Emporium in Scottsdale, AZ, and collector of scientific instruments, he had the
foresight to recover all of Pickett's slide rule inventory out of Mexico, before
they were to be scrapped for the aluminum, when the calculator created the demise
of the slide rule industry. In the last years, even though wheel chair bound and
on oxygen, Dick faithfully maintained sales of NOS Picketts out of his home until
his death.
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Walter Shawlee II - British Columbia, Canada. Dealer. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Oughtred Society Award 2006. Past president of Northern Airborne
Technology. Recipient of the Commemorative Medal for the
125th Anniversary of Confederation (1992 - Given to 42,000 Canadians for significant contribution
to their fellow citizens, to their community or to Canada). Owner of Sphere Research and webmaster of
Slide Rule Universe.
Contributor to the The Oughtred Society Slide Rule Reference Manual.
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Thomas H Sheahan - Memphis, Tennessee. Research Geologist (retired). Designer of the
Ground Water Hydrology Computer (1967) for Layne Research Division, as well as numerous
other circular slide rules that he designed and has donated to ISRM.
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Rodger Shepherd, M.D. - Oakland, CA. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Oughtred
Society Award 1992. Original co-founder of the Oughtred Society,
advanced researcher and collector, retired physician. He started and published
the Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS) in the early years. Was inaugural
recipient of the Oughtred Society Award. Translated Dieter von Jezierski's book,
Slide Rules: A Journey Through Three Centuries from German into English.
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Derek Slater - Kettering, Northhamptonshire, United Kingdom. Collector.
Member of UKSRC and the Oughtred Society,
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Carl E. Smith, P.E. - Founded
Clevland Institute of Electronics (CIE) which commissioned
Pickett in 1969 to make a slide rule specifically designed for their radio electronics course
and this became the Pickett N515-T. Carl Smith received the BSEE from Iowa State University
in 1930 and professional EE degrees from Ohio State University in 1932 and 1936. He founded
Smith Practical Radio Institute in Cleveland in 1934
which eventually became the Cleveland Institute of Electronics. His first class started
with 16 students and consisted of courses in radio and electronics engineering, which
utilized slide rules as part of the course. Since 1956,
when the CIE patented its "Auto-Programmed" self-study method, more than 350,000 students
in the U.S. and some 70 foreign countries have gotten their start in electronics through
the institute. Carl E, Smith later ran Carl E. Smith Electronics (8200 Snowville Road. Cleveland, Ohio)
and wrote many articles and books about antennas up through 1989. In 1985 he was the recipient of the
National Association of Brodcasters Engineering achievement Award. He was also awarded the
Jack Poppele
Broadcast Award in 1995, for persons who have made important and long term
contributions to the improvement of radio broadcasting.
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Burns Snodgrass - (1886-1954) Brighton, England. Founder of the Unique Slide Rule Company in Brighton in 1922
and continued to manufacture slide rules until 1975. Burns Snodgrass (died at aged 68). He brought innovation and vision
to slide rule productio that reluted in models unlike any other manufacturer. Unique are well known
for their range of wood slide rules with celluloid covered paper scales, creating affordable slide rules for the common man.
Though cheaply built many have survived in large numbers to this day. Author of the book Teach Yourself Books - The Slide Rule, published after his death
by the English Universities Press in 1955.
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Joseph (Joe) L. Soper - Lakeville, Connecticut. Author of the book
K&E Salisbury Products Division Slide Rules, published by the Oughtred Society,
worked for K&E 29 years, managing the Salisbury Division and its slide rule manufacturing
for several years. Oughtred Society Award 2008.
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Leib (Leonid) Stern - (1914-1999) Ukraine. Inventor.
Designed the Stern Compressor Slide Rule for Soviet LFAI. Leib was born in the Ukraine and had a long
career as a metallurgical engineer in the USSR. He immigrated to Israel in 1987, and
lived out the rest of his life there. He had the knack for innovation that marks the best
engineers, and during his days as a metallurgist he had patented many inventions,
including the Compressor slide rule
shown in the ISRM Soviet Gallery.
Expanded Biography contributed by his daughter.
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Larry Stewart - Canada. Collector. Artist.
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Edward A. Straker, Ph.D. - Reston, Virginia. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society.
University of Tennessee. He earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Michigan. His career, spanning more than 35 years, includes work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science Applications International Corporation, and DESVentures, LLC. In 1984, he established the Slide Rule Collectors Association to create a community for individuals with similar interests. This organization was the precursor to the Oughtred Society. Ed has donated rare slide rule specimens to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as recently as January 2012..
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David Sweetman - Dyer, Nevada. Collector. Member of Oughtred Society. VP Quality and Reliability.
Likes specialty rules like Thatcher, Curta, 105mm Howitzer. Has a solar electric home in Nevada.
In late 2009, David became an associate editor of the Journal of the Oughtred Society (JOS).
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Maciej M. Sysło - Warsaw, Poland. Collector. Professor of
mathematics and computer science at the University in Torun and Wroclaw and
is engaged in information technology education. His interest expands beyond
slide rules to mechanical calculating machines and has made replicas of
various artifacts.
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Andreas Tabak - Netherlands. Prolific ollector of almost anything technical. Beside slide rules, he collects computers, mouse pads, old stock certificates and many other interesting items. His website is
The Collection of Calculating Devices - TCoCD. Some of his collection appear in the ISRM galleries.
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Masayuki Takahashi - Hokkaidou, Japan. Member of Slide Rule Lovers
group in Japan.
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Paul J. Tarantolo Jr., PhD. - Houston, Texas. Collector and member of Oughtred Society.
Contributor of slide rule, pocket watch calculator, and manual scans for the ISRM galleries.
Paul is a retired ExxonMobil research geophysicist and executive and has been collecting
slide rules since 2005. He specializes in K&E slide rule variants and pocket watch calculators
and is also an avid mineral collector.
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Edwin Thacher - (1839-1920) Pittsburg. United States. Best remembered as the inventor of the Thacher cylindrical slide rule, sold by K&E as the model 4012. His patent for this slide rule was U.S 249,117 issued November 1, 1881. The description include: The purposes of my invention are to increase the length and accuracy of scales without increasing the length of the rule and to render the use of such rule more convenient. Edwin Thacher was born in 1839 in a place called De Kalb, in Lawrence County, New York State, in America. His father was a doctor, but Edwin studied engineering at college. His first main job as an engineer was in 1864 as a military railway builder during the American Civil War. Later on he took up making bridges and worked for the Louis Bridge and Iron Company. A lot of his job as a bridge engineer involved doing mathematical calculations to work out how strong the steel girders and concrete beams in bridges needed to be. It was because he spent a lot of time doing calculations that he invented his cylindrical slide rule. He died in New York in 1920.
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H. Loren Thompson - (1912-1976) United States. Co-authored (with Ovid W. Eshbach) most of the modern post-WWII era Dietzgen Instruction manuals. Also co-authored a 1943 Engineering drawing textbook with Issac Newton Carter. 1967 recipient of the Arthur Sidney Bedell Award, named for the second president of the Water Environment Federation. He was a corporate officer for Stevens, Thompson & Runyun, Inc. In 1972 H. Loren Thompson, Class of '34, was given the Honor Alumni Award from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
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Atsushi Tomozawa - Asao-Ku Kawasaki, Japan. Collector of electronic gadgets, programming,
collecting/studying slide rules. Member of Slide Rule Lovers group in Japan.
Collects all slide rules, but his favorite is Sun Hemmi. His website (in English)
is has many pictures of Japan. His slide rules are displayed on
his SR-Annex.
Atsushi has worked in the USA in the 1970's and 1990's. He is a contributor to the
OS Bulletin and avid aurora borealis observer, for which he travels the world.
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Forrest Milton Towl - (1836-1934) United States - Entrepenuer, Author, Petroleum Engineer.
Designed and copyrighted (1889 & 1910) a Pipe Line Flow slide rule which was used in calculations involving the pumping of oil A 1910 version was used in the transportation of
oil. These hand divided and stamped slide
rules were marked as "COPYRIGHTED 1889, and later 1910.COMPUTED BY FORREST M. TOWL. C.E."
and on the edge by the maker "KERBY & BRO. N.Y."
Forrest M. Towl graduated from Cornell University in 1886 and in 1911
was a consulting engineer for the Standard Oil Company (later to be called Exxon and
Esso). In 1909 he was a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, New York He was President and Director of the
Cumberland Pipe Line Company, Eureka Pipe Line Co. Oil, and President of the Southern Pipe Line Company (1921)
which became part of Southern Group of Pipe lines, Standard Oil Company subsidiaries, in Oil City, Pennsylvania
He was still writing on oil industry matters in 1934. (Some text written by Peter Delehar, UK)
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Bennie Tschoerner - Paris, TX. Collector. Member of Oughtred Society.
Career: Teacher at Community College Teacher, Product Engineer at Texas Instruments,
Systems Engineer at E-Systems (Raytheon), Technical Director at Paris IGD.
Collection focusing on Addiators and mechanical adders.
Won the 2007 and 2008 Slide Rule competition in Irving, Texas and the 2009 International
slide rule championships in Las Vegas at the Oughtred Society meeting..
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Panagiotis (Pano) Venetsianos - Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society.
Oughtred Society Award 2008. Researched Gauge Mark names and values and wrote the
Pocketbook of the Gauge Marks Published by the Oughtred Society in 2006.
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William (Bill) Walker - Saulte Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, Member of Oughtred Society.
Consulting Engineer. Has a braod spectrum of about 400 slide rules in his collection.
He is particularly interested in Circular and Spiral slide rules,
along with Hydraulic and Open Channel Flow rules.
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Dr. Alwin Walther - (1850-1920) Germany. As part of Technische
Hochschule Darmstadt (Institute for Practical Mathematics in the Darmstadt
College of Science and Technology) modified
and enhanced the "System Rietz" for the needs of engineers in 1936: A
Pythagorean scale on front was added. The mantissa scale was
transfered to the rear long side and the sine and tangent
scales to the front long side. The back side of the slider was
now free for the exponential scales. This "System Darmstadt"
became the base model for all future improvements.
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Mendell Penco Weinbach - (1881-1947). United States. Born in Romania, studied at Romanian
Lyceum before immigrating to the United States at age 20. He received A.B (1905),
B.S. (1907), and A.M. (1907) degrees in mathematics and engineering from the University
of Missouri in Columbia. He became a full professor in 1923. Pofessor Weinbach invented
a number of devices and held several patents, his most succesful being the Log Log Vector
slide rule that made computations easier for electrical engineeers. He authored the
instruction manuals for the Keuffel & Esser K&E 4093 and K&E 4083 vector slide rules.
He was paid a royalty by K&E for every slide rule of this model that was produced. See more at
Mendell Penco Weinbach and
the K&E Log Log Vector Slide Rules By William K. Robinson (5.3MB).
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Stephan Weiss - (1947 - ) Germany. Collector. Fellow of the Oughtred Society. Graduated
from the TH Vienna and the TU Munich with a M.Sci. (Dipl.Ing.) in Mechanical Engineering.
After further studies worked as an expert in the fields of vehicles until 2007.
His special interests apply to the development of a collection of calculating machines
and devices as well as handling of freely selected topics of the history of computing aids.
Author of a series of articles and in-depth papers and presentations at International Meetings
(IM's). Maintaining the acclaimed website
Contributions to the History of Mechanical Calculation where you can see his many publications.
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W. M. Welch - 1856-1940. Founder of W. M. Welch Mfg. Co. Chicago, Illinois
in 1880 by W. M. Welch (1856-1940). Name changed to Welch Scientific Company
in 1930 and located at 1516 Orleans Street, Chicago, Illinois. Specialized in
Scientific Instruments, Laboratory Apparatus and Supplies for Physics,
Chemistry and General Science. Made a four foot teaching slide rule
for hanging in classrooms Size: 2x23x125 cm. One sided, black background
with four white scales, out of Masonite, with Hangers. W. M. Welch later
became part of Sargent-Welch Scientific Co. Pumps were spun off and became
Gardner Denver Welch Vacuum Technology. Medard W. Welch, son of W.M. Welch,
was an original founder the American Vacuum Society in 1953.
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Edmund Wingate - (1596-1656) English mathematical and legal writer, one of the
first to publish in the 1620s on the principle of the slide rule, and later the author of
some popular expository works. He was also a Member of Parliament during the Interregnum.
More at Wikipedia.
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John Wolff - Melbourne, Australia. Collector of Mechanical Calculators and Slide Rules.
Maintains his John Wolff's Web Museum. John is a retired electrical engineer from Melbourne, Australia. His background is in electronic
instrumentation, control systems, and computers. He has worked in private industry, public utilities,
and academia for over 35 years, most recently as an IT manager in a government research laboratory.
For a second full-time job he is a sole parent to two teenage kids. For hobbies, he tinkers with
pianolas and mechanical music, and reverse-engineers antique calculators. For occasional light relief
he sometimes builds robots with the kids at an "alternative" school.
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Thomas (Tom) S. Wyman - Palo Alto, CA. Collector. Fellow of the
Oughtred Society. Oughtred Society Award 2005.
Tom served in the U.S. Navy aboard USS Lexington. He graduated from Stanford University with
degrees in mining engineering and geology. He joined Standard Oil Company of California now
Chevron as a petroleum engineer and was involved in field operations in California and Alaska
and later represented his company's interests in its Saudi Arabian and Iranian operations.
He retired in 1992 as Chevron Shipping Company's manager of maritime affairs where he
represented his company's interests on industry boards, in UN organisations and in testimony
before committees of the U.S. Congress. He has received a series of industry and local awards and
remains active in local politics while also serving on several boards of directors of local civic
organizations. He has written extensively for publication on a variety of topics. He served as
president of the Oughtred Society from 1997 to 2007 and continues to be a frequent contributor
to the Journal of the Oughtred Society.
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William Hyde Jackson Wollaston - (1766-1828) United Kingdom. Chemist. Physicist. Physiologist. Practised medicine from 1789-1801. Wollaston became wealthy by developing the first physico-chemical method for processing platinum ore in practical quantities, and in the process of testing the device he discovered the elements palladium (symbol Pd) in 1803 and rhodium (symbol Rh) in 1803. Also known for Camera lucida and Dark lines in the solar spectrum. Developed the Wollaston Slide Rule of Chemical Equivalents in 1814. Made discovery of absorption lines in solar spectrum; 1793 - elected a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS); 1795 - elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; 1802 - The Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal;
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Thomas Yorker - Troy, NY. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society. Favorites are
scientific slide rules. Programmer/Analyst by profession
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Nathan Zeldes - Jerusalem, Israel. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society.
He prefers home-made or low volume manufactured slide rules. His website
History of Computing
was started when he became a collector in 2001, when he used a long vacation to create an exhibition of computing history for his workplace.
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Skip Zogopoulos - Exeter, NH. Collector. Member of the Oughtred Society,
Contributor of scans for the ISRM galleries, Donor of the Fedra slide rules to ISRM's
SR Loaner Program. Skip teaches a homegrown free slide rule class and has been
a drummer for a 60's band, The Wayback Machine.
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GuiSheng Xu (Xu GuiSheng) - Shanghai, China. Collector. Guisheng has been collecting slide
rules for over 30 years and recently created and maintains a Chinese website,
Slide Rule Zone written in English
and Chinese, which provides information about the history of Chinese made slide rules. He gets most of his specimens from
the antique market on Fuyou RD. in Shanghai. GuiSheng says "This market is the biggest antique market in East China area . Unearthed artifacts from the
imperial court, and from people to people exchange all over the country flow into this market continuously".
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