5 Slide Rule Makers
| Primary Makers: Slide rule makers for which 3 or more examples have been collected. | |||||
| Acu-Rule | Dennert & Pape | Festus | Kolesch | Relay-Ricoh | Unique |
| Aristo | Dietzgen | Gilson | Lawrence | Richardson | |
| Blundell | Engineering Instruments | Hemmi | Nestler | Sterling | |
| Charvoz-Roos | Faber | K&E | Pickett | Tavernier-Gravet | |
| Concise | Felsenthal | KHH | Post | Thornton | |
| Other Makers: Slide rule makers for which there are only one or two examples. | |||||
| Alco | Davies | Graphic Calculator | Mims | Ruyi | The American Art Works |
| American Blueprint | Dring and Fage | Halden | Novotni | Sandish | UIF Shanghai |
| Baetzmann | E.S.A. London | HH | Otis King | Scofield | USSR Military |
| Belcher Bros. | Factory10 | J.B. Carroll | P.A.S. Co. | Sillcocks-Miller | W&G |
| Boots Ringplan | Fearns Calculators | Jacob and Halse | Palmer | Simplified Flight Calculator Co. | |
| Boykin | Fowler | Kahl Scientific | Parisian Novelty | Staedtler | |
| Bruning | Gill | MARC | Reiss | Stanley | |
| C-Thru | Goodyear | MATSKU | Rietz | Stanley London | |
| Also: Unidentified slide rules. Looking for a particular rule, or set of slide rules? A Searchable Table can be used for a quick scan of the entire collection. |
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Image, top to bottom: Slide rules with major scales of length 20 (Nestler), 16 (K&E), 11 (Davies), 10 (Pickett), 8 (K&E), 5 (Faber-Castell), and 4 (Hemmi) inches. And a circular Gilson Binary slide rule to round things out.
From the table below we see that the largest portion of the collection has been produced by a few major manufacturers:
| Maker | Number in Collection |
|---|---|
| Keuffel & Esser | 89 slide rules |
| Pickett | 63 slide rules |
| Hemmi | 38 slide rules |
| Dietzgen | 20 slide rules |
| Faber/Faber-Castell | 16 slide rules |
As for the rest,
| Number per Maker | Makers |
|---|---|
| \(> 5\) slide rules | Acu-Rule, Aristo, Charvoz-Roos, Felsenthal, Lawrence, Nestler, Richardson |
| 5 slide rules | Sterling |
| 4 slide rules | Blundell Rules Limited, Concise, Gilson, Kolesch, Relay-Ricoh, noID |
| 3 slide rules | Engineering Instruments, Festus, KHH, Tavernier-Gravet, Thornton, Unique |
| 2 slide rules | Bruning, C-Thru, Dring and Fage, Gill, MARC, Otis King, Palmer, Rietz |
| 1 slide rule | Alco, American Blueprint, Baetzmann, Belcher Bros., Boots Ringplan, Boykin, Davies, Dennert & Pape, E.S.A. London, Factory10, Fearns Calculators, Fowler, Goodyear, Graphic Calculator, HH, Halden, J.B. Carroll, Jacob and Halse, Kahl Scientific, MATSKU, Mims, Novotni, P.A.S. Co., Parisian Novelty, Reiss, Ruyi, Sandish, Scofield, Sillcocks-Miller, Simplified Flight Calculator Co., Staedtler, Stanley, Stanley London, The American Art Works, UIF Shanghai, USSR Military, W&G |
See Some Collection Statistics for a few more properties of the distribution of slide rules in the collection.
The sections of this chapter tabulate all of the slide rules in the present collection, organized by slide rule makers and ordered by the presumed manufacturing dates. Chapter sections are in alphabetical order of the major manufacturers where three or more rules have been collected. However, the Other Rules section contains roughly 14% of the total number of slide rules, including many of the more significant items.
A few images of representative rules are given at the beginning of each section. Model numbers in the tables are linked to an image of the slide rule, typically of its front face. More complete sets of images will become available when time allows. For those who would rather just “look at the pictures”, a complete set is provided in The Collection in Photos.
In the tables found in the following sections, production dates for the slide rules are provided. Each date is at least a best guess, though some dates are fairly accurate based upon serial numbers or details of the particular slide rule.
- If the
Yearof the slide rule is fairly certain, through a serial number, date mark or other documented knowledge about the rule, then there will be a single year listed with no preceding “c.” (circa) in front of the date.
- If the
Yearis not certain but a narrow range of dates for a particular slide rule can be determined, then this range is provided in theYearcolumn.
- Otherwise, a “c.” will precede the date in the
Yearcolumn, signifying a guess with a much wider range of uncertainty.
Other information found in the tables includes:
Typ= type of slide rule: L (linear), C (circular), S (spiral), H (helical)Mat= primary material used: wd (wood), bb (bamboo), pl (plastic), ss (stainless/steel alloy), Al (Aluminum), Mg (Magnesium), iv (ivory), pp (paper)L0= length of the slide rule’s primary scale (e.g., “C”), in inches (total “path length” if circular, spiral, or helical slide rule)Serial= serial number or date stamp found on the slide rule