5.19 Tavernier-Gravet, France
The eminent father and son instrument makers, Etienne and Paul-Etienne Lenoir, brought prominence to French slide rules through their production of finely graduated scales and meticulous craftsmanship in the early 1800s. Etienne was famous for his scientific instruments, including the making of the first “standard meter” for the government of France in 1793. In about 1817 the family business was turned over to Paul-Etienne, who by then had taken part in Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, and it was Paul-Etienne who introduced slide rules to France, creating his own engine-dividing machine by 1825. Their earliest slide rules in about 1820 were of the English “Soho” type, with scale lengths and tables of constants adopted to the French units of measure.
Unfortunately, Paul-Etienne died in 1827. The company was run by his father, Etienne, until his death in 1832 at age 88. The company was taken over by a Msr. F. Mabire, a fellow Royal Court Mechanic, who had been with Lenoire since 1830. Mabire continued to operate the business under the name Lenoir, until it was sold to François Gravet in 1839. Gravet also continued to use the company name of Lenoir until 1852 when it was changed to Gravet-Lenoir. The final name change occurred in 1867 when it became Tavernier-Gravet. Charles-Alexandre Tavernier, a physics instruments maker, was Gravet’s son-in-law, having married Léonide Gravet in 1857.
Charles-Alexandre Tavernier (1825-1887), born in Metz, France, was the son of Robert Tavernier, who was a drawing professor at The School of Artillery and Engineering at Metz (Ecole d’Application de l’Artillerie et du Génie de Metz) in the mid-1800s. This school, founded in 1720, was created to complete the training of young army officers after their attendance at Polytechnique, finalizing their qualification as engineering or artillery officers in the French army. It was at this school where a young artillery officer and student – Victor Mayer Amédée Mannheim (1831-1906) – invented and patented a new slide rule in 1850 as well as the “cursor” in 1851, both of which were first produced by Gravet-Lenoir. The Mannheim slide rule was a natural next step from the English Soho style, and became well known around the world. By 1890, Tavernier-Gravet was one of the European companies producing slide rules for Keuffel & Esser for sale in the USA, before K&E began manufacturing their own.
The company Tavernier-Gravet, under a variety of owners, remained in business until 1972.
For more information see the references used for the above:
- Francis Wells and Tom Wyman, “La Régle á Calcul: Lenoir, Gravet-Lenoir and Tavernier-Gravet Slide Rules”, Jour. Oughtred Soc., 11.1 p23 (2002).
- Marc Thomas, “French Slide Rule Makers in the 19th Century, From Gravet-Lenoir to Tavernier-Gravet: A Family
Story”, Jour. Oughtred Soc., 22.1, p27 (2013).
- Marc Thomas, “Additional Biographical Elements on Tavernier and the Lenoirs”, Jour. Oughtred Soc., 26.2 p49 (2017).
Total number of Tavernier-Gravet slide rules in the collection: 3. \(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\)