Unusual scientific antique

ISSN 1466-3570
June 2011
No. 38
NEWSLETTER of the UK SLIDE RULE CIRCLE
Editor: Colin Barnes, 189 Mildenhall Road, Fordham, Ely, Cambs. CB7 5NW England
Tel: 01638 720317 e-mail: colinabarnes@talktalk.net
Editorial
dr.kent@ntlworld.com
0113 2250249
This year sees the first International
Meeting to be held in the US. I know that
several of our members will be attending and
some will be contributing to the Proceedings. I
trust the meeting will be a great success and
wish the organisers the very best. Sadly I will
not be able to attend but look forward to
receiving full reports and including them in
the next issue of SS.
Spring Meeting
Oakham 27th March
In attendance:
Our Host, Gerald Stancey
Jerry McCarthy
Rod Lovett
John Hunt Snr.
Ray Hems
Derek Slater
Peter Fox
Chris Leech
Peter Hopp
Wendy Rath
Colin Barnes
Dave Nichols
It’s been a great year for articles for
this year’s Gazette. Many thanks to all who
have been contributors.
Full details and
availability will be given in the next newsletter.
Now is the time to consider providing articles
for 2012, one or two items are already in the
pipeline.
The dozen members, including our
hosts Pat and Gerald Stancey, who
foregathered in Oakham on what started out
cool and clear and later turned into a delightful
spring day were Colin Barnes, Peter Fox, Ray
Hems, Peter Hopp, John Hunt Snr., Chris
Leech, Rod Lovett, Jerry McCarthy, Dave
Nichols, Wendy Rath, and Derek Slater.
Apologies were received from Tom Martin
who had contracted some sort of ‘flu the day
before. It is most excellent to see a good
turnout from all corners of the land, some
travelling considerable distances to be there.
Conversation continued virtually
uninterrupted from our last autumn’s meeting,
the John Hunt Museum of artillery pieces once
again produced a huge variety of slide rule, or
at least artillery calculator items that made one
gasp – where does he find these items? This
time the emphasis seemed on “large” –
probably to mirror the devices that they
indirectly control, and some of these devices
were obviously (well maybe not so obviously)
from the military classroom, and some required
developing the muscles to be able to heft and
use the large cast bronze slide rule devices that
came from some colonial armies. As always
there were other most delightful and new
things to look at from all ends of the slide rule
spectrum, including the “Mysterious Circular
Word on the street is that the prices of
slide rules is dropping, the more common ones
anyway. I suppose this is to be expected with
so many of us having filled our collections
with Uniques, British Thorntons etc. I recently
was asked to value a batch of rules that an excollector was planning on selling and I felt
very mean in suggesting he would be lucky to
get £1.00 apiece for the common ones. We felt
that ebay would be his best outlet and to sell
them in batches of five or six including
something a bit more interesting. Now is the
time for the novice collector to pick up the
nucleus of a collection at minimal cost.
New Addresses & Members
D Len Peach
New email address:
history@dlpeach.plus.com
Welcome to:
Dr. David Kent
16 Far Moss
Alwoodley
Leeds LS17 7NR
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Calculator” (see later in SS), a delightful
device in the flesh, which even though we were
able to see and use we were none the wiser as
to its use. Hopefully it will prompt some ideas
from members not present. The morning
session progressed swiftly and most enjoyably
through to lunch.
At our meetings I love the peripheral
and very interesting conversations that spring
up on a wide variety of topics, wax and wane,
mostly with some sort of note penned on a
scrap of paper to enable further investigation
post meeting. One topic from this time that
sticks in my mind was sun compasses or sand
compasses, one of these devices being part of
the Hunt show-and-tell. Two or three relevant
web sites produced a couple of hours of
enjoyable study of these fascinating
contraptions in greater depth.
After lunch the “official business”
was briefly dealt with:
- The UKSRC would hopefully host the
2012 International Meeting at TNMOC.
Further investigation into a suitable local
hotel and a check on the meeting facilities
available at Bletchley Park would have to
be investigated.
- The possibility of using TNMOC at
Bletchley for the forthcoming autumn
UKSRC meeting.
- The fourth display cabinet had not yet
been bought or installed. The Unique
display had been successfully replaced by
a Blundell (Luton) display which looked
very good and complete.
- The forthcoming American International
meeting in Boston was speculated upon,
there being a dearth of information so far.
A number of UKSRC/OS members were
planning to attend.
It was then back to the slide rules and
associated topics until after a final cup of tea
and cake the members gradually started home
sated with slide rules. Our grateful thanks to
Gerald and Pat who had organised yet another
excellent meeting, enjoyed by all.
Relaxing after lunch!
A selection of items on display
Help!
I recently obtained a very nice but
simple 5 foot classroom slide rule. There is no
maker’s name but there is a paper label as
illustrated below.
The text reads:
DURFORD
Made in Petersfield, England
Referring to PMH’s “bible” we find
the name of “Tiger Toys” in Petersfield and
two listed classroom slide rules, a 4 foot and a
6 foot (probably 5 foot). Durford is local to
Petersfield and it is more than probable that my
example is by this maker. “Googling” and
enquiries via the local press have proved
fruitless to date.
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Can anyone help with any information
regarding this company and their products?
Does anyone have local contacts who perhaps
could dig a little deeper through local libraries
etc?
Any help or information would be
greatly appreciated.
colinabarnes@talktalk.net
classified scientifically into three major
categories: those that don’t work, those that
break down and those that get lost. The goal of
all inanimate objects is to resist man and
ultimately to defeat him, and the three major
classifications are based on the method each
object uses to achieve its purpose. As a general
rule, any object capable of breaking down at
the moment when it is most needed will do so”.
From Russel Baker “The Plot Against People,”
The New York Times 1968. Funny how you
can get down all sorts of by-ways when on the
computer – fascinating stuff, mostly!
Autumn Meeting
11th September, 2011
By popular demand we are returning
to The National Museum of Computing at
Bletchley Park for our Autumn get-together.
The usual time scale of 11.00am to about
4.00pm will apply. Lunch will be available in
the Bletchley Park café.
“One is unique, two a coincidence
and three a collection.” So I had heard and
when I quoted this at some stage recently I
resolved to look up and see whether I had
imagined or made up the quote, or indeed may
have misquoted it. Google found nothing on
the whole quote, but one article which included
statements such as “chauvinistic carbon”,
“dieux et machina” and the “distribution of
alternate universes” made me promptly
abandon the whole search. All I was trying to
say was that we do not know how unique an
item is when first we find one!
As has already been noted, IM 2012 is
due to be held in UK and the suggested venue
is again TNMOC. Our Autumn meeting will
provide an opportunity to discuss our plans
further and to consult with TNMOC about the
possibilities.
Of course, as usual, bring any of your
interesting slide rules and any questions you
have to this meeting.
Auto suggestion – is this what
happens when Hon Ed and I spot seven sets of
carpet bowls around an Antique Fair and then
never see such a thing again, or when you just
have to go to the loo when someone else is
already there? Either way the “Number 11 bus
syndrome” where you don’t see one for a long
time then along come 3 might be explicable by
Auto Suggestion and must be yet another
natural law of collecting. (Two or is it three
laws in one Musing – heavens!) My latest book
has catalysed a number of people to come up
with new slide rules of the 2-2 variety which
do not feature in the written work and therefore
are all the more valuable to me, please keep
them coming, I do appreciate any and all new
information!
Please contact the Editor 10 to 14
days in advance of the meeting so that
TNMOC can be advised.
Musings 38
Peter Hopp
A recent phone call from another
UKSRC member sent a strange shiver up the
back – he had just bought a copy of my book
“Slide Rules …” at the Oxfam shop in Ross on
Wye, also a copy of each of Dieter’s and
Ijzebrands early slide rule books. Was this the
end of an era, or the start of real fame? Also,
who had stopped collecting? Anyway, I was
delighted to see that recycling does work,
rather than the book used as kindling or a
doorstop. Strange feeling though!
I came across the following quote
recently when I was looking up stuff on the
HP-35 (the first Hewlett-Packard electronic
calculator) and enjoyed it so much I just had to
share it:
"Our object in developing the HP35 was to give you a high precision
portable electronic slide rule. We thought
you'd like to have something only fictional
heroes like James Bond, Walter Mitty or
Dick Tracy are supposed to own."
Hewlett-Packard, "HP-35 User Manual."
1972.
Yet another of life’s rich and
manifold laws which I can truly relate to is
Giles’s Law1 which states that machinery is
most likely to break down at the moment when
it is needed the most. Not one I had previously
come across, and strangely this one does not
seem to feature anywhere on t’Internet. The
nearest to it was: “Inanimate objects can be
1
“The Rustic Scribe” by RWF Poole, pub Michael
Joseph, London 1991. An excellent, gentle, read!
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
As others would see you. The boss
would say it is yet another manifestation of my
arrogance (or is it ignorance?) that I really do
not care too much what others think of me. It is
the way I react to others which is much more
important. I am a firm believer that it is better
to say nothing than to say something hurtful;
however I do find it very hard to button my lip
when I believe that what is being said is
foolish, or patronising, (a cardinal sin) and
some interviewers on the dreaded “box” would
feel the sharp edge of my thinking as they ask
positively inane questions. However the
catalyst for this meandering was having seen
myself
mentioned
in
Alex
Bellos’
“Adventures in Numberland”.
“Wispy
eyebrows, blue eyes and luxurious jowls” –
they’re green, damn it!
is – I mean, I can’t be unusual in my squirrel
tendencies – or am I? Amongst the many types
of ephemera are postcards and cigarette cards,
and in my younger more masochistic days I
actually used to ask postcard sellers at antique
fairs whether they had postcards of slide rules
or indeed any other instrument type. The
responses I received ranged from the merely
incredulous to the one that implied “lunatic –
watch the takings,” so I gave up asking!
E-bay recently has featured a couple
of such things, so maybe I was not totally
deluded. First is a series of three cigarette
cards from Ogden’s cigarettes featuring ways
of telling the time, the first a sand or hour glass
reminding the preacher how long his sermon
was, next a clepsydra or water clock with a 24
hour dial labelled 100BC – seems fanciful; and
finally another clepsydra, a giant Egyptian one
which made me think of a gents urinal, but
there, that’s me. Nowhere does it say if there
were more in the series, or what they were, and
no dates. They had not sold after two listings at
£0.99p each plus £1.75 p&p.
I have a very soft spot for Garry
Brookins and his Pluggers, who have featured
here twice previously. Yet another, this time in
colour, is so true of present world ignorance –
or am I taking it too seriously? Of course I
am! Enjoy!
Next up is a series of 5 undated
postcards. These also feature a form of
timepiece, this time sundials covering the full
range of dials from an early stone one through
to fairly recent devices such as the bowl dial
and one with a pre WW1 Pilkington Gibbs
heliochronometer, the acme of sundials, as it is
only the heliochronometer that gives a direct
and accurate reading of Standard Time
throughout the sunlit year. To me as clever and
attractive as they are, it seems way over-thetop to employ clockwork to keep a sundial
accurate and allow it to follow the Analemma,
the yearly local equation of time. By the way,
the Word spell checker – ignorant device that it
is – gives the “correct” alternate for this as
Anal Emma! The mind boggles! However,
sundials with a heliochronometer were used to
set and correct the local railway clocks at the
beginning of the 20th century! These cards are
also rather attractive, but only peripherally
related to calculation. The bowl postcard sold
for £0.99p, plus p&p, the other 4 did not sell at
the same price. Shame really!
Ephemera!
“Ephemera” – there’s a word that has
always attracted me, something ethereal and
light and floaty and hard to grasp – how’s that
for poetry? The reality (according to the
Concise Oxford dictionary) is much more
prosaic: “Insect living for a few days … thing
of short lived usefulness” now generally used
to describe the bumph that was usually thrown
away and which we collectors now value so
much for the information that adds to the
history of our collections. It has always
amazed me how little slide rule ephemera there
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Peter Holland and his colleagues have
revised and brought up to date this book with a
wealth of additional information and it is a
recommended and essential addition to the
slide rule collector’s library.
The book describes all the slide rules
manufactured by A.W. Faber and A.W. FaberCastell. With two additional chapters, it
contains information about each series of
models, the scales, the patents and the
materials used. It also provides detailed clues
on how to date every slide rule made by this
manufacturer.
It is an invaluable source of
information for all lovers of these unique
analogue calculating aids.
Further details can be found at:
www.peterholland.de/fc
Peter Holland, Senecaweg 11, 50321
Brühl,
Deutschland,
+49-2232-210334,
PHolland@t-online.de
How Round is your Circle? Where
engineering and mathematics meet
John Bryant and Chris Sangwin, Princeton
University Press, 2008. (£7.99 Postscript).
Co-author Chris Sangwin is an exmember of the UKSRC and contributed an
article on his father’s Magnameter slide rule
which he refers to again in the chapter on slide
rules. Whilst a little mathematics is required it
is easy to follow the theory of planimeters and
to understand how to make the world’s first
ruler and drill a square hole.
Thought
provoking even for the non-mathematician.
But, at long last, I have found
something ephemeral which is both technical,
and vaguely related to calculation, and as we
all know, all will come to them who wait! So
it is just a matter of time till I find a postcard
related to slide rules.
Bookworm
Slide Rules, A.W.Faber/A.W.Faber-Catell
Peter Holland in collaboration with Dieter von
Jezierski, Günter Kugel and David Rance
160 pages, A5, hardback. Price worldwide
€15.00.
Two books with slide rule references:
“Signor Marconi’s Magic Box”
“Oppenheimer, Portrait of an Enigma”
I seem to have mused on a book of
some sort in each of my last few Musings, so
instead, here is a pair of books covered
separately. “Signor Marconi’s Magic Box”
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
by Gavin Weightman, published by Harper
Collins in 2003 was an extremely fascinating
look into the early days of the Marconi
Company and the man himself (it was
fascinating to discover that the company that
originally employed me, the Marconi Wireless
Telegraph Company, was their longest lived
name). Highly recommended, sadly it never
answered one of my long term queries, nor
provided a picture – did the man ever use a
slide rule? A second equally fascinating but
very different book was “Oppenheimer,
Portrait of an Enigma” by Jeremy Bernstein,
published by Duckworth in 2004. Both
Marconi and Oppenheimer were undoubted
geniuses, and both suffered paranoia and
delusion
for
that
reason,
however
“Oppenheimer” failed to educate me as to how
the USA could ever have become so deeply
embroiled in McCarthism and have a boss of
the FBI such as Hoover, but there you go, well
worth the read, recommended. Both books
were bought via Postscript2 at knockdown
prices.
semi-modern computer, working with slide
rule was unremitting drudgery particularly on
lengthy strings of calculations. I still twitch
fairly violently at any mention of “tolerancing”
an electronic circuit, but that’s another story.
The second mention referring to the
calculation of nuclear forces in a neutron star,
he goes on to say that “there is a complication
regarding the gravitational forces in a neutron
star”, continuing “the theory is highly complex
and the equations notoriously difficult to solve.
In fact the relevant equations had never been
written down”. With the help of Volkoff and
Tolmans we were able to write the equations
but then solve them “Oppenheimer and
Volkoff had to do this numerically, one
supposes with slide rules”.
Incidentally, while trying to find a
picture of Oppenheimer with a slide rule I
came across the following blog written by a
Professor Emanuel Kowalski (Professor of
Maths at ETH Zurich) who had never seen or
owned a slide rule.3 It seems unbelievable that
a professor of maths can be such without ever
having owned a slide rule, but there you are,
modern times!
“The Magnetic North”
Oppenheimer was a slide rule user (I
wonder where his slide rule is now?) and there
are a couple of mentions in the book. One
struck a real chord with me, “In the spring of
1935”
writes
Bernstein,
(page
35)
“Oppenheimer, who was then in Pasadena on
his annual pilgrimage to Cal Tech, was able to
write to Lawrence, ‘I am sending Melba today
with an outline of the calculations & plots I
have made for the deuteron transformation
function. The analysis turned out pretty
complicated & I have spent most of the nights
this week with slide rule and graph paper.’
The idea of Oppenheimer spending his nights
doing with a slide rule something that can now
be done in a few minutes with any PC is quite
moving”. We indeed forget that as essential
and excellent as a slide rule was to any
calculator, compared to a modern or even
Another literary quote appears in Sara
Wheeler’s book “The Magnetic North” in
which she tells the story of one Gino Watkins
who planned the British Arctic Air Route
Expedition (BAARE) in Greenland. Rather
than rationing supplies during an expedition,
Watkins favoured consuming supplies until
they ran out. His philosophy was “If it was
worked out by slide rule that each man had
0.65 ounces of jam per day, it seemed to take
the flavour away”. This is also well worth the
read and a fascinating look at all aspects of life
within the Arctic Circle on all continents.
pmh
3
2
http://blogs.ethz.ch/kowalski/2009/05/14/my-new-sliderule/
http://www.psbooks.co.uk/
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Inventions”, pub. 1983, and also the “New
Scientist” of 22/29 December 1983
F-C Price List
The caption reads – “IF ARCHIMDES HAD
KNOWN OF IT”
Apparently the inventor, Fred
O’Brien, offered the plans for this device to
“Design” magazine for publication. The editor
was very impressed as the design also included
an auxiliary light source and accepted the plans
for publication. Fred then confessed to this
hoax, but the plans were published and
ultimately an entrepreneur asked whether the
device could be mass-produced. In the fullness
of time 150,000 were made in Hong Kong!
The ultimate accolade (for me anyway) was
that the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World rang up to
find out how it worked! What was the device?
A nocturnal sundial. A Google search will find
you the full story which is far too long to
publish here, and full of bits that would boggle
the mind of anyone less credulous – one would
hope! Anyone got one? I could not find one on
e-Bay.
Mystery Instruments
Courtesy of Dave Green & e-Bay
In
Jan
2011,
e-Bay
item
250747741696, sold for over $500. It was
advertised
as
an
“Antique
19th.
Century brass device/curiosity produced by
San Francisco makers Will & Finck”. The
blurb continued: “The item, for unknown use,
by design (in our opinion) appears to have
been intended as either a type of cartograph
(Maps/drafting), or as some have speculated,
possibly for use as a gaming /gaff /cheat
device. Will & Finck were noted Cutlery
& Tool makers during the early days in San
Francisco who also manufactured (out their
back room) several ingenious forms of gaming
and card cheating devices as well as special
made to order pieces.” The central knob is
divided but un-graduated, the slot at the bottom
has a pantograph underneath. All fascinating
stuff, but really, what was this 8½″ x 5½″
device for? Any ideas?
Courtesy of e-Bay
Courtesy of Design magazine, January 1981
Also in Jan 2011, e-Bay item
160537885574, was advertised as an unknown
instrument, of “…superb quality and dates
from around 1860… the box is made from the
I found this incredible device in a
small Readers Digest book “Extraordinary
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
finest mahogany with original brass hook
latches. The instrument is made from brass and
is screwed into the box, which is lined with red
velvet. 25cms long, 21.5cms wide and 4cms
tall. Again, any ideas?
cover having a red arrow engraved on it and a
movable pointer. The only possible clues (via
Google) are that 100 yards per minute was
British (and other) Army marching pace, or
possibly 3 knots; and 88 yards per min is 3
mph. It sold for just under £200 but what was
it for? If you wish better pictures please e-mail
me.
Courtesy of e-Bay
Think Geek
E-Bay does bring up some extremely
interesting devices, January 2011 being
particularly
fruitful.
Described
as
a
“Mysterious Circular Calculator” e-bay item
230570156795 has a lacquered brass body
some 3″ in diameter with two sets of scales,
plus a pair of slide rule scales on the body, one
set “100 yards per minute”, the other “88 yards
per minute”. Both the sides have an outer scale
resembling the face of a clock with Roman
numerals, divided into the usual 5 minute
intervals. Each side also has a rotating disc,
one with 5 scales on it turned by one of the two
knobs and a matching arm operated by the
other knob, the second side with 4 scales and
the arm having different scales and with the
By chance I found the website
www.thinkgeek.com and their promotion of
brand new slide rules made in China. The
company, based in Fairfax, Virginia has a wide
range on intriguing items including the student
slide rule illustrated above. The rules are all
plastic, seem well made but a little stiff on first
use and are 250mm scale length. They are
supplied in a cardboard box and are complete
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
with leatherette case. For those interested in
obtaining one of these rules, the price is $19.99
plus postage and there may be duty to be paid.
WARSZAWA 1959r”. There is also a symbol
that is perhaps best described as a cogwheel in
a frame marked “A 1”. The front scales are not
designated but a previous owner has inscribed
A/ B, CID/C, D. The S, ST and T scales on the
back of the slide are printed.
Reliance rule
In the last issue of SS (No. 37) an
enquiry was raised regarding the reliance slide
rule. The illustration showed a 5 inch rule.
Rod Lovett advised that there is a very similar
rule illustrated in Herman van Herwijnen’s
archive
and
can
be
viewed
at:
http://sliderules.lovett.com/herman/fulldetails.
cgi?match=3868 and click on thumbnail. This
rule is a virtually identical slide rule but being
a ten inch version it carries additional data on
the reverse. This rule belongs to John Mosand
but John is unable to provide any further
information.
Can anyone throw any light on this
manufacturer(?)? Other than the country of
origin which would seem to be Poland, do you
have any information? Let us know.
Miniature Thacher for
Children
The following Message in
the International Slide Rule Group’s Digest
was posted on April 1, 2011 by Rod Lovett.
There is no doubt that serendipity can
play an important part in the life of a slide rule
collector.
An Oddity
It started when an international flight
to Osaka in Japan was diverted for reasons
about which the pilot was quite vague. After
circling for what seemed like for ever but
probably was only a couple of hours and
running low on fuel we were diverted to the
nearby Kobe airport across Osaka Bay.
Our group, attending a conference on
6th generation programming languages,
decided to stay in Kobe for the night and move
on to Osaka the following afternoon.
In the morning we decided to explore
the Kobe Port Tower and it was there I met an
old (by definition anyone at any time who is
fifteen years older than me is old) chap who
immediately recognised the Aristo 868 I
carried in my top pocket and became extremely
animated.
He had no English and I have no
Japanese but in our group were two proficient
Japanese speakers (sadly not interested in slide
rules) who said that the Japanese chap (whose
name as I later found was, or as close as I can
The rule illustrated above was
recently acquired at an antique fair for a very
nominal sum. It is nothing spectacular and the
cursor is missing! However, in the well is the
inscription “ZAKL im DYMITROWA
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
make it, Sato Hiroshi) was claiming that he
collected "keisanjaku" and had a "very small,
very rare cylindrical keisanjaku" which he
called a "thecha". The Japanes translators being
quite young (fifteen years younger than me is
quite young) didn't understand the word
"keisanjaku" but got the impression it was
some sort of calculator – in this they were
correct.
The word "thecha" struck a chord and
I asked him how small? He held his hands
about 12" apart. I asked him whether perhaps it
was really about 2 feet long, holding my hands
out by that amount and he said , "No!, no! no!"
and held his hands out again at about 12" apart.
Would I be interested in seeing his
collection? Since he lived not far away and
since one of the Japanese speakers was
prepared to come with me off we went.
Most of his slide rule collection was
fairly disappointing - consisting mainly of
modern Hemmi's and Shanghai Flying Fishes
although there were a considerable number of
pocket rules of Japanese origin that I did not
recognise.
However he had two absolutely
amazing small Thachers. Roughly half the size
of a conventional Thacher they were
beautifully made – in fact works of art. (A
picture of what was to become mine can be
seen here:
Over a period of two hours, writing
copious notes and with much repetition from
the interpreter this is the bare bones of his story
fleshed out later with details of the larger
picture.
Shortly after WW2 an American, Dr.
W Edwards Deming, who was part of General
Douglas MacArthur's administration during the
occupation used his ideas on Statistical Quality
Control to help Japan rebuild its manufacturing
infrastructure. (This methodology, in which
quality control was central, was to enable
Japan in less than twenty years to outmanufacture in terms of quality the combined
might of the United States and Europe. A
fascinating account can be read by Bruce
Craven, "Thoughts on Japan, Deming, Quality
and the Statistical Quality Control Slide Rule",
in the Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 9,
No 2, Fall 2000 Pg 59.)
The mathematics involved was not
straightforward and it was long before
statistical rules such as the Pickett Model 6 had
been developed.
The Japanese were determined to use
these statistical techniques (long before the
Americans and Europeans) across the whole
range of their manufacturing industries but
quickly came across a problem. They had a
completely
inadequate
number
of
mathematicians for their requirements.
Then someone had a brainwave, the
calculations, although complex, could be
broken down into a long sequence of much
simpler
calculations
involving
only
multiplication and division.
A production line of human
calculators (called computers in those days!)
would be used in which successive result were
passed down the line and once the line (of
fifteen) had been filled – effectively priming
the pump – a high level of parallelism and
hence
speed
could
be
achieved.
A squad consisting of two teams of fifteen
calculators each was used and a result was
accepted if the two teams had agreement
within 1% of each other.
It was quickly realised that
conventional slide rules, even 20" ones, created
rounding errors which quickly built up and
made the results meaningless. However,
Thachers and Fullers were more than accurate
enough.
The problem of manpower remained.
It was decided at a very high level, but by
whom remains a mystery, that since the need
was so urgent and there was a dearth of
manpower then, in the short term, teen-age
children could be used for this purpose.
In a trial of a Fuller it soon became
apparent that, although accurate enough, it was
just too awkward for the children to use and
hence too slow; even by reasonably adept
children in their mid-teens.
At this point they moved their trial to
a Thacher which again proved accurate enough
but again was awkward to use because of its
size and the comparatively small physiques of,
in the early days, the somewhat malnourished
children.
However it was considered to be
capable of greater speed than the Fuller and a
remarkable decision was made, ignoring all
patents, to create a batch of reduced size
Thachers suitable for children.
After brief analysis of a typical child's
range of movements, it was decided to reduce
the size of a Thacher from approximately 22.5
inches to approximately 12.5 inches.
Somewhat surprisingly this had very little
impact on the accuracy (or do I mean precision
?) of the device.
In the amazing short time of three
months, a prototype had been created which
proved eminently satisfactory and over the next
two years a small factory in Kobe built, it is
believed, approximately 3000 of these devices
to be circulated to 100 squads scattered
throughout Japan.
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Was this the start of what was to
become
the
Japanese
talent
for
miniaturization?
Sato Hiroshi was a calculator in the
only squad based in Kobe. The operational life
of a squad was approximately 3 months after
which burn-out set in rapidly and accuracy
dropped off. Rather than replace complete
squads at the same time, a program was
introduced to replace members in the squad at
set intervals to minimize the disruption. (It was
very quickly noticed that whilst boys were
significantly faster than girls they lacked the
staying power and needed more breaks than the
girls. The organisation of such teams therefore
was quite difficult.)
The whole program was eventually
wound down after approximately five years –
why, Sato did not know but felt that it might
have been due to government pressure
concerned about the "inappropriate" use of the
children. Sato, though, had nothing but praise
for the program which he said gave him, and
others, a life long interest in statistics and led
him to become a teacher of the subject.
Sato Hiroshi was in the last
operational squad in Kobe at which time the
rules became surplus to requirements. How he
acquired the two mini Thachers I do not know
and did not ask!
I made it quite clear that I would love
to buy one of the mini Thachers and he made it
quite clear that he really wasn't interested in
selling. At some point a mismatch of cultures
developed. Apparently I should not have made
my disappointment so obvious. On seeing my
manifest sadness he gave it to me for nothing! I
couldn't possible accept such an offer and
made this quite clear at which point he gave all
the indications of being somewhat insulted.
The interpreter who was in the middle of this
mismatch eventually solved the problem by
suggesting that I accept the offer but then pay a
significant amount for the wooden box in
which it came (itself a minor work of art)!
Honour was thus satisfied and we departed on
very good terms.
The conference on 6th Generation
Programming Languages was an absolute
waste of time; it does seem as if Java, Ruby,
Python, C++ etc., etc and of course Fortran are
going to be around for many years to come.
And I never found out the reason for
the diversion of our aircraft from Osaka to
Kobe but I'm grateful as it led to the most
memorable event of my slide rule collecting
career.
Networm:
“Linealis.org”& “Rechenmaschinen”
This second Networm brings two
sites, first: http://linealis.org/?lang=fr to your
notice. This site is the French instrument
making web site and has a fantastic range of
French slide rule information available, as well
as planimeters and all sorts of other goodies. I
have had considerable helpful assistance from
its members; admittedly I have used a human
translator to make it easier!
The content is entirely in French,
which my school-boy French can just about
cope with to find the particular information I
am after, I can then recommend “Google
Translate” as the next step forward. “Block”
and “Copy” the French words from the web,
paste into the “Translate From” box on Google
translate, and Bingo, immediately is the
English available. This does produce somewhat
idiosyncratic translations on occasion, but it is
normally pretty obvious what was originally
intended. Recommended!
Second, make sure you have
bookmarked:
http://www.rechenmaschinen-illustrated.com/
this fantastic web site covers in glorious detail
every type of adding machine that seems to
have ever been produced with patent
information, drawings portraits of the
perpetrators etc. etc. Highly recommended!
Another way to save the world!
Skid Stick No33 of October 2009
carried information on a water powered
calculator; I guess my newly acquired 2″ x 1½″
x1″ water powered clock uses the same
technology for its fuel cell, powered not quite
as advertised with simple water, but with saline
water “for better power”! So what we now
need is hundreds of these devices buried round
our houses, connected to the guttering down
pipes, and all we have to do is chuck in a bit of
salt, wait for the next bit of soft weather, and
[As Rod says “One of life's great rules is never
to ignore the smell of a rat”.]
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Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
s2 = 4π2ab + 16(a2 – b2),
hey-presto save the world electricity! By the
way, the choking hazard is provided by the
very high tech filler – a plastic tube!
a  b
surface area of an ellipsoid (A)
15A/4π = 4(bc + ca + ab) = a2 + b2 + c2
where a, b, c, are the semi-axes.
This latter formula is derived from the
penultimate formula on page 283 of Elliptic
Functions as they should be by Albert Eagle,
Galloway and Porter 1958.
Rod Lovett sends us the following letter which
he wrote to The Times and which was
published on April 12.
Sir, We have been invited by David Willetts,
the Science Minister, to suggest a name for a
new engineering award that he hopes will
acquire the prestige of the Nobel Prize
(“Brunel, Boulton, Babbage? Your engineer
needs you”, April 9).
Booklet Covers II
Following the piece on booklet covers
featuring slide rules (SS 35), George Bryant
has provided another example. This the Radio
Test Equipment Manual by “Radiotrician” was
first published in 1948 by Bernards
(Publishers) Ltd.
For 350 years, since its invention in 1620 by
an Englishman, William Oughtred, the slide
rule played an increasingly important role in
the development of commerce, taxation,
weaponry,
navigation,
astronomy
and
engineering throughout the world. No
significant construction of any kind (dam,
building, railway, aircraft, spacecraft) built
between the 17th and the middle of the 20th
century was created without its use.
I can think of no name for this award more
appropriate than that of William Oughtred.
Rod Lovett
Addlestone, Surrey
Photographing SlideRules
The demise of my old scanner was
something I did not realise the full impact of
until I came to try and ‘photograph’ a slide rule
(any slide rule, it turned out) using my fancy
new “All-In-One” replacement Printer/
Scanner/ Copier. Frankly the results were
awful, and absolutely nothing could be done to
improve the situation. Even the thickness of a
cursor left the higher edge blurred, and trying
to scan a pocket-watch device was completely
hopeless. My old scanner enabled me to take
perfect pictures of slide rules of all types,
watch, rectilinear and even show any guff
written in the well. A bit of research was called
for, flat paper was pretty good, but even this
was sometimes “too good” as any imperfection
I suspect the illustrator never used a
slide rule in anger as the main scale divisions
appear to be all equi-spaced.
Letters
On elliptic mensuration,
Duckwoth offers the following:
George
The exact formulæ for the perimeter of an
ellipse and the surface area of an ellipsoid
involve elliptic functions. More convenient,
though approximate, formulæ which are
amenable to slide rule calculation are:
perimeter of an ellipse (s)
12
Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
in the original picture shows up very
obviously. It turns out that, the old one used a
CCD (Charge Coupled Device) which has a
sort of optical lens with it and so you do get
some depth of field, the new one uses a CIS
chip (Contact Image Sensor) which has no
optical system or electronics involved with it
and thus zero depth of field. I am now
scouring Boot Sales for a working old scanner!
different devices, and there is a certain logic to
the words, types and watch furniture) had me
hunting high and low on t’internet to find
examples which I could add to my newly found
schema to prove it or otherwise. One example
was on Rod Lovett’s magnificent web site
(http://sliderules.lovett.com/) and needless to
say, Murphy’s Law prevailed and it turned out
to be an anomaly – i.e. not fitting into one of
my slots. E-mails were exchanged to no real
conclusion, finally culminating in one of Rod’s
excellent “Just-So stories of the slide rule
world” which have featured in SS previously.
I just had to share it: He writes:
However, necessity is the mother of
invention,
and
the
problems
with
photographing pocket watch slide rules was
proving to be a bit of a challenge, again with
depth of field, shadows, details and all the
other sorts of things that are sent to try us.
While visiting our son in the USA I was briefly
(very briefly when I saw the price tag) tempted
by a light tent which was guaranteed to create
shadow-less pictures. Apart from a second
mortgage, it also required a pack horse to carry
it, so it is not only the Japanese and Rod Lovett
(see ISRG SR Digest Number 4358) who can
miniaturise things and my semi-miniature light
tent, slide rules for the use of, (see below)
works pretty well and is extremely portable!
A long time ago in a far, far land (France
actually) and a long, long time before computers
and backward compatibility became an issue, a
simple watchmaker (Un horloger simple)
decided to expand his product range (Gamme de
produits)
and
move
into
calculators
(calculatrices).
He decided that since humans came in many
shapes and sizes, his calculators would come in
many shapes and sizes; fat ones, thin ones,
different hair styles (crowns) etc., etc.
His workshop was his pride and joy. “A place
for everything and everything in its place”.
(“Une place pour chaque chose et chaque chose
à sa place”.)
He took enormous pride in matching fat
calculators with fat winders, thin ... etc., etc.
Then one day, catastrophe (calamité, désastre,
zut alors!!), his rare breed of cows ( he was also
a part-time farmer - Agriculteur à temps partiel)
stampeded and reduced his workshop to
matchwood.
Finding a white one is a bit difficult,
blue ones are common as muck, however the
cheap kitchen shop I bought this one in was
offering them at £2 for 3, and the carefully cut
aperture for the lens was courtesy of our
sharpest kitchen knife! It works particularly
well with subdued sunlight; bright sun tends to
show up shadows from the framework. A
small flash with tissue over the flash has also
been used reasonably successfully.
Parts everywhere. His system totally and
irrevocably destroyed.
For three days he was inconsolable but then
with a Gallic shrug (Un haussement gaulois )
and an expression not accepted by the
translators he returned to work. He was
however a changed man. Part of his brain had
become unhinged by the shock.
More Numbers and Patterns
From that moment on he didn't give a tinkers (Il
ne donne pas une bricole).
As someone who probably appears to
be at least slightly analy retentive, I do have a
fatal fascination with numbers and patterns.
Another recent skirmish, this time with
Calculigraphe variants (there are at least 12
All his calculator parts were in a great bucket
and to assemble a calculator he would insert his
hand into the bucket and by feel alone would
take the first appropriate part that came to
hand.
13
Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Little did he know or care that a century on
much time would be used in attempting to
rationalise his “designs”.
Can anyone offer an explanation - I
would love to hear it.
PMH
Many a true word spoken in jest! I am
sure that many of the patterns I hunt out of the
great jigsaw in the sky that I call our collecting
hobby are far better and more accurately
described by Rod’s hand in the bucket of parts
analogy!
Further Simple Thinking
Around Numbers
D Len Peach
I have had time to further think
around why when you multiply 123,456,789 by
8 the answer is 987,654,312. OK, I can see
why, but being 9 short of 987,654,321 rather
got me and so I began to explore round it and
the following pattern emerged
Even More Numbers
Ray Hems kindly gave me this little
booklet, published in 1971, the year after
Carol and I married. The very appropriate
slide rule on the cover – a 5″ PIC – is
interesting as are comparisons with today!
Just how much things have changed!
(1 x 8) + 1 = 9
(12 x 8) + 2 = 98
(123 x 8) + 3 = 987
(123,4 x 8) + 4 = 987,6
(123,45 x 8) + 5 = 987,65
(123,456 x 8) + 6 = 987,654
(123,456,7 x 8) + 7 = 987,654,3
(123,456,78 x 8) + 8 = 987,654,32
(123,456,789 x 8) + 9 = 987,654,321
I would think other in the UKSRC
must have up on this light years before me, but
because no one seems to have notified our
Editor I thought I would share it.
The Fuller Database
Incidentally going down this path has
thrown up other similar progressions, some
passed to me by other ‘number nuts’, which I
will share later if the Editor deems appropriate.
The Fuller database was started in
March 1996 in one of the earliest articles in the
Oughtred Society Journal, since then Dave
Nichols and I have studiously continued to
explore all sources of Fuller numbers for
updates, the latest update taking us to 684
entries, all happily in some sort of sensible
order. Not all years are populated and a
steadily decreasing number of years only have
one example but at least the logic was intact.
Then suddenly we have Fuller No 1744, dated
1902 offered for sale (see below), and our
database has an example numbered 1696 dated
1903, which has been checked and confirmed.
Antique Scientific Instrument
Fair
John Hunt Snr.
Sunday, 24th April 2011. Holiday Inn, Coram
Street, London. 1000 to 1630 hours.
A fresh title – and a fresh beginning.
Don Edwards, from Sheffield, is the new
sponsor; a fossil expert and an ebay seller
under the name of “petrifactioneer”.
I arrived at the venue at 0930
preparing to queue, as usual, behind 50-80
early bird collectors – but, on this occasion, I
met only 2 similarly bewildered collectors
ahead of me. The discussion between the three
of us as to the lack of punters questioned the
viability of organising the Fair on an Easter
weekend and whether the Fair would be a flop.
14
Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
Not to worry – a great wedge of customers
suddenly arrived – evidently the organisers had
already sold tickets in advance as nascent
queues were forming and these collectors had
gone off to feed and water themselves in
comfort rather than standing in a queue – quite
civilised and sensible.
All the usual European, Austrian,
Belgian, Dutch, French and German
stallholders were present The Circle was
represented by Vic Burness, Colin, Peter, Tom
Martin and David Riches and David Green –
again Conrad Schure was absent. From Vic I
bought a Great War slide rule, made in
Germany but sold in England, with absolutely
no markings whatsoever - I have a theory about
these anonymous German slide rules!
Interested in the Schumacher rule and
sheath? The rule is in perfect condition with
original instructions and a free copy of the
2004
Oughtred
Journal.
Michel
&
Brigid Morizet can be contacted by email
morizetb@club-internet.fr, but be prepared to
have £2000 handy.
Here is a greatly overdue picture of
Vic Burness, one of our long standing
members, at his stall at the fair. He is always
our first port of call when attending this event.
In the background Peter Hopp is in deep
discussion with one of our antipodean
members, Dave Green.
Next ASIF at the same venue, 16th
October 2011.
Stanley Barnard’s calculator
Courtesy of Roger Broady and his
eagle eye, comes a piece out of the Antiques
Trade Gazette dated 2nd April 2011, covering
the sale of a Stanley “Barnard’s Coordinate
Spiral Slide Rule” at the Stroud Auction
Rooms in early March, for £2000! (See below)
We have always known Barnard’s to be the
rarest of the Fuller family of spiral slide rules,
and this one was in particularly good condition,
but without handbook - does anyone have a
copy? Anyway, it mentions the last sold in
1992 by Christies was sold for £400.
David Riches inspecting the Schumacher rule
Also, I bought, from Michel Morizet,
a French military surveying slide rule with
scales in grads. Later, Michel proudly showed
me his showpiece – a Schumacher System rule.
A rule that I confess I have never heard off.
David Riches filled me with a very succinct
description. The rule was a Faber-Castell System Schumacher – according to Peter
Holland’s book it is number 366 and was made
from 1909-1929 and works with modula
arithmetic. Colin added that the Schumacher
System was reviewed in the Oughtred Society
Journal Volume 3 No.2 Fall 2004.
Both Colin and David made purchases
– David picked-up an ivory Coggeshall type
rule that folded into four sections at an
enviable price.
Now I love the coincidences that are
part of the collector’s life, and this Barnard is
no exception. The article goes on to say that
the device was invented by the Sri Lankabased mathematician Henry Osmund Barnard
(1869-1934), “who improved upon a similar
design for a logarithmic calculating drum
c1878 by George Fuller”. The blurb carries on:
“...it did all that the Fuller rule could but also
‘The natural and logarithmic values of
trigonometrical functions of any angle can be
determined by inspection …’ etc”. Now comes
15
Skid Stick Issue 38
June 2011
the coincidence. Recently while hunting for
French patents for pocket watch slide rules, I
chanced upon French patent No 222,999 dated
15 July 1892 for a “Calculateur logarithmique
a cylindre” par Mr Henry Barnard… à Ceylon”
which I had thought was relevant and from
which the diagram below is taken.
our Fuller database shows that the earliest of 5
Barnard’s recorded is 1915/51 and the last is
1949/105. I somehow doubt that the first
Barnard matches the French patent date; but a
simple piece of Excel spreadsheet work shows
that the straight line of serial numbers versus
year (below) extrapolates back to about
Number 10 in 1890 so it maybe was possible.
Barnard was a Professor and Fellow of the
Royal Astronomical Society, so when was he
able to design his Spiral Rule is difficult to
guess. However, perhaps he was unable to get
his “cylinders” made in France and after a
while he came to an agreement with Stanley,
and was still designing and researching in 1906
which may have helped in his negotiating with
Stanley. Any more information out there?
120
100
S er N o
80
60
Ser No.
40
20
0
1880
1890
190 0
1910
1920
1
930
1940
1950
D a te
Cooke, Troughton & Simms
John Hunt Snr.
So now we have a date when the
earliest Barnard could possibly have been
made – or anyway, shortly afterwards – but
there is no equivalent UK patent. This is no
surprise as George Fuller’s UK patent 1044 of
1878 must have taken precedence, and viceversa there is no equivalent French patent for a
Fuller. It is worth noting that Barnard was a
mere lad of 23 when he was awarded the
French patent. I now had a name to go on a
deeper UK patent hunt, via the UKSRC Patents
CD, and sure enough Patent 22,360 of 1906 by
C.A. Day for Barnard H.O. is a fascinating
device for solving triangles in spherical
trigonometry using superimposed circular
scales as shown in the figure below from that
patent.
I doubt it was ever made.
My reading on the coach back to
Norfolk from ASIF was a last minute purchase
- a catalogue of Cooke, Troughton and Simms
1920 “Surveying Instruments”. It brought back
memories of my first microscope. Thumbing
through the pages I wondered exactly how the
position of British instruments was surrendered
in the post WW2 world. Where are the Becks,
Watsons Cookes and Vickers instruments?
How on earth did our political masters junk our
manufacturing capabilities and imagine that we
were going to rely on service and financial
industries to pay our way!
Portion of Cooke, Troughton & Simms 1920
Catalogue
Sadly there are no identifying dates or
numbers on the auctioned Barnard’s. A look at
16