SKID STICKNEWSLETTER OF THE UK SLIDE RULE CIRCLE

ISSUE 46FEBRUARY 2014

Editor:Peter Hopp1 Dorewards AveBockingBraintreeEssex. CM7 5LT

Tel: 01376 326132Email: peterhopp678@btinternet.com

www.uksrc.org.uk

ISSN 1466 3570

Happy New Year to all!

Our very best compliments of the Season – slightly belated – and every goodwish for a happy and healthy New Year to all our readers!

Having got the seasonal stuff out of the way, my next and very vital task is tothank the new Skid Stick “production team” of Peter Fox, our “Delivery Manager,”and our new printers: Nick Briggs at “Generate Print and Design” in Sheffield whohave done such a splendid job for us on Skid Stick 45. This has definitely usheredin a new era where we now can publish Skid Stick at least as cheaply as we used toin the days when Colin manfully cranked the presses (pressed the buttons on his PCand printer) on our home produced efforts, and as far as I am concerned it is a majordelight that someone else is involved with the “getting them out and posted”activities – our thanks to all! From the several very kind e-mails that have comeinto the Editorial Office (my PC) I believe it has been fairly universally agreed as asuccess – long may it continue! By the way, if there was any problem with yourSkid Stick – and there were some – please let us know so we can take note, replaceit, and improve what we do wherever possible.

As usual we do hope that our readers will continue to let us have not only itemsfor Skid Stick (and of course Gazette) but also please let us have your ideas for anyfurther improvements or new ideas for the contents, please let us keep these “living”organs rather than moribund and unread papers. This plea for material is universaland indeed no member anywhere (even in the old colonies) should feel excluded.We can simply translate between any versions of our common language!

Our first Gazette under “new management” has similarly been successful; Rodand I enjoyed getting it out in time for it to be on-sale at the German InternationalMeeting, and it too has come in for positive reviews. As always we are just theproduction team, you the members of UKSRC are the source of the contents. Pleasedo continue to let us have articles for inclusion, I am sure that I speak for Rod aswell when I say that we are proud of the breadth of content that we included andlook forward to much more of the same.

The general reaction to having a Facebook presence has been very similar fromall corners, a general dislike of gaining myriads of unwanted and unknown“friends”. One reaction was very apposite, Bill Thacker said, “However, I now seethat many well respected companies appear to have a Facebook presence, e.g.National Trust, Kellogs Coco Pops and Durex to name a few. I now think I feel likethe caveman who has been left a wheel by a band of passing Neolithics, but whogave no instructions on how to use it, so it now languishes, unused, at the back ofmy cave together with my Sinclair Micro TV which can only receive analoguesignals and an old £.s.d. Addiator. Is this social media something else we aremissing out on through ignorance and general decrepitude?” Now, we do have afirst stumbling Facebook presence, see www.facebook.com/UKSRC.

We had a real attack of apathy on this vexed subject, what we have is courtesyof Tina Cordon, to whom many grateful thanks for her sterling efforts! Why notconnect and let us have your comments – printable or publishable only please – andwe will take it from here! Have fun!

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

New Member

Cyril Catt14 Greystone Street

North LambtonNSW 2299.

.Australia.612.4952 1861

ccatt10@optusnet.com.au

Roger Hankey30 Ashpole Furlong

LaughtonMilton Keynes MK5 8EF

rogerhankey@live.co.uk

Membership Directory

New Address (or update to Directory)Sealy, Peter

32 Kingfisher RoadMountsorrel

Loughborough LE12 7FGpeter.sealy@pera.com

Fisher, John 7 Appletrees

Wratten Road WestHitchin

Hertfordshire SG5 2ANU.K.

01462 620155

Change of e-mail addressOtto van Poelje

ovpoelje@rekenlinialen.org

Ijzebrand Schuitema

1929 – 2013

It is with great sadness that we start another SkidStick with the belated Obituary for a second “foundingfather” of the European slide rule collecting fraternity.IJzebrand was one of a kind. There can never be anotherwith the single minded drive and enthusiasm that he broughtto collecting slide rules, and indeed such was his focus thathe had the largest collection of slide rules, probably in theworld, which, thank goodness, found a final home during2009 in the Arithmeum in Bonn, and resulted in Ijzebrandbeing awarded The Wolfgang Paul Medal by the Universityof Bonn that year.

Ijzebrand was one of the founder members of the DutchKring in about 1993, around the same time as the formationof our own UKSRC and certainly was one of its guidinglights as well as a leader of the thoughts and actions thatturned into the annual International Meetings of slide rulecollectors, the first held in Utrecht in 1995 under the DutchKring as hosts, originally only alternating between Hollandand the UK, but soon including Germany and then the USAas well as on one occasion Switzerland.

Ijzebrand’s influence was seminal; the whole of the sliderule collecting fraternity will miss him.

Matters Arising

We have had considerable response to various items inSS45. Many, many thanks to all who responded!

Greene’s Computer.

Our thanks to both Colin and Graham Smith who wrotein regarding the Greene’s Computer. Colin wrote: “I have anexample of this disc computer mentioned in SS 45. I canconfirm that it is British and was made by the LondonNameplate Company. Sadly I cannot provide furtherinformation as it is at present on display at TNMOC and Iam not sure if it has any instructions with it”. Grahamsuggests that the Brighton address may give a clue to itsapproximate date of manufacture as this Company were oncebased in London (he had assumed it dated from the late1930's, but that was a pure guess). However, its literatureindicates its origins as from Dr. H. Greene, D.Sc. of 28Bishopsgate, London E.C.2. It retailed for 3 guineas.

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

This example of Greene’s Computer wasmanufactured by London Name Plate Manufacturing CoLimited in the Zylo Works Brighton England. It wasmanufactured before 1971 and displaying old pounds,shillings and pennies. The main body is manufacturedfrom 2 Aluminium circular panels printed and rivetedtogether with a Perspex slider pivoting on a large buttonhead rivet in the middle.

Colin continues by giving us information on anothercircular slide rule, he writes:

A similar disc in my collection is the ExchangeTelegraph Yield Calculator, an 8¼″ diameter plasticcalculator made exclusively for The Exchange TelegraphCompany Limited by UK Plastics Ltd. of SurbitonSurrey. The reverse gives the following information“Published Exclusively by the Daily Statistics Service ofThe Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd.” The address given is64 Canon Street, London with a telephone number of“City 5700” which may help in dating. The purpose ofthe calculator is to find the yield on shares and dividendrates, the instructions for use are on an accompanyingcard.

Colin Barnes

Hon Ed(E) Note: These were obviously a popular device, Ihave “The Times Yield Calculator” which has almostidentical scales but none of the “exclusive” stuff on theback. Let me know if you wish a picture.

------------------------------

London Nameplate Company

The mention of London Nameplate Company promptedan internet search, as they do appear to be the manufacturersof a perhaps surprising number of slide rules, particularlyFlight Computers and similar. Their web sitehttp://www.lnp.co.uk/History.htm is worth looking up, thefollowing is a potted history extracted from it: The origin ofThe London Name Plate Mfg. Co. Ltd. goes back to 1810,when Thomas Malby founded Malby & Sons, globe makersand printers of maps and Admiralty charts. Malby & Sonssoon made further use of their hand engraving skills byoffering engraved nameplates. In the late 19th century theyadapted new photographic and acid etching techniques formanufacturing nameplates in much larger quantities.Demand grew rapidly and in 1912 Henry Malby and his twosons launched The London Name Plate ManufacturingCompany from new premises in Bedford Road, EastFinchley. The original litho printing business continuedseparately until it was sold to HMSO in 1946. MeanwhileLNP had been incorporated (1920), moved to largerpremises in Clerkenwell and established a small factory inBrighton. The Brighton factory was expanded during the1930’s and at the onset of “the Blitz” all production wastransferred here from London. During World War II thecompany concentrated on making cockpit dials, bombaiming devices, plotting and navigational instruments.Although the name remains unchanged LNP never returnedto London, preferring instead Brighton’s bracing sea air andthe rolling Sussex Downs.

The 1950’s saw the introduction of very thin,anodised self-adhesive aluminium labels (LNP’s “Cal”products) and a further expansion of the Zylo Works. In the60’s traditional nameplate manufacture moved to a new siteat Shoreham, 6 miles along the coast. Today LNPmanufactures possibly the UK’s most extensive range ofhigh quality nameplates, self-adhesive labels and industrialgraphics. It also makes many associated products, includingprestige award plaques and badges, and supplies the Ministryof Defence with precision rulers, calculators and othermanual plotting instruments. With a staff of 100 in over35,000 sq. ft. of factories and offices the company is stillowned and managed by the Malby family, the 7th generationsince Malby & Sons was founded over 200 years ago.

Matters arising (Contd.)

Bill Thacker was one who came back on his experienceswith Facebook and also gave us an insight into modern dayEngland. He says: “I have just spotted your snippet aboutmetric timber and was reminded about when I also went fora piece of 4x2,

I needed a 6 foot length and was asked by the Y.O.P ladif I would like it cutting to imperial or metric length?

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

“Is there any difference?” I asked. “Oh yes, 1.8 metres is a bit shorter than 6 foot” “Well I really need 6 feet”. “I’ll ask the boss if I can cut the metric length a

bit longer for you” With initiative like this who says education standards

are slipping?”------------------------------

Both Peter Holland and DavidRance responded with a namefor the “unknown” German 25cm Reitz slide rule. The logoshows the letters ‘A’ and ‘M’

for “Albert Martz”. We also now have a raft ofreferences to this very interesting retailer, see:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabuwerke www.marabu.de/images/.../Marabu_Chronik.pdf http://www.marabu.de/brd/01mprofil/index.html http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RARE-EARLY-DENNERT-PAPE-ALBERT-MARTZ-10-INCH-26cm-EARLY-SLIDE-RULE-RULER-CASED-/290913085739?pt=UK_Collectables_Scientific_MJ&hash=item43bbc5692b&ssPageName=RSS:B:SHOP:AU:101 http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sliderule/conversations/topics/43893

There are also references to Martz in both the KHHbook by Georg Schreiber and the 2nd Nestler book byGuus Craenen. A fascinating set of responses – thanks!

------------------------------

The unusual Unique booklet “Introducing the SlideRule to the man in the Street” aimed at “Joe Public” fromSS45 has an even more chequered history! Thanks toDavid Rance we now have access to a copy, he writes:“…I too was attracted and intrigued how the slide rulemessage of the booklet would be conveyed to “JoePublic”. When it arrived its meagre size (5½″ x 4½″) andlimited content (8 pages) had me worried it might havetrouble living up to its title and it was perhaps nothingmore than a bit of Snodgrass-like verbosity. Having had achance to study the contents it does have aspects thatgive a degree of credence to the title of the booklet. Athermometer is shown in the inside cover page. This isinnovatively introduced as the icebreaker – “…. anyoneable to read a thermometer can use a slide rule”.Certainly an interesting and novel (to me) way todemystify the complex image associated with slide rules.The justification for the “…. the man in the street” claimappear to come from (and perhaps partially justified) bythe examples given. A multiplication example using theEiffel Tower is inspired even if the ease of estimating thedecimal point is quickly dismissed in a couple of lines.The other trade based examples are cleverly chosen toappeal to Joe Public of the day – naturally being guilderbased, the Rate Of Exchange example deserves amention. Starting with the last paragraph of thepenultimate page, the booklet bravely tackles (albeit with

brevity) the knotty issue of accuracy and reading off the 3rd

and 4th integer in any slide rule result. Cleverly the authorthen revisits a couple of the example answers to show themathematical inaccuracy of the slide rule results BUT thensort of justifies the inaccuracy as being marginal. Finally thelast paragraph on the last page is out and out “Snodgrassism”- expounding the cheapness of the Unique range of sliderules! As ever, no helpful date of publication is anywhere tobe found. But the company name printed on the inside backcover means the publication date is earlier that you thought –at least before 1951.”

It then turns out that this is also a typical Unique bit ofrecycling of existing text. Colin, as HonEd (R), was also arecipient of David’s response and he came back with: “Yourpiece on Unique immediately attracted my attention.Reading about the thermometer I knew that I had seen thisbefore. I looked at your images but didn’t recognise thecover with its title. Rummaging through my booklets Ifound the image of the thermometer but in a book with thetitle “Introduction to the Slide Rule”. Comparing the textsof the two books I see that they seem to be the samealthough the text layout has some minor differences. Ofcourse my copy is also undated”.

Finally, none of us could answer a simple question:Why is the Unique Florida so named – does anybody know?

------------------------------

At the risk of slightly belabouring the subject of toasters,I had to include this cautionary tale, both because it involveda flip down side toaster (who can remember those?) and anintelligent (??) bloke who was caught out: Perhaps this willbe the last toaster tale. Derek Slater tells us: “The date,1949. The place RAF Compton Bassett. A 1920s toaster,shiny chrome body, toasting one side at a time. Drop-downrather than pop-up action, involving manual bread turn-over. Toaster powered via rubber insulated, fabric covered twinflex and a bayonet cap adapter to the lighting circuit. (Hairpins in the fuses) We all knew only to touch thebakelite bits, but the bread must have been unusually fresh,as the erk operating it got quite a sharp shock from the bread.Surprised, discomfited but ever-resourceful, he decided touse a fork to jab into the bread....” Ouch once again!

Help!

Assistance is requested from anyone who hasinformation on Frank, Purcell or Theo Farmar’s productsparticularly for the following items:

1 Farmars Guide to Farmars Rule for the Wine andSpirit Trade (except editions 1, 9, 13 and 16).

2 Documents, instructions, images etc. for FarmarsBank Rule, Sportsman’s Rule, Commercial (Rent) Rule,Time Reckoner, Bottle Gauge and Exchange Rule.

Any other products, advertisements or information thatmight help in dating the company’s activities.

Please let me know what you have available so thatcontact can be made to enable further detailed enquiries tofollow. Thank you.

colinabarnes@talktalk.net

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Does anyone have any information on Dargue Bros,and in particular their Sub-Ivory range of slide rulesdating from sometime around the 1930’s. These are aparticularly unusual plastic slide rule which appear tohave been specifically designed to look like ivory, andare a quite unusual and distinctive yellow / orangecolour. Does anyone know what the plastic was? Thankyou.

peterhopp678@btinternet.com

Also:

Does anyone know whoowned the logo, or what is thesignificance of the splitlocomotive logo (left) that isfound on some examples ofThomlinson’s Equivalent Paper

Slide Rule. It is most unusual and does not immediatelyappear to be relevant to anything to do with either paperor Thomlinson.

Cipher Disc

The illustration below is of a cipher disc supplied toGerman agents parachuted into England during WW II,all of whom were caught. The system is a very simplesubstitution cipher. The only moving part is the centrewith a random alphabet and numbers 0-9. In use theagent’s code letter would be aligned with the date of themessage being transmitted in Morse. Whether plaintextwas substituted from the outer ring to the centre or viceversa is not clear but whichever way there is obviouslyambiguity with the alignment e.g. is S on the outer ringsubstituted with W or J?

When the date was over 26, ten was subtracted sothat the 29th became the 19th. The random alphabet wasdifferent for each agent.

National Archives

What has this to do with slide rules?

What indeed does a distant picture of two horses in ahorse race have to do with slide rules? Well it is just toprove that slide rules can win horse races! The horse named“Slide Rule” which we showed on the front of SS41, June2012, did actually win a race, the Westchester, in 1943.

The accompanying commentary quotes: “New York,NY at the Empire Race Track. Plowing [sic] through sloppymud, Slide Rule (#5) with Jockey J. Westrope up crosses theline a winner in today’s Empire City meeting at Jamaica ….”The photo is dated 11 March 1943 which is before the onewe previously showed, so the talk of the Kentucky Derbyfollowed this win. Picture available from Historic Images /e-Bay.

A quick look at the web sitehttp://www.horseracingnation.com/race/1943_Kentucky_Derbyshowed that Slide Rule did run and came 3rd in the 1943Kentucky Derby, not a bad result I would guess.

…and I Quote

From “The Secret Life of Bletchley Park” by SinclairMcKay:

… Dilly Knox devised a way into the earlier unmodifiedversion of the machine [Enigma] that was being used inItaly. He did this partly by “rodding”; Knox’s “rods” were,in the most basic terms, a painstakingly calculated slide-rulestyle representation of the wiring and rotor position …

From “Flight” Sep 6, 1923To Gothenburg And Back In A D.H.50By Alan J. CobhamAmid all this turmoil of mathematical calculation with

slide rules everywhere, competitors looking rather anxious,there was one—Lieut. Bird, [apt name] flying theGloucestershire " Grebe "— who appeared to be very happy,contented and assured about everything.

From “The Daily Telegraph” Nov 11, 2013You’re Only As Good As Your Last Generous

Outing.By Christina OdoneDo you remember the maiden aunt? Spiky and bitter,

she’d visit at Christmas, sourly commenting on Mother’sturkey and the children’s manners. You’d approach her

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

warily, sensing nerves as tightly wound as her tidy bun.She’d hand over self-improving gifts,- a book about wildflowers or a slide ruler [sic] in its case ….

Unusual device

The illustration below is of a wrist worn mapmeasure, made inGermany, andshows quite clearlythe toothed wheel(bottom left) whichwould be used torun along one’smap to measure adistance. This isclassified as“unusual” as it isnot immediatelyobvious (or is it?)why it should bewrist mounted.

Not an obviousmethod ofoperation, or are

we missing something?

Non-boring pictures

Following on from the “Boring Pictures” in thelast Skid Stick, we have some that we may cheekily classas the opposite – that is, interesting pictures!

The picture above has an interesting slide rule and abanner which totally resonates to-day, and the fact that itfeatures a slide rule equally seems appropriate. Theaccompanying item from a US paper dated 3rd July 1960,shows that the picture was taken at a display in theMonroe, Washington State, reformatory, (reform school)to show how effectively the inmates were being preparedfor re-entry to the outside world. According to theinternet the reformatory is still in existence – with theslide rule one wonders?

Then we have another interesting – to me anyway –picture of Women’s Air Corps members using what they calla teletype machine, and what I would call a teleprinter –perhaps that dates me?.

When I first saw the picture I could immediately hear inmy mind the quite unique and unforgettable sound thesenoisy contraptions make. I cut my computing teeth onsystems which switched messages between teleprinterchannels, a type of fore-runner of the internet, but slowerthan treacle in comparison!

Finally, courtesy of John Hunt we have an incrediblyevocative picture of an American military slide rule usercomplete with K&E 20” slide rule, The sergeant is tracing amap of Sussex and the village of Burwash and a Burwarshlanding strip. This is one of the nicest and most moodypictures I have seen for some while, many thanks John.

I would call the light on his desk a Coleman lantern, Ifeel sure other names are also used, but what excellentphotography under such extremely difficult conditions.

Yet another electronic slide rule

Finding yet another brand of ‘slide rule calculator,’ thistime from Sears in the USA, has caused me to rethink what Ihad thought to be a particular feature of HP and TIcalculators – naming them thus as an aid to selling what was

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

initially not a popular device. When even the great SearsRoebuck organisation in the USA had an electronic sliderule that featured in their catalogues around 1974, onerealises the problem was endemic!

As with many retailers, Sears had their badge andlogos put on a device from a calculator manufacturer, thisone from that calculator stalwart Rockwell, and we cansee that the result was a very pleasing multi-functioncalculator which could handle most transcendentalfunctions. This is likely to be the last such device weshow in Skid Stick; just how common the name was is alltoo well illustrated via the new ISRM sitehttp://sliderulemuseum.com/Calculators_ISRM.htm

Very different Swiss technology

This interesting item was advertised on e-Bay under“Scientific Instruments” and proved rather irresistible asa very different image of Swiss micro (??) or precision(??) technology. Dating back to 1971, it was invented bya Belgian designer called Malrait and called the AroLady. Why? No one knows. This Swiss made devicewas a battery operated Bust Massager or Strengthener.Not perhaps typical Slid Stick material, nevertheless itstruck me that if e-Bay could categorise it as an“instrument” then Skid Stick could also use it as a verydifferent “instrument” within its pages.

There is a lot more information on this device as wellas more up to date models on the internet, it sold on e-bay for an incredible £81.99 plus post & packing (!!).Seehttp://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/categories/C64/P40/

Miscellaneous

New member Cyril Catt (who is actually on old friendgoing back to the original slide rule collecting world fromthe Yahoo Groups days) sent in a few odd balls for commentand query. First we have a “Breitling” slide rule watch hewas given as a present where he notes the accuracy of theslide rule leaves something to be desired. 2 x 2 yields only3.8. You have been warned!

Actually similar watches are now available via theinternet surprisingly cheaply as any Google search for“Breitling reproduction watch” will find.

Next is a lovely box for an ambidextrous Fuller short-calculator user. It has a hole in each side.

These have been noted with single holes on one side orthe other, this is the first two-holer on record!

On a more serious note,the box has some blind stampsinside the lid which make noobvious sense; can anyonehelp with deciphering theirmeaning? The marks areW&R, MB and 3 in thetriangular formation as shownleft.

Napier 400 celebrations

For Napier 400 associated activities, have a look at:http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/851_RelatedEvents.html

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

Bookworm

“Slide Rules in the Arithmeum”

Two items of particular interest to side rulecollectors, the first is a massive tome from theArithmeum in Bonn, titled “Slide Rules in theArithmeum” with a sub-title of “The SchuitemaCollection”. This beautifully produced 243 page (12″ x10″ - considerably larger than A4) volume is generouslyillustrated with many colour pictures and interestingwrite-ups from a number of “authors” including “ourown” Peter Holland and Werner Rudowski. At a bargainЄ24 plus p&p, this was selected as a suitable purchase byseveral of the attendees at the autumn UKSRC meeting,and I would second that choice. Definitely one of themore interesting and better produced books on thesubject we have seen recently. It is available in bothEnglish and German versions. For further info see:http://www.nicolai-verlag.de/slide-rules-artihmeum-p-475.html .

“Computing for Science, Engineering andProduction”

Our second item is the Proceedings of the 19th

International Meeting which took place in Bonn inOctober 2013 and is titled “Computing for Science,Engineering and Production” with the sub-title“Mathematical Tools for the Second IndustrialRevolution;” edited by Prof. Karl Kleine. This is aworthy 369 pages 8½″ x 6½″ of largely German withsome English presentations (plus translations of someAbstracts) given during the 3 days of the meeting. Asalways with Proceedings there is a wide variety ofsubject matter as well as differing depths. At Є36 plusp&p. it might not be to everyone’s budget. It is a shamethat the RST chose not to have electronic versions forsale, though some pages can be viewed electronically viaGoogle Books; search for the main title above.

e-Worm

The Art of Measuring Made Easy by the help of a newSliding-Rule by W. Bradford, R. Darby, and J. Hulls. ISBN9781170367087. Published by Gale Ecco, Print Editions

This looks like it might be interesting. It’s by our oldfriends Bradford and Hulls - see various editions of SkidStick and of course they had the second slide rule patent(686/1753) after Suxspeach. It is yet another of the e-Baybooks from the USA, sold either post paid or with separatep&p, both around the £10 mark.

“Collectanea de Logarithmis”

At the IM2013 Klaus Kuehn announced the 1st

production version of his “Collectanea de Logarithmis”which is a security protected CD-ROM Klaus has spent over2 years building. It is the “nirvana” for almost everything

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

currently known/published on logarithms – see the flyerbelow and he can be contacted via napier2014@iasim.defor further information.

Spring UKSRC Meeting.Sunday, April 6th 2014

David Nichols has kindly “volunteered” to host ourspring meeting. The usual arrangements apply, arrival10.30/11.00am with departure at approximately 4.30pm.A contribution will be requested to cover cost of lunch.Please be sure to notify Dave of your intention to attendat least a week in advance. This is important as,although entry of his postcode in your GPS, takes you tothe right area, Dave will provide detailed instructions forthe final stretch when you contact him.

As a theme for the meeting we propose Fowlerspocket watch calculators and other pocket-watch andcircular slide rules. Please bring any examples you haveso that we can make comparisons of the various types. Of course also bring any other interesting or recentlyacquired items you would like to display or discuss.

David Nichols36 Sheep Street

WinslowBucks. MK18 3HN

01296 715676uksrc.membership@btinternet.com

Antique Scientific Instrument FairSunday 20th October 2013, Holiday Inn, Coram Street,

London

Despite the inclement weather experienced by manyvisitors (the sky turned as dark as night and there was

very heavy rain on the M11) there was a good turnout ofboth buyers and dealers. It was encouraging to see so manyold faces and a few new ones. Most of the regular dealerswere in attendance including a good contingent from France.

Amongst the regular, unusual and esoteric items, a smallAmsler integrator in perfect and probably unused conditionwas drooled over at the Fleaglass stall. How much? If youhad to ask you couldn’t afford it.

Scientific Instrument Fair at a quiet moment

Having made a couple of circuits of the Fair and havingmade what purchases that our wallets allowed, UKSRCmembers Dave Green, David Riches, Peter Hopp and myselfretired to a corner of the hall with coffee to exchange notesand a lively discussion took place on the subject of JohnDavis and A G Thornton rules.

A final circuit of the Fair and more exchanges with thestallholders and it was time to make our return home.Fortunately the weather had by now much improved.

NOTE The venue for the next Fair has changed. On the27th April, 2014, it will be held at the Double Tree Hilton,Southampton Row, London, WC1 4BH. Entry time andadmission price remain the same.

True or Falsefrom an e-Bay seller

I heard that Fuller was obsessed with accuracy and wasbuilding bigger and bigger prototype flat slide rules. Theonly place in the university he could use his 250 ft model(then made of paper) was the gymnasium.

He fell asleep on the floor one evening working late andwas rudely woken by the caretaker, a fierce barn of a man,who needed to lay the gym out for an exam. Fuller scrabbledabout for something to roll his paper slide rule around andhappened on a cardboard tube that had been part of a carpetdelivery. As luck would have it, in his haste to escape thewrath of the janitor, the slide rule ended up spiralling up thetube instead of rolling straight as intended. It was onlyrecovering with a pipe of tobacco in his study that Fuller hadthe Eureka moment, he realised he could see the edge of hisrule as in spiralled up the tube and the Fuller calculator as weknow it was born. So the story goes anyway.

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

Reo Motorcar Company

Can anyone remember or know anything about theReo Motorcar Company? This is an original 1933 blackand white print ad for them located in Lansing, Michiganand Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Reo developed the ReoSlide-Rule plan for selecting trucks.

Equally obscure business adverts for the UK are alsoavailable, who knows anything about Fordath Foundryequipment of West Bromwich, taken from a 1960’sadvert. The slide rule is not very clear, but blown upconsiderably shows it to possibly be a Unique rule.

Autumn 2013 UKSRC MeetingSunday, 17th October, 2013, Bocking

In attendance: Rod Lovett, Dave Nichols, JerryMcCarthy, Colin Barnes, Trevor Catlow, Peter Fox,Colin Tombeur, Gerald Stancey, Ray Hems and of courseour convivial host Peter Hopp.

On arrival we were plied with tea and coffee andintroduced to our newest and by far the youngest member,Freya, Peter’s new granddaughter who took a lively interestin the proceedings until nap time.

As is usual our discussions included putting the worldto rights. But on a serious note Jerry McCarthy and DaveNichols reported favourably on their visit to IM 2013 andconsiderable time was spent discussing the newarrangements for the printing of the newsletter and sortingout a few hiccups in the latest Gazette. The new newsletterwas considered a great improvement now that it is beingcommercially printed. Problems with the Gazette werereally more of a nit picking nature and were basically of aneditorial type and to the general readership would probablygo un-noticed. The overall feeling was that bothpublications were excellent as usual.

Three Wise Men – Rod, Ray and Dave

During our deliberations of the morning the kitchen staffhad been busy preparing an excellent lunch which was muchappreciated by all. Many thanks to Carol and Suzanne fortheir hard work.

Discussions continued during the afternoon on varioustopics. Colin Tombeur introduced his latest creation, theLeibniz, System Radix, a 10-bit binary slide rule.

System Radix slide rule and detailLarge images at http://tinyurl.com/nkzwmju

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

Ray Hems had us drooling over his four rare 20/24inch Hemmi slide rules, mint and boxed! And a StanleyBarnard complete with instructions, absolutely mouthwatering!

Those not deep in conversation turn to the camera

Mine’s bigger than yours!

By 4.00pm it was time for final refreshments and tomake a start for our respective journeys home andprepare for the impending storm. Many thanks to ourhosts for an interesting and entertaining meeting.

Note:

If anyone would like to have their URL listed in theMembers Directory for 2014 please notify Colin Barnes.

colinabarnes@talktalk.net

Also pdf copies of the 2014 directory are availablefrom the above or the editor.

Gravesend Nuclear Bunker

Tina Cordon sent us the fascinating picturesfollowing of some very large circular slide rules at theNuclear Bunker at Gravesend. They look like largeRadiacs. The link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-24182800 takes you to a short video on theBBC website concerning the bunker; you can just see theslide rules behind the large lady, Melanie Norrisapparently, who gives the talk in the interesting video.

For those who like their bunkers, the one at KelvedonHatch near Brentwood is also worth visiting; theircontribution to the slide rule world was a display cabinet fullof the usual small circular Radiacs, which no one knew whatthey were for, when we visited. There is another one nearWix in Essex, but this has disappeared from the visiting lists,I believe it is now a data storage facility. Fascinating sites allof them; let us know if there is one near you, there used to bedozens hidden around the country.

Essential slide rule equipment

For the well travelled person, I can think of few items ofequipment more useful than a money clip, especially onewhich comes complete with a slide rule!

Made by Swank in the USA sometime in the 1960’s ithas a working slide rule which is recognisable as the same asused on their tie clips, how long it would last on somethingthat is in and out of a pocket is anyone’s guess.

Next is a cigarette lighter with slide rule, also essential?Perhaps not in these non-smoking days

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

The Chadwick #7285 Pocket "Computer - Lighter"with Circular Slide Rule & Perpetual Calendar was acircular slide rule designed as a Time-Distance Computerfor airplane pilots to calculate Time, Distance andGround Speed. It also converted Knots, Miles &Kilometres from one unit to another. It can also be usedlike a normal slide rule to multiply and divide. ThePerpetual Calendar is limited to the years from 1950 to1977. It was made in Japan after WWII, probably c.1950,as 1950 is when the perpetual calendar begins. A smalltriangular loop allows fastening to a key ring. It is about2" dia and ½" thick.

Just what you always wanted. With lighter andmoney clip, you only wanted for one more “essential”dress item. Which leads us onto:

Yet more slide rule tie-pins

Our 2013 peregrinations in the USA resulted in yetanother tie pin, shown here virtually twice full size.

This pretty poor picture does not give any realinkling of the incredibly detailed markings on a workingslide rule 1.75″ x 0.375″ with K,A/B,CI,C/D,L scalescontaining fantastic numbers of tick marks: A/B 180ticks, C/D 160 ticks, and L has 200 ticks It was made bySwank in the USA, according to Dieter1 and is a latemodel ‘D’ version, made sometime in the 1960’s.

Like London busses, you don’t see one for ages andthen along come four, so co-incidentally on e-Bay wasour second new example.

1 “Slide Rule Tie Bars” Dieter von Jezierski, OSJ Vol. 16 No 1, 2007, page 33

This one, other than showing “Made in USA” on thefront, is unlabelled, but has an unusually shaped movablecursor and similarly the selection of scales on it: A,C/D,πD/πD. It is 2¼″ long.

Our third new example, this time a 2″ non-working butdelightfully executed tie pin in gold toned metal withenamelled scales, also on e-Bay:

Once again no clues as to who made it or when, butcertainly we can see that for a not very large sum of money avery comprehensive collection of quite unusual slide rule tie-bars is available off the internet.

And finally, a simpler more artistic cousin of the non-working example above, but this time made by Kinney in theUSA and marked for K&E. No obvious dates.

Oughtred Society Awards andFellowships 2013

OS Award 2013 to:Clark McCoy

I will leave you the readers toaccess the complete detailedannouncement on the OughtredSociety web site, seehttp://www.oughtred.org/index.shtml

This award is richly deservedfor amongst other things, hisexpertise of things Keuffel &Esser, and maintaining his K&Ewebsite, see http://www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com

OS Fellowships 2013 to:

Klaus Krämer: for organization and presentation activitiesin German RST meetings and in IM2013,

Gonzalo Martin: for maintaining his website “Photocalcul”and by contributing substantial publications in OS Journaland IM Proceedings,

Willy Robbrecht: for contributing substantial publicationsin OS Journal and Gazette,

Carl Strange: for designing at short notice the lay-out of theSpring 2013 issue of the OS Journal,

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

Marc Thomas: for contributing substantial publicationsin OS Journal and IM Proceedings.

Our warmest congratulations to all six winners.

Russian slide rule instructions

David Hoare very kindly sent us this image of thefront cover of a Russian slide rule instruction leaflet.

счетная линейка (the title) translates to “slide rule”(so says Google translate) so that does not help us much!Does anyone have any idea whose might be the logo?David comments how very American the slide rule is,very like K&E or Post, and continues that inside aremany F-C type Reitz devices.

Super picture of a man using slide rule

Courtesy of Paul Crowther comes another lovelypicture of someone using a slide rule in a workenvironment, this time, as he says: “The picture shows aMercedes Benz W196 Formula 1 engine on test,presumably around late 1952 / early 1953. The chap satat the control panel clearly is using a slide rule to

compute the results. Thepicture came from a book“Mercedes Benz W196 - TheLast of The Silver Arrows” byMichael Riedner, Englishversion published by HaynesPublishing Group 1990. Theengine is a straight eightcylinder, 2,496 cc, producing

ultimately 280 PS (PS stands for Pferd Stark - German forHorsepower, effectively BHP) at 8,700 rpm”. I love it,especially as the person is wearing a boiler suit!

Paul continues: “The second picture shows Juan ManuelFangio winning the German Grand Prix in a car with thisengine fitted. Picture obviously taken before the “safetycrew” got going, judging by the proximity of thephotographers to the action; not a piece of Armco in sight”.

“Incidentally, Fangio’s car has recently come to light,when everyone thought it had been destroyed. The thirdpicture shows the car as found, in pretty awful condition,despite which it was auctioned, by Bonham’s, at Goodwoodthis summer (2013), for £19.6 million (with buyerspremium).” Ouch! That makes collecting slide rules realbottom feeding by comparison!

Paul concludes: “In view of your recent dilemma (SS45page 9) about restoring the vandalised case of your LordsCalculator, think of the problems faced by the new owner ofthe car. Does he spend shed loads of money to make itimmaculate, thus destroying all the history and patina, ordoes he treat it as an “oily rag” job, and simply conserve itagainst further damage? Answers on a postcard to .....”Indeed! How can anyone lose something ultimately worth£19.6 M, and if I had that sort of money and could afford it, Iwould love to drive it. “Where?” says the boss. Ever thevoice of practicality!

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

An early Excise Rule

Courtesy of Tom Wyman in ourformer colonies, we have a picture ofan extremely early Excise rule dated1693. It was 1694 when the Englishgovernment first commissionedExcise Officers to collect taxes atpoints of importation and from localproducers on a variety of productsincluding beer, wine and spirits. It islikely that design and production ofthe first excise rules began somewhatearlier recognizing that such ruleshad to be available to excise officersas they were trained and beganperforming their duties. Evidence ofthis is seen in a well-worn 12-inch,two slide excise rule marked“Richard Bvll 1693.” (left). Thecross section of the stock of thisinstrument and its slides arenoticeably narrower than found onlater excise rules measuring 0.8″ x0.6″ versus the more typical 1.0″ -1.1″ x 0.8″ found on later rules.Does any reader have information asto who Richard Bull may have been?Was he the maker or owner of thisexcise rule?

The numbers on this excise ruleare comparatively small and crampedand would have been hard to makeout in poor light. The rule has nomarkings such as “WG” and “AG”that appeared on later rules. Duringthe mid-1690s excise rule productionmust have increased rapidly asmakers sought to accommodate therequirements of newly commissionedOfficers of the Excise. The earlierexcise rules were soon replaced byrules with larger cross sections andcalibrations that were easier to read.

The excise rule was the firstimportant application of the sliderule. This is not to say that slide rulesweren’t in use earlier but their usewas apparently limited to a

comparatively few individuals who had become familiarwith the instrument. There was no broadly-based marketfor slide rules until the Office of the Excise declared thattheir officers were required to have excise rules toperform their calculations as they made their rounds. Thiscreated an immediate demand for this special-purposeinstrument.

Hon Ed(E) Note: This has to be one of the earliestknown dated slide rules. There is no Richard Bull in EvaTaylor’s “Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor & StuartEngland” nor Gloria Clifton’s “Directory …”.

Muse 46

Having become editor of this august UKSRC organ, itseemed wholly inequitable that I continue to have a wholepage of Musings, so I have shortened it to a Muse (!!). Wewant to publish more from the UKSRC members!

The huffer and puffer in me – and I confess I can huffand puff with the best of them – is set off not by vigorousexercise (it is anyway) but by the daftest of things whichprove that if I never was a grumpy old man, I sure ambecoming one now! Management would insist that Iappeared from the womb (or the quarry?) huffing andpuffing, but that is a scurrilous slur on my otherwiseimpeccable character. Amongst the things that set me off arethings I find ridiculous, e.g. I hate the sign “DisabledToilets” – that to me would mean that the toilet has beenspecifically stopped from working, what it should say is“Toilet for the Disabled”. The next category that can get upa good head of steam is ignorance, for instance someone one-Bay advertising a slide rule as a measuring rule – all itwould take is a quick trot through the items for sale and therewould be several similar but correctly described items whichare also sensibly priced! Finally – but not all by any means– are politicians. All it takes is the average gonk from theHouses of Parliament to open his mouth on anything faintlytechnical and I can feel my ears getting hot! When did webecome such an abjectly ignorant country, led by profoundlystupid self-serving people who get their job without benefitof qualification, knowledge or experience, but on the simplebasis of being slimy and able to brown-nose expertly? Haveyou ever written to your MP, or even spoken with him? Didyou come away impressed? I’m prepared to wager a smallsum the answer will be a resounding “No!” I must confessthat this was not always the case. A previous local MP whowas a long-serving and honest man who could always befound at local events providing support and reasonableopinion (not that I always agreed with him) – and was honestenough to say he did not know if that was the case – won myvote for many years. The only trouble was that when talkingwith him one had to stand some distance away and upwind,as he had halitosis that would have felled a crocodile. Butthat was really a small price to pay for dealing with a hardworking and honourable man with good old-fashionedhonest values and virtues.

I liked the picture ofRussian test pilots foundon an internet site sellingKL-1 pocket-watchcalculators, I’m sure oneof them is holding arectilinear slide rule, andas some of the KL-1sellers claim these (theKL-1) to be anaeronautical slide rule, itwould have been nice ifthat was what he washolding! However it wasnot, so I am still looking

for my first real picture of someone using a pocket-watchslide rule or calculator in anger.

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

Letters

The following is a fascinating interchangeregarding Meteorological slide rules in an article datingback to Gaz 2. I have only included a couple of images;perhaps we have an article here? Can anyone else help?Note, this article is available via Rod’s literature search.

From Cyril Catt to Colin BarnesSlowly working through the past UKSRC

publications, I have come across your article onMeteorological Slide Rules in Issue 2 of the Slide RuleGazette. It finishes with an article on The AtmosphericDiffusion Slide Rule, and a reference to TheMeteorological Office Scientific Paper No. 24, AnAtmospheric Diffusion Slide-rule; HMSO; London; 1966,by C.E. Wallington, M.Sc.

You may be interested in the following backgroundto that slide rule.

In 1967, when I arrived in Newcastle, NSW, I metAllan Peter Campbell, who I believe was then associatedwith the University of Newcastle [NSW], and whosubsequently gained a doctorate at Macquarie University[NSW]. Although he later worked as a consultant in theUSA, our families have kept in touch and visited eachother over the years. When visiting him during one of histrips to Sydney in the late ’90s I mentioned that I wasinterested in slide rules. He told me he had a copy of anAtmospheric Diffusion Slide-rule that he had beeninvolved with producing, in company with others atMacquarie University, although he could not recall thename of the English visiting lecturer who was involved,and all his papers and the slide rule itself were at home inAdelaide. Six copies of the slide rule had been made inthe University workshops by craftsman Hank Francimon.One copy was provided to each of the three teammembers, and three were provided for the University.

I later wrote suggesting that his slide rule wouldmake an interesting subject for an article in the Journal ofthe Oughtred Society. He replied that he would be happyto help with details. I did approach several of the staff atMacquarie University to see if anyone could locate thecopies of the rule that had been left there, but after a gapof some 25 years, no trace remained. Unfortunately, theidea of an article did not get much further. However,Peter (as we know him) did send me some photocopiescovering a large sheet on which details of the slide rulescales had been drawn. I have since identified that theyare taken from the attachment to C.E. Wallington’s “AnAtmospheric Diffusion Slide Rule”.

I gather from Peter’s letter that the group was ledby C. E. Wallington, when the latter was a visitinglecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney. The othermember was Dr. Roger Badhams - who runs a MarineWeather Services (email: clouds@ozemail.com.au ) usedby major yacht race contestants, such as the America’sCup teams.

With regards, Cyril

Cyril followed this up:The Paper is dated 1966, which makes me wonder about

the timeline of events, and whether my understanding ofwhat Peter told me is correct.

Maybe I misunderstood the sequence of events, and thatthe Macquarie models, which Peter writes as being finishedin “1970?” were based on Wallington’s prior work, and wereperhaps simply a trial run, produced for field testing, and asPeter writes, made redundant a few years later by electroniccalculators. This implies that the slide rule illustrated in thepaper was made in England before the Australian models.

That leaves too many uncertainties. I will contact Peterand try to sort out the sequence of events.

Cyril Catt to Peter CampbellHi Peter,I have recently come across the attached article in an

edition of the UK Slide Rule Circle’s Gazette that may be ofinterest. It finishes with reference to a UK Met. Officepaper An Atmospheric Diffusion Slide-Rule by C. E.Wallington, which looks similar to the one you wereinvolved in getting made at Macquarie.

It certainly is a wonderful example of the more complex

slide rules and Nomograms that were developed in the ’50sand ’60s to meet computational needs just prior to the arrivalof the electronic calculator.

It has reminded me that we met by chance at Wagga

Agricultural College around 1970, when you were unable tocarry out some planned measurements due to lack of wind,and the foggy conditions. In retrospect, I wondered if youmight have been field testing the slide rule at that time?

With all best wishes, Cyril.

Peter Campbell to Cyril CattHi Cyril,Thanks so much for sending me this – excellent to see it

written up so recently. And yes, we did have the 3 of themmade for the purpose of using them in our field work atWagga – but then of course the HP 35 arrived and we coulddo it all so much better.

I have no idea what happened to the others, althoughthey may still be at Macquarie Uni.

Hope you are both well, as we are,

Regards, Peter.

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Skid Stick Issue 46February 2014

p.s. Pictures

I really am delighted that members are takingthe time to send me pictures, I very much enjoy them,and here are three great ones in different ways

First, with many thanks to Peter Holland came thereference to this great picture on German e-Bay, thoughexactly what these seven dudes are doing with a large F-C slide rule and a VW Camper Van in the snow is notparticularly clear. There look to be an excess of handsand the gent on the right seems to have had an accident inthe groin region, or is it a small sporran? Definitely anon-boring pic!

And then a reallydelightful pun or cleverword play seen on a pubsign came via TomWyman and Ted Humein the old colonies –truly excellent!

It says “Alcoholand Calculus don’t mix,so don’t drink andderive” - yes, indeed!

And finally a scenefrom the “National

Treasure Book of Secrets”, shown sometime previouslyon television where we have Nicolas Cage studying whatlooks to be a slide rule to help him unlock some of thosesecrets. Now the question is: Is it actually a slide rule,and if not, what is it? Answers please.

A Roman eagle, viruses and slide rules

Courtesy of John Fisher complete with a quote from thecomposer Bax which John was using about his Facebookexperience: “You should try everything once, except incestand morris dancing”; come a couple of Blog items. The firstis from the Aproposofverylittle archaeology blog, the secondfrom Batfunk. I am not a bloggy person but these areappropriate and also a tad surreal:

Aproposofverylittle29 Oct 2013 4.27pm

Must admit as lovely as this eagle is, I would feel rather sillybeing photographed whilst brushing an already perfectly cleanedartefact.

SciSteve > Aproposofverylittle29 Oct 2013 6.05pm

Oh yes. We research scientists, too, get asked to pose instrange photos next to microscopes or pretending to examine vialsof liquid at arms length for no particular reason. The most famousexample is Watson and Crick looking at their DNA model holdinga protractor (or something similar). Artistic licence, I guess.

Batfunk24 May 20213 6.40am

In 2006, my cousin bought a Mac Pro after many years ofWindows use on a zero brand PC. Since this time, his machine hasnever suffered from a virus, something he regularly had to contendwith previously.

alexredcloud > batfunk24 May 2013 9.25am

My brother got a slide rule in 1977 and the only virus he gotwas when he lent it to a mate with the flu!

Indeed!

UKSRC Subscriptions and Rates

Sorry folks, we got into a bit of a muddle between theback page of SS45 and the UKSRC web site, so that we haddifferent information shown on each. From now on the website will be the primary, or master source of all the latestUKSRC information, see http://uksrc.org.uk/. For thosewithout the benefit of computers we will continue with alimited postal update.

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