Keuffel & Esser Slide Rule Display
date: label: date made
content: 1971
name: label: maker
content: Keuffel & Esser Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This display of steps in the manufacture of slide rules also demonstrates the capability of dividing engines. It may have been assembled by Keuffel & Esser executives when the company donated two of its early 20th-century linear dividing engines (335265 and 335266) to the Smithsonian in March 1971. The exhibit consists of a large dark green pegboard, to which slide rule components are fastened with wires and labels are attached with tacks.
label: Description
content: The left panel displays the raw materials of slide rule manufacture: a rough mahogany slab, a planed mahogany slab, white xylonite (celluloid) to face the front and back of the wood, and a toothplaned mahogany slab. Each slab is approximately two feet long.
label: Description
content: The middle panel shows the xylonite glued to a toothplaned mahogany slab, which is then depicted as cut in half to make two ten-inch slide rule forms. The forms are cut lengthwise in thirds, and then the edges are grooved so that the middle part slides between the two parts of the base. Next, a blank slide rule is machine divided.
label: Description
content: The right panel displays slide rules that have been numbered and blackened, numbered and reddened, and ready to be assembled with L-shaped metal end pieces and screws. The assembled slide rule has been removed. Another example with front and back views of a completed model 4081-3, Log Log Duplex Decitrig, slide rule is missing the slide in the back view. Finally, the parts of an indicator are mounted on a card: two pieces of glass, two pieces of metal frame, one of the two plastic edges, and four screws. Compare the completed example to 318482, 334387, and 1990.0687.01.
label: Description
content: References: Accession file; Michael P. O'Leary, "The Keuffel & Esser Logarithmic Dividing Engine," <i>Journal of the Oughtred Society</i> 11, no. 2 (2002): 35–40; Bob Otnes, "An Interview with Jack Burton and Gordon Anthony: The End of the Slide Rule Era at Keuffel & Esser," <i>Journal of the Oughtred Society</i> 7, no. 2 (1998): 18–24, 8, no. 1 (1999): 18–23, and 8, no. 2 (1999): 27–31.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Hoboken
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Rule, Calculating
label: Subject
content: Manufacturing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Slide Rules
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Keuffel & Esser Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335264
label: accession number
content: 306012
label: catalog number
content: 335264
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating rules, group of
label: Object Name
content: slide rules, group of
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: pegboard (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.5 cm x 248 cm x 59 cm; 9/16 in x 97 5/8 in x 23 1/4 in