International Workshop AR

Andries' mystery slide rule.

“…paper scales on the cylinder and cross bar…”

Data:

  • In 1893 L. Manasse, a dealer in photographic equipment and instruments from Chicago, protested against import duties for an “Engineers' slide rule” that was described as:
    …intended for use in working out abstruse mathematical calculations. It consists of a movable wood cylinder and wood base mounted with metal; attached to the cylinder and cross bar of the instrument are paper scales by means of which the computations are made…”
     
  • …imported per Umbria March 1, 1892…
    Note the S/S Umbria of the Cunard line was reported as arriving in New York on March 5, 1892 after leaving Liverpool on February 28, 1892.
     
  • Source: US Department of the Treasury, “Synopsis of the Decisions of the Treasury Department on the Construction of the Tariff, Navigation, and Other Laws”, 14308-G. A. 2237, 1894, p. 708.

Questions:

  1. Which slide rule is described here?
    It can't be a Fuller or a Thacher. A Fuller does have paper scales on its body, but not on the metal “bar”. A Thacher does have paper scales on body and “bars”, but more than one bar.
    “bar” instead of “bars” might be just a typo. Peter Hopp
    Thachers were made by Keuffel & Esser in the USA and sold, a.o., by Stanley. However, early Thachers are not marked “Keuffel & Esser” Bob de Cesaris
    Text on an early Thacher cylinder from ca. 1907 shows “Divided by W.F. Stanley, London, 1882”, Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 5, No. 1, 1996, page 25 Michael Syphers
    Large and small Fuller
    Large and small Fuller
    Small Fuller
    Small Fuller
    Prototypes of the Fuller Calculator did have paper scales on the long bar, but production types had a bar with numbers stamped in the metal.
    The small-sized production type Fullers did have a paper scale on the bar, but their bodies were not made of wood and their production might have stopped before 1892. References to the small-sized model appear in the 1879 manual, but are cut out from later specimens of this manual.
    See Bob de Cesaris, “A Fuller Calculator Compendium,” Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 30, No. 2, 2021 page 8-52 Peter Hopp, Bob de Cesaris

  2. Does anyone have a ca. 1893 L. Manasse instruments catalog?
    L. Manasse sold (and imported?) instruments from different countries:
    1874: French and German drawing instruments
    1889: James Hick's (London) English clinical thermometers
    1893: French and German photo equipment: Arthur Levy, Paris; Derogy, Paris; Clement & Gilmer, Paris; Ernst Plank, Nurnberg; Conrad Pröbster, Nurnberg; Oscar Möller, Hamburg; Clemens Riefler, München; Versepuy Fils, Paris; Gladston & Barry, Paris; Ullmann & Engelmann, Fürth; Short & Mason, London. Andries de Man