Concise CTCS-552 Circular Slide Rule

Object Details

Concise

Description

This white plastic circular slide rule is on a rectangular base that has a 4-inch ruler on the left side and a 10-cm ruler on the right. The top of the base is marked: CONCISE (/) CONVERSION TABLES (/) AND CIRCULAR SLIDE RULE. The slide rule has a D scale along the outer rim. A rotating disc fastened with a metal grommet has C, CI, L, A, and K scales. There is a clear plastic rotating indicator. The bottom of the base is marked: MODEL CTCS-552.

The back of the instrument has a table of the chemical elements, arranged in alphabetical order, and a chart for converting temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. The bottom of the back is marked: MODEL CTCS-552 (/) SAMA & ETANI, INC. GROTON MASSACHUSETTS U.S.A. (/) MADE IN JAPAN BY CONCISE.

A rectangular plastic card fits inside a slot in the base. The card provides various physical constants and conversions for length, area, weight, volume, decimal equivalents to 64ths, velocity, gas constant values, flow rate, pressure, and energy. One edge of the card is marked: ©1966 CONCISE INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD. The instrument and an instruction manual providing contact information for Sama & Etani and copyrighted 1960 both fit in a black plastic case.

Domenick Sama and Kenzi Etani designed this style of slide rule and conversion card when they were students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954. By the mid-1960s, Concise, a firm in Tokyo, Japan, was manufacturing the device for Sama & Etani, who in turn were distributing Concise's products through their partnership headquartered in Groton, Mass. In Japan, the company operated as Etani Shoji Kaisha, Ltd. It closed by 1992. Concise began operating under the name Concise International Co., Ltd., in 1966 and remains in business as of 2012. For other slide rules by Concise, see 1996.0141.01, 2003.0012.01, and 2006.0173.01.

References: "Concise Corporate History," http://www.concise.co.jp/eng0731/history.html; Peter M. Hopp, Slide Rules: Their History, Models, and Makers (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 1999), 153–154; "Groton Engineer, Associate Design Pocket Size Rule," Groton Town Diary 13 (March 1967): 17, http://books.gpl.org/greenstone/collect/towndiar/index/assoc/D5248.dir/Vol13_1967_017.pdf.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Edward L. Heller

after 1966

ID Number

1985.0636.02

accession number

1985.0636

catalog number

1985.0636.02

Object Name

slide rule

Physical Description

cardboard (part material)

metal (part material)

plastic (overall material)

Measurements

overall: .5 cm x 8.8 cm x 11.6 cm; 3/16 in x 3 15/32 in x 4 9/16 in

place made

Japan: Tōkyō, Tokyo

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Science & Mathematics

Slide Rules

National Museum of American History

subject

Rule, Calculating

Mathematics

Conversion Chart

Record ID

nmah_1215035

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-a1da-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa