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Keuffel & Esser 4045 Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule

National Museum of American History

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Object Details

Keuffel & Esser Co.
Description
This sixteen-inch instrument has a wooden core coated with white celluloid that has yellowed considerably. There are A and D scales on the base, with B and C scales on one side of the slide; the scales are not labeled with letters. The reverse of the slide has S, T, and L scales, which are labeled with these letters. The top edge is beveled and has a scale of 16 inches, divided to sixteenths of an inch. The front edge has a scale of 41 centimeters, divided to millimeters. A table of numerical ratios and equivalences is pasted to the back of the rule.
The base is marked in red: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO. N.Y.; PAT. JUNE 5, 1900. K&E head of manufacturing Willie L. E. Keuffel received this patent for a method of adjusting a slide rule, accomplished with four screws on the back of the instrument. The left end of the slide is marked in red: < 4045 >. There is a glass "frameless" indicator with metal edges. The top edge is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER Co (/) NEW YORK. The back of that edge is marked: PAT. APPL'FOR. Keuffel filed for a patent for the design of the frameless indicator on November 25, 1913, and received it in 1915. K&E began to show the indicator in its catalogs that same year. The slide rule sold for $10.00. The company sold model 4045 with this design of indicator until 1936, when the price was $13.00. Compare this example to MA.322761 and MA.308201.
The rule is in a cardboard box covered with black leather. The box is marked: KEUFFEL & ESSER Co. (/) MANNHEIM (/) SLIDE RULE. This instrument was in the possession of Edward Avery, a technician in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, until his death in about 1970. Where he obtained the instrument is not known.
References: Willie L. E. Keuffel, "Slide-Rule Runner" (U.S. Patent 1,150,771 issued August 17, 1915); Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser Co., 35th ed. (New York, 1915), 299; Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser Co., 38th ed. (New York, 1936), 311; accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Transfer from Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History
ca 1915
ID Number
1987.0634.01
accession number
1987.0634
catalog number
1987.0634.01
Object Name
slide rule
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
celluloid (laminate material)
glass (cursor material)
metal (part material)
paper (case material)
leather (case material)
Measurements
overall: .8 cm x 38 cm x 3.7 cm; 5/16 in x 14 31/32 in x 1 15/32 in
place made
United States: New York, New York City
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Slide Rules
National Museum of American History
subject
Rule, Calculating
Patented
Mathematics
General Calculation
Record ID
nmah_1214625
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-a176-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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SLIDE RULE - KEUFFEL & ESSER 4045
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