2 The Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall, 1997

The Oughtred Society

Bob Otnes, Editor

Tax-Exempt Status

The last item in the chain of becoming a nonprofiteducational corporation has been achieved: the Societyis now tax-exempt. This status was recently granted byboth the IRS (Federal) and the State of California. Theboard of directors is still looking into the ramificationsof all of this, and it is very much a learning process atthis point in time.

Note that none of the officers is paid a salary, nor isanyone reimbursed for anything, including trips to meet-ings. All of the money derived from membership duesgoes to support our publications and the various meet-ings. Also note that all of the hardware and softwareused to generate this Journal has been paid for by theeditor. This is mentioned only to assure you that all ofthe income goes into the organization.

Membership

Thomas Munstermann of Germany is our 400th mem-ber. He is a young civil engineer, and has helped Dietervon Jezierski compose his recent book on Faber-Castellslide rules (see the review in this issue).

§Theo Adriaans

We lost Theo Adriaans, a good friend and slide rulecollector, on June 1. Theo was a member of both theDutch Circle of slide rule collectors and of the OughtredSociety. He succumbed to a series of heart attacks, andcould not be helped by surgery.

European members of the Oughtred Society will re-

member Theo as a participant in the First InternationalMeeting of Slide Rule Collectors held in November, 1995in Utrecht. He surprised the group during the eveningdinner by singing a number of pieces from famous operas.He had promised to perform in Stein . . .

Theo was a very active member of the Dutch Circleand put much energy into it. The annual meeting of theCircle, which is held each year in the fall, took place inhis home, where he and his wife Marijke supplied lunchand a cheerful ambiance. The Circle remembers him asan enthusiastic speaker on all his hobbies and his work,and will never forget him and his contributions to thegroup.

§The Society sends its best wishes to UK members

John Brooks and Dr. Brian Lloyd, both lately recover-ing from serious illnesses.

§I would like to mention that, due to popular demand,

a FAX machine has been installed at my residence withtelephone number 650-324-2569. This machine is work-ing 24 hours per day. As it does not ring, feel free tosend a FAX to this number (only) at any time. I pre-fer e-mail (my address is bobotnes@mediacity.com ), butit has been brought to my attention that e-mail is notavailable to many members. Regular mail is okay too.

§I do not have a reference for the following (I heard it

on the radio), but it would seem that the single most im-portant factor in predicting a student’s success in gettinginto college and then graduating is the taking of algebrain the eighth grade. Think about that. Can we help?

June and September Meetings

The 7th Annual June Meeting, in Palo Alto

Ed Chamberlain

Members of the Oughtred Society met in Palo Alto onJune 28th to display slide rules, and to join in the auc-tion of many interesting slide rules. There was a shortbusiness meeting where the officers were elected, andother business was conducted. Thomas Wyman is thenew President, Robert DeCesaris the VP, Wayne Lehn-ert the Secretary, Rodger Shepherd the Treasurer, andBob Otnes is the Editor of the Journal of the OughtredSociety . Regional officers are: Bruce Babcock (the Mid-west), Bobby Feazel (the South), Conrad Schure (theEast Coast), and IJzebrand Schuitema (Europe).

The Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall, 1997 3

The Palo Alto Meeting in June

Osborne Price

W. Richard Davis

Wayne Lehner and Rodger Shepherd – the Auction

Conrad Schure

Captain Billy Kerr

Monroe Postman

4 The Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall, 1997

The Stein Meeting in September

Organizers Schiller and von Jezierski

IJzebrand Schuitema

Dr. Joachim Fischer

Dr. Rodger Shepherd

The Mart

Dinner after the meeting

The Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall, 1997 5

The morning hours were spent setting up slide rule dis-plays, and looking at all of the interesting slide rules. TomWyman had a great (and rare) Weaving Technician’s sliderule made of boxwood and German silver by William Bolton;Osborn Price showed a large number of alcohol Proof Rulesand related instruments; Bob Otnes showed some of hisspecial mechanical Arithometers, and Bobby Feazel and EdChamberlain both showed very rare K&E Urea Index andK&E 4092 (with column cursor) slide rules. Bob DeCe-saris displayed many interesting slide rules, including twoTavernier-Gravet rules, one possibly dating to the mid 1800s.Richard Davis showed his collection of special-purpose Pick-ett slide rules, including two Executive slide rules with veryinteresting coloring. Gordon Anthony had a great display ofinteresting catalogs, including several K&E catalogs bound inleather. Altogether, more than thirty collectors showed someof the gems of their collections.

The afternoon auction was fast and at times furious asperhaps more than 100 slide rules changed hands. The high-est bid was on a K&E special duplex slide rule for about $700.After the meeting was over, the participants adjourned to thehomes of Tom Wyman and Bob Otnes for refreshments anddinner. All had the great opportunity to view the unique col-lection of Bob Otnes, and to talk about slide rule collecting. Ifall of that activity was not enough, many OS members spentthe next day scouring the San Francisco region for more sliderules to add to their collections.

The September Stein Meeting a Great Success

Thomas Wyman

Count von Faber-Castell

The 3rd International Meeting of Slide Rule Col-lectors was held on September 12, 1997 at the Faber-Castell Castle in Stein/Nurenberg. Most appropriately,the meeting was opened by Count von Faber-Castell whoextended a warm welcome to the some 70 attendees.

The entire event was both an outstanding educationalexperience and a friendly social occasion for slide rule

collectors and their wives. The international nature ofthe meeting was underscored by the fact that eight na-tions were represented. As might be expected, Germany,The Netherlands, and the U.K. were well represented,and four U.S. Oughtred Society members attended withtheir wives.

A gift from Faber-Castell.On the reverse, an adder.

The castle provided a grand setting for the meeting,and the Faber-Castell permanent exhibit of the devel-opment of the company’s slide rules attracted consider-able attention. IJzebrand Schuitema of The Netherlandsbrought his impressive slide rule exhibit mounted on 40meters of vertical display boards. This comprehensiveand highly informative display lined one wall of the roomwhere participants had their own display tables.

Twenty persons exhibited and offered slide rules forsale, and active trading, buying, and selling took placebefore and after the formal sessions. Collectors took ad-vantage of this opportunity to add to their collections atmodest prices.

Hans Schiller and Dieter von Jezierski, the cospon-sors of the meeting, were pleased with the attendanceand with the press coverage. As Hans Schiller observed,

6 The Journal of the Oughtred Society Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall, 1997

“You can’t buy publicity for slide rule collecting like thepress has given us during this meeting.” A number ofnew members have already joined the Oughtred Societyas a result of the meeting.

In the course of the meeting, five papers were pre-sented. These were all well received and included a pre-sentation on John Napier’s development of logarithmsby Dr. Joachim Fischer, former curator of the Infor-matik exhibition in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.He stressed the uniquely important contribution that thisamateur mathematician made in simplifying calculationsthrough his development of logarithms, a term he coinedand translated as “number of ratio”.

Dr. Rodger Shepherd, The Oughtred Society’s trea-surer, presented a research paper on “The Slide RuleManuals by Pickworth”. One must admire the fact thatRodger took it upon himself to offer a paper involvingFaber history in the Faber schloss or castle where, ofcourse, it received especially close scrutiny and, more-over, that he presented his paper in German.

The slide rule exhibits of the Deutsche Museum werediscussed by curator Hartmut Retzgold. He offered someprovocative and relevant thoughts on how public aware-ness and interest in slide rules might be enhanced.

“The development of Data Slides from 1920 until to-day” was reviewed by Harald Riehle of IWA (Informa-tion media, Working aids, Advertising support). IWAcontinues to produce a variety of plastic slide cards, slidedevices and other computational aids for use in mak-ing specialized calculations and in displaying informationsimply and graphically. The speaker was most generousin the handouts and sample rules he presented to thosewho attended the conference.

Meeting cosponsor Dieter von Jezierski offered a per-ceptive paper “Duplex Slide Rules from Faber-Castell,circa 1935”. The Proceedings of this International Meet-ing constitute an important contribution to available lit-erature on slide rules. Preprints are available, in English,of the papers presented. Arrangements have been madefor those who did not attend the meeting to obtain copiesof the Proceedings . (See below.)

The social scene included dinners the evening beforethe meeting on September 11 and then following themeeting the next day. The 15 wives attending the meet-ing with their husbands were treated to a walking tourof central Nurenberg the day of the meeting. Even two-year-old Peter Munstermann, who attended the meetingwith his parents, enjoyed the walking tour, although hefound the architectural discussions of limited interest.

The sponsors of the 3rd International Meeting, which

was preceded by the 2nd International Meeting in Cam-bridge, England and the 1st in Utrecht, The Netherlands,continued to build upon the tradition of hosting broadlybased meetings with substantive papers and numerousopportunities for attendees to enhance their collections.These international meetings are becoming “not-to-miss”events for serious slide rule collectors and historians aswell as for those interested in extending their social con-tacts. Some have suggested that the Faber-Castell Ad-diator Slide Rules, given as commemorative souvenirs tothose attending, will quickly become collector’s items.

Attendees to the 3rd International Meeting expressedkeen interest in next year’s meeting in Zurich.

§To order copies of the Proceedings of the 3rd Interna-

tional Meeting of Slide Rule Collectors, European mem-bers should send a EuroCheck in the amount of 20 DutchGuilders to IJezebrand Schuitema (the amount must bepayable in DG, or it will be returned!). US membersshould send $12 to Bob Otnes for their copy (a supplyhas been bulk shipped to him, in order to avoid airmailcharges to the reader).

Plans for the 8th Annual US Meeting

The 8th Annual West Coast Meeting of the OughtredSociety will take place in Palo Alto Saturday, June 26,1998. It will be held at the Palo Alto Holiday Inn, thesame location as the 1997 meeting. There will be moreinformation in the 1998 Membership Packet to be sentout at the end of the year. Or, in the meantime, con-tact Rodger Shepherd, Meeting Chairman, for advancedetails.

Plans for the 4th InternationalMeeting Developing

Plans for the 4th International Meeting of Slide RuleCollectors, 1998, are already moving ahead. The meet-ing will be hosted next year by Swiss collectors in Zurichin late September or early October. Papers involvingSwiss contributions to the development and productionof slide rules will be presented, as well as papers by con-tributors from other nations. An active social programis also planned for the two-day meeting.

Plans for the 1998 meeting are being developed underthe able leadership of Oughtred Society member HeinzJoss. He emphasizes that, “Slide rule collectors shouldbegin to make plans now to attend this important event”.He went on to stress that. “There will be wonderful op-portunities for those attending to see Switzerland beforeor following the meeting”. Members will receive moreinformation as plans evolve.