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Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023


Calculating on Slide Rule and Disc "2 x 3 ... approximately 6" Portrait of an era by IJ. Schuitema, H. van Herwijnen

I. Jebrand Schuitema owns one of the largest slide rule collections in the world. In the course of his collecting, he came upon rules that were unknown to him and that excited his curiosity. He began to investigate these rules, following any paths that would lead him to someone who knew about them, knew who devised them, who manufactured them, and how and where they were used. This book is a compilation of the articles he wrote about these wonderful slide rules, each one made for a specific and unique use, and about the men who designed and manufactured them.

Ir. Schuitema begins the book with an overlook on slide rule collecting as a whole: what interests collectors, how they start collecting, where they find their rules, how they organize into groups. Then he moves to the individual designers and their rules.

There is the slide rule that computes road curvature, one that calculates for sewerage applications, one that provides navigational information for flyers, one for brewers that computes barley malt, water, hops, and yeast and then takes into account time, temperature and pressure. There is a slide rule specifically for cheese production and cheese control, one for astronomical position calculations for sailors, another for reinforced concrete calculations, and a geochemical slide rule. There is a slide chart for computing optimum food rations to be given to livestock on a farm, several rules designed by an American for the U.S. Air Force to improve its attack on enemy planes and ships, and artillery slide rules that calculate position and direction on horizontal ground, on broken ground, with projectiles of different make and charges of different size, and for the projectile crossing layers of air with different pressure and wind velocities. . . and many, many more, of all kinds.

Ir. Schuitema was fortunate to have as his associate in this enterprise Herman van Herwijnen, who describes himself as a slide rule collector and computer freak. He has compiled a marvelous CD, designed for the PC and included with the book, featuring an enormous number of photographs (in full color and from all sides and angles) of all the rules mentioned in the book, as well as a great many additional ones. Each rule is accompanied by a description - material it is made of, size, name, etc. Each picture can be enlarged several times, so that every detail is seen. The disc can be searched, browsed, its index can be used to take the reader to a particular slide rule maker or to a particular slide rule, and individual pictures can be printed or copied - it is a treasure chest of information.

Code No. 010139, 208 pages, ISBN 1931626049, $63.00

This item is listed under the following subjects:

Miscellaneous  
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