Dietzgen 1760 Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule
Dietzgen 1760 Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This one-sided, ten-inch wooden rule is faced with white plastic. The front of the base has A and D scales, with B and C scales on one side of the slide and S, L (which is unlettered), and T scales on the other side of the slide. The slide is slightly longer than the base. The very thin glass indicator has a brass frame. The rule boasts Dietzgen's "Improved Automatic Adjustment," three flat springs in slots under the A scale that are adjusted with four screws on the back of the instrument. This mechanism was designed to prevent warping or shrinking of the rule from interfering with uniform movement of the slide.
- The top edge of the instrument is beveled and has a scale of inches, divided to 1/32-inch. The bottom edge is flat and has a scale of centimeters, divided to millimeters. The back of the base is notched on the right end. A table of equivalents is pasted to the back of the instrument. The center of the table is marked: EUGENE DIETZGEN CO. (/) CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO (/) NEW ORLEANS PITTSBURGH (/) PHILADELPHIA WASHINGTON (/) MILWAUKEE LOS ANGELES. On the front, the bottom of the base is marked (in red): DIETZGEN. The base is marked under the slide: WIELER. The right edge of the slide is marked (in white): 1760. A brown leather case is marked in gold on the flap: DIETZGEN. Inside the flap is written in ink: WIELER (/) R. W. ORY.
- Catalogs for Dietzgen of Chicago indicate that the company introduced the improved adjustment in 1910. It was initially used on model 1769, which was 16" long and had letters on both ends of the scales until 1919, when model 1769 became a 10" rule with letters only on the right of the scales that sold in a morocco leather case for $6.50. It remained available on Dietzgen price lists through at least 1928, when the instrument was renumbered in catalogs to model 1760L. Model 1760 sold with a leather case (the L in the model number) for $6.35 until 1941. According to the donor, this instrument was used by her husband, the electrical engineer Robert H. Wieler (1923–1993).
- References: Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 9th ed. (Chicago, 1910), 214, 217; Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 10th ed. (Chicago, 1919), 78; Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 12th ed. (Chicago, 1926), 172, 174; Peter M. Hopp, Slide Rules: Their History, Models, and Makers (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 1999), 159.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- calculating rule
- slide rule
- date made
- 1928-1941
- maker
- Eugene Dietzgen Company
- place made
- United States: Illinois, Chicago
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- plastic (laminate material)
- metal (part material)
- leather (case material)
- glass (cursor material)
- Measurements
- overall: 2.2 cm x 29 cm x 5.2 cm; 7/8 in x 11 13/32 in x 2 1/16 in
- ID Number
- 1998.0032.02
- catalog number
- 1998.0032.02
- accession number
- 1998.0032
- Credit Line
- Gift of Norma P. Wieler
- subject
- Mathematics
- Rule, Calculating
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Slide Rules
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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