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The Oughtred Society was founded in 1991 by a group of slide rule collectors and is dedicated to the preservation and history of slide rules and other calculating instruments. Over the past three decades it has evolved to an international organization with members in 20 countries. It is noted for its highly acclaimed Journal of the Oughtred Society, published twice annually. The Society is a non-profit educational organization. Society goals include the dissemination and sharing of information and encouragement for collectors. We are affiliated with organizations in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy. Our activities are carried out by members who volunteer to do various tasks and projects. Membership is open to anyone. Click "Membership" in the left navigation menu for more information about member activities and benefits.

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• Book review by Michael Konshak:

  Book Review of Volume 1 of the 24+ intended volumes (14 currently available), about each major manufacturer of slide rules. The volumes are available on Amazon ($27.95 per hardback or $19.95 per paperback). A portion of each sale is donated to the ISRM (International Slide Rule Museum). Each volume is ~550 printed pages.

  Reviewer Michael Konshak is a retired mechanical engineer and the curator of the International Slide Rule Museum since 2003. He is preserving the 50- to 100-year-old slide rule manuals in the Slide Rule Instruction Library Series. Michael has been a long-time contributor to the Oughtred Society.

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• Oughtred Society 2021 Annual Meeting May 15

  Our Oughtred Society’s Annual Meeting, being held virtually via Zoom on 15 May 2021 from 9AM to 1PM PDT, was a terrific success with over 40 attendees! All OS members were invited; the meeting featured several presentations, an auction, and of course our Annual Meeting.

  The virtual meeting format complicated the auction, but only a little.

List of items that were auctioned, all from the Wayne Wagner Collection:

Auction items list so far

1	K&E Catalog, 37th edition, 1927
2	Manual of Instructions for Burroughs Calculator, 226 lessons!
3	Original Odhner pinwheel calculator
4	K&E 1962 full-line catalog in 3-ring binder
5	Otis King Model K, SN W7376, perfect cond., in leather snap case and original box, with instructions
6	Post clip-on cursor magnifier in leather case, fits Versalog perfectly
7	K&E single-sided clip-on cursor magnifier, Part # 68 2224, fits LL Duplex Trig & Decitrig, and JetLog. In box.
8	K&E 68 1251 Jet Log slide rule (all-plastic version of LL Duplex Decitrig)
9	Stephenson-Pfahl Hardenability Slide Rule, 11 slides!
10	Pickett 1000, felt slipcase, no corrosion to the magnesium at all, in original box
11	Pickett 1000, felt slipcase, no corrosion to the magnesium at all.
12	Pickett C19T Collins Radio Microwave Transmission slide rule
13	Gilson Binary, new in Dietzgen box, with case and instructions
14	FXR Smith Chart slide rule
15	Koh-I-Noor 10010 Techno-Log slide rule, in box with case, no instructions
16	Russian "manhole cover" aluminum 11" diameter circular slide rule, for artillery
17	Pickett N3-ES, new in box, with case and instructions
18	K&E 4181-1, 5" all-plastic version of the LL Duplex Decitrig, "Property of Wayne Wagner" on one edge
19	Guedon stamped and folded aluminum 5" slide rule in amazingly nice condition
20	K&E 68 1100 10" DeciLon slide rule, very clean
21	US Navy "Animated Transparency" overhead projector slide rule, built like an aircraft carrier, and only slightly smaller
22	Charles Bruning & Co. general catalog, 12th edition, 1936
23	Book: Computing Before Computers, by Aspray, Bromley, Campbell-Kelly, etc. 1990
24	Fuller Calculator, Type 1, SN 9814, 1949, Bakelite. Exc. Cond., with instructions
25	Thacher Slide Rule, Model 4012, SN 3381, Very Good Condition. Box appears to be Refinished

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• “Virtual IM2021” The 27th International Meeting of Collectors and Researchers of Slide Rules and other Historic Computing Instruments, or IM2021 for short, will be held on September 11th and 12th, 2021 as a "Zoom" online conference. For more information visit the IM2021 web site:

  http://www.im2021.org

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• The new edition of the Journal of the Oughtred Society is out! (See below for sample page and TOC images!)
  
  

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• “

  Virtual IM2020

  ” held Sat Sept 12 and Sun Sept 13, 2020 was a HUGE success!! We had an outstanding ‘Virtual IM2020” with 10 presenters and nearly 100 attendees!
  Thank you all for attending. The meeting would not have been half as much fun without you! We have received many requests for the PowerPoint or PDF files of both the presentations and especially the introduction slides. You can now view or download all of those files from our IM2020 web page

   

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• 

  
  Conrad Schure
  April 2, 1930 - July 4, 2020 
  
  Conrad was instrumental in organizing all of our early OS East Coast Meetings and while in good health, never missed a chance to visit our West Coast Meetings and attend our International Meetings. (see OS Memoriam page for additional comments) Conrad Schure passed away while in hospice care in Connecticut. Fortunately, in spite of the Covid situation, Conrad did have his family present, according to his son. -- Robert G. De Cesaris

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• The Oughtred Society 2019 Annual Meeting was held in Las Vegas at the Atomic Testing Museum on April 20, 2019. Once again there were dozens of unique and interesting slide rules for sale at the Oughtred Society annual auction and several interesting presentations. Here is a brief report on the 2019 OS annual meeting.

• International Meeting of Collectors of Historical Calculating Instruments (IM2019) - September 20-22, 2019
  

  The 25th International Meeting of Collectors of Historical Calculating Instruments (IM2019) was held September 20th to 22nd, 2019 at the Badhotel in Scheveningen -- the seaside resort of The Hague, which is the government residence of the Netherlands (full announcement). (pdf) 2018 meeting report.

  
  

• Calling all authors! The Oughtred Society is preparing the 2021 Journal issues, and is looking for some good articles! Contact Journal editor Jim Bready with your proposal, and see The Journal of the Oughtred Society web page for more information and to download the JOS Guidelines for Authors.

• June 16-17, 2018: An SR-71 symposium was held in McMinnville, Oregon at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. The SR-71 was the last aircraft designed using slide rules.

• Free On-Line BOOK: The Oughtred Society is proud to announce the publication of LONG-SCALE SLIDE RULES in LIFE-SIZE IMAGES by Otto E. van Poelje, dedicated to the memory of our Oughtred Society fellow collector & long-scale slide rule connoisseur Edwin Chamberlain (18-10-2017)
  

• The Oughtred Society is proud to publish The Inventor of the CURTA Calculator an autobiography. This book is the story of the remarkable life of the inventor of this ingenious device, how he started in his father's mechanical office machine company in Vienna, eventually running the company himself, designing the Curta and becoming embroiled in WWII as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and finally the difficulties of setting up full production after the war in Liechtenstein. Additional material written by the late Tom Wyman and Dr. Robert Otnes is included.

• Archive of Collections. New Collections added to this Archive. The first collection in this Archive was that of the late Tom Wyman. We now have five collections featured; items from the collections of Paul Tarantolo, Louis Gotlib, Richard Davis, Cliff Frohlich and Thomas Wyman. All the collections continue to grow under the direction and efforts of Clark McCoy, Rod Lovett, Ted Hume and Richard Davis. We invite you to view this new Archive of Collections and consider having us post your collection to the OS website for posterity.

• Pencil Slide Rules: A new publication introduced earlier in the year by the Oughtred Society: Pencil Slide Rules and their Successors, The Calculator Pen and Pentop Computers is a collection of articles that admirably covers this subject! This monograph is authored and edited by one of our Oughtred Society founders, Rodger Shepherd. This publication is now available for sale on our website.

• JOS DVD is available for sale, containing 26 years of the Journal of the Oughtred Society in PDF format. OS members and non-members(individuals and institutions) may purchase the DVD by going to the Journal page and paying for the disk via Paypal.

• A Search Facility for the Journal of The Oughtred Society awaits your use.
  (See Journal Search in main menu at left.) This new Search Facility displays high resolution PDFs of Journal articles. You may search by several methods -- author, title, keyword, or for any word that appears in any article, or for all articles in a given year, etc.The search facility was created by Rod Lovett.

• Request for Articles for the 2021 and 2022 Journals. Be a contributing author and share your knowledge and interests. For ideas and inspiration, read "Yes, You Can Write for the Journal of the Oughtred Society" (82KB pdf).
• Current Journal of the Oughtred Society
  
  
  Cover                        Table Of Contents           Sample Page


• Sample Articles from the Journal of the Oughtred Society. The Oughtred Society is pleased to present seven articles from past issues of the Journal. See NEWS ARCHIVES.
  • JOS 21.2 p8-15: Chemistry Slide Rules - Their history and Use, by Louis Gotlib
  • JOS 21.1 p67-68 Aviation Novelty Slide Rules, by Clay Castleberry
  • JOS 20.2 p49-51 Eels and a Joint Slide Rule, by Colin Barnes
  • JOS 20.1 p57-62 Building a Thacher by Bob Wolfson
  • JOS 20.1 p5-6 Colorful Slide Rules by Otto E. van Poelje
  • JOS 19.2 p28-31 Magnifiers by Bob Koppany
  • JOS 19.1 p29 Early Cooperation between A.W. Faber and Dietzgen by Peter Holland
• JOS Plus is the website location where supplemental material appears for articles in the Journal of the Oughtred Society. View these supplemental materials by going to JOS Plus.
• NEWS ARCHIVES - Past announcements and news.

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last modified June 08, 2021