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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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• Invitation to Attend “Virtual IM2020” Planned for Sat Sept 12 and Sun Sept 13, 2020

  We have been forced to cancel our annual International Meeting for 2020, IM2020, which was to be held in Cambridge, MA, USA due to continuing COVID-19 virus travel risks. It was clear from surveying a portion of our membership last month that nearly no one is willing to travel by plane or stay in a hotel due to attend this year’s meeting in September due to the potential risk of infection. We have decided to instead experiment, this year only, with a Virtual IM2020 to be held by ZOOM Video Conferencing during that same period, so that we could continue to share presentations, papers, and hold other related panels and discussions. Due to the challenge of international time zones, meetings sessions can only be held for a brief portion of the day and still reasonably accommodate most of our international community. There will be no fees to attend; the only requirement will be to have a computer, iPad, or cell phone available that can accept the ZOOM application. Nearly all of current devices are compatible with this application on all popular operating systems. Future IM meetings are expected to return to our normal physical meetings after the current virus issue is resolved. Please check your email for updates for the time and location of these meetings.

Virtual IM2020 Details:

Both papers and PowerPoint presentations are being accepted for our Virtual IM2020 sessions ‘experimental’ meeting, planned for Sept 12 and 13, 2020, Please submit your paper or PowerPoint to Jim Bready rechenmeister@peak.org

• IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE:

  Deadline to Submit Statement of Intent and Subject of Paper or PowerPoint Presentation to Jim Bready: July 15. Final Submission to Jim: Sept 1. We will base further planning of this meeting and agenda directly on the July 15 feedback regarding those wanting to present. A member introduction session and panel discussion is also being planned. Members will be asked to ‘sign up’ by sending a message to Jim or Bob robert.g.de.cesaris@intel.com to attend by August 1. These members will be given the link and passcode to join the meeting at the assigned time. Again, there is no fee for signing up or for attendance. Current plan is for two 3-hour sessions. This will be modified to add or reduce time depending on presentations and feedback received.

Initial date and session times are being planned as follows:


• SESSION 1: Sat, Sept 12, 10AM-1PM PDT (1-4PM EDT, 6-9PM BST, 7-10PM CEST)
• SESSION 2: Sun, Sept 13, 10AM-1PM PDT (1-4PM EDT, 6-9PM BST, 7-10PM CEST)

Those who submit papers will be published in the Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 Journals, with author’s permission. There are no current plans for a separate Proceedings.

• Please watch for updates and additional announcements via email.




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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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  Rodger Shepherd
  1932 – April 16, 2020 
  
  As a founding and very active member of the Oughtred Society, many of us have known Rodger as an avid and detail-oriented researcher and slide rule collector. (see OS Memoriam page for additional comments) "Rodger passed peacefully at home with family, from cancer. We will all miss him and his many contributions to our community." -- 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 2020 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 2020 and 2021 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 26, 2020