Derrenberger, Robert Graf

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio State Engineer Title:  A History of the Slide Rule Creators:  Derrenberger, Robert Graf Issue Date:  Apr-1939 Publisher:  Ohio State University, College of Engineering Citation:  Ohio State Engineer, vol. 22, no. 5 (April, 1939), 8-9. URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/35603 Appears in Collections: Ohio State Engineer: Volume 22, no. 5 (April, 1939)  A HISTORY OF THE SLIDE RULEBy ROBERT GRAF DERRENBERGERTHE slide rule, contrary to popular belief, is nota modern invention but in its earliest form isseveral hundred years old. As a matter of factthe slide rule is not an invention, but an outgrowth ofcertain ideas in mathematics.Leading up to the invention of the slide rule was theinvention of logarithms, in 1614, by John Napier.Probably the first device having any relation to theslide rule was a logarithmic scale made by EdmundGunter, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College,in London, in 1620. This scale was used for multi-plication and division by measuring the sum or differ-ence of certain scale lengths. Rev. William Oughtredsimplified this process of division and multiplication byusing; two similar scales and instead of adding or sub-tracting the lengths on one scale he merely had to layone scale beside the other and by sliding the scales backand forth he read the answer directly off the rule.Oughtred is credited with the invention of the sliderule in both the straight and circular forms. The cir-cular form was made on cardboard, one scale being onthe perimeter of a circular disc which was pivoted atthe center of a similar and larger disc and turned uponit, so that the smaller circular scale lay just inside ofand in alignment with the larger disc.The first complete duplex slide rule was made in1657 by Seth Partridge. This rule consisted of twostrips of wood held together by bridging cleats with athird strip sliding freely between them. This rule car-ried the numbers and trigonometric scales on both faces.The improvement and development of the slide rulein England, France and the United States will be takenup separately in the order just named.ENGLANDThe name sliding rule (now called slide rule) wasfirst used by Thomas Everard, who, in 1683, maderules adapted for the computations involved in deter-mining cubic contents of measuring vessels and con-tainers of market commodities. In 1722 John War-ner made a slide rule having, in addition to the usualscales, scales by means of which squares, cubes, squareroots, and cube roots could be read directly from therule.In 1697 William Hunt made a rule having a scalegiving the areas of circles of known diameters,. onefor finding the perimeter of ellipses of known axes anda scale for finding the width or length of a rectangle.This last scale is now known as the scale of reciprocalsor the inverted scale. This inverted scale was firstused on the rule as a simple regular scale running inthe reverse direction, by William Wollaston who alsoin 1815 made a rule with scales specially adapted forthe calculations involved in chemistry.A very important improvement was made by SirIsaac Newton when he devised a method of solvingcubic equations by laying three movable slide rule scalesside by side 'and bringing them together or in line by-laying a separate straight edge across them. This isnow known as a runner. It was first definitely attachedto the slide rule by John Robertson in 1775.About 1780 William Nicholson, publisher and editorof "Nicholson's Journal", a kind of technical journal,began to devote most of his time to the study and im-provement of the slide rule and used his "Journal"to advertise various rules and promote their use. Heespecially improved the circular and spiral forms ofrules. In 1817 Sylvanus Bevan introduced what is nowknown as the folded scale. This scale was of the samelength and graduations as the usual logarithmic scalebut was divided into two parts so that it began at theleft-hand end of the rule at a point a little past 3 andproceeded to 10 near the center, and beginning againat that point with 1 proceeded to the same number atthe right-hand as was placed at the left.About 1815 the slide rule was neglected and fellinto disuse in England. France then became the lead-ing country in its development and production.FRANCELittle was done toward the development of the sliderule in France until the time of the French Revolution.During this period some of the world's greatest mathe-maticians and physicists such as Fourier, Poisson, Am-pere and Bernoulli lived. About 1850 the governmentmade knowledge of the slide rule a requirement foradmission into all technical public services.In 1815 the log-log scale was added to the slide ruleby Peter Roget, a French physician. By means of thisscale it is possible to raise any number to any powerand to take the corresponding roots. Improvementswere made on this scale by Burdon and Blanc.The present form of the slide rule was invented in1850 by Amedee Mannheim. He was only nineteenyears old at the time. His rule did not come into gen-eral use until 1859 when an Italian named Q. Sellapublished a book recommending the use of the Mann-heim rule.UNITED STATESOne of the earliest slide rules produced in the UnitedStates was Palmer's "Computing Scale" which appearedin Boston in 1844. It was a circular rule eight inchesin diameter, thus providing a scale about 25 inches long.It was used only in Massachusetts and New York.Page 8 T H E OHIO STATE ENGINEERThe slide rule came into general use in 1880 whenthe Mannheim rule was first introduced. Knowledgeof the use of the slide rule was made a part of therequired courses in mathematics and engineering atWashington University in St. Louis about 1880. In1881 the well known Thacher Cylindrical Slide Rulewas patented by Edwing Thacher, a graduate of Poly-technic (Rensselaer) Institute.In 1890 William Cox began a long campaign ofpropaganda and education in the columns of the "En-gineering News", published in New York. He used theMannheim rule as a standard. In 1891 Cox patentedhis duplex slide rule. The inverted, equal parts, cubeand folded scales were, about 1897, added to the Coxduplex rule and the resulting rule called the "Poly-face Duplex" rule.The standard rules in the United States are made bythe Keuffel & Esser and the Eugene Dietzgen com-panies. The use of the circular rule is beginning tospread in the United States.Since 1886 the scales have been mounted on whitecelluloid instead of on boxwood or as in some casesmetal. At the present time a Japanese wood is becom-ing very popular.April, 1939 Page 9

A History of the Slide Rule

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A History of the Slide Rule

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