THE OUGHTRED SOCIETY’S VIRTUAL IM2021 MEETING

Held in the virtual world 2021

International Meeting 2021 Summary

The second half of 2021 was highlighted by the 27th International Meeting of Collectors and Researchers of Slide Rules and Historic Computing Instruments, which was held on September 11 and 12 and hosted from Germany through ZOOM, by Karl Kleine. Karl did an outstanding job in creating the program, maintaining the website, and especially in serving as our editor for all of the papers. The IM2021 Proceedings are being published and will be made available to our international membership. Check www.im2021.org (http://www.im2021.org) for updates and availability.

The meeting featured four sessions, Collecting in Pandemic Times, Mechanical Calculators, Slide Rules, and Logarithm Tables, spread over the two day event. Karl plans to post the full videos of each presentation on both the IM2021 and Oughtred Society sites for reference. The initial session, featuring six presentations, brought up the very sobering topic that most of us do not want to face, namely, how do we best plan for the future of our collections for the day that will inevitably come? Many good ideas were shared about organizing ones collection to separate and document ones most important and valuable pieces so that one’s family has sufficient information to make good decisions about the future of the collection. Karl Kleine’s paper referred to our current situation as the ‘second death’ of the slide rule since those users and collectors who had last used these devices professionally would now be reaching their 80’s and 90’s. José Fernández highlighted the importance of maintaining key websites in our field that have been developed over many years that could be at risk of being lost; Nathan Zeldes covered thoughts and options regarding the future of our collections; several members noted that they had placed specific instructions in their will to fund their sites for at least several years after they have passed. Groups such as the Oughtred Society, the UKSRC, and others need to be ultimately responsible to ensure that these important reference sites and archives continue to be funded and supported indefinitely. Mike Konshak reviewed the goal of the ISRM and its library and highlighted the many detailed books that he has been publishing to preserve the instructions books and related literature regarding slide rules and calculating devices that are easily lost to time. Many members commented on the utility and quality of his work and highlighted some of the very difficult documents that Mike has been able to find, remove imperfections, and reproduce. Marvin Clarence presented on the interesting and certainly concerning topic of “Slide Rules and Numeracy in the Current Active Generation and in the Generations to Come.” Marvin serves as Head of Communications and Education for the International Slide Rule Museum and is currently researching the somewhat controversial history of the development of the slide rule, a most apropos subject as we approach the 400th anniversary of the invention of this most useful device.

The second session of the first day covered the topic of Mechanical Calculators and included three excellent papers on this topic. Wolfgang Irler covered the topic of European Scientists and Inventors of the 18th Century, Jan Meyer explained the challenges that he faced in building a beautiful replica of a Braun Calculating Machine, noting that some key component sizing had to be slightly modified and this created a rippling effect throughout parts of his design. The images he shared of his machine were impressive and reflected a very faithful commitment to the original design. The final paper of this session was given by Gian Piero Barozzi, who very passionately described his experiences as an Italian inventor and designer of mechanical calculators in Japan. He described how he grew up in a small Italian village, always interested in mechanical devices but could not find a match for his interests in Italy. He eventually moved to Japan where he designed typewriters and many of the Japanese calculators that made it to market throughout the world. He retired and now lives in Italy and noted how different the two cultures are, especially when it involves schedules and time commitments.

The third session began on the second day and focused on slide rules and reviewed several interesting and specialized models, covered by David Rance, Jacques Perregaux, John Runnels, and Bob Adams. In particular, John’s presentation focused on the relationship between Richardson and Gilson slide rule manufacturing; he presented clear evidence that the two companies did indeed have a very close relationship, something which has been suspected and discussed for some time. He presented a rule that appeared to be a standard 12-inch Richardson slide rule that also contained the words Gilson Slide Rule when the slide was extended. According to the page on Richardson Slide Rules from the Smithsonian Institution, “Richardson developed a range of slide rules and took out patents in 1911, 1912, and 1918. By 1920, Richardson had sold his business to the Gilson Slide Rule Company, purchased an expensive automobile, and retired.” Rules with both names appear to be very uncommon based on questions and the discussion from the membership which followed.

The fourth and final session contained two papers on Logarithmic Tables. Bob De Cesaris covered the history of mathematical thought from antiquity that hinted at the concept of logarithms, then detailed the works of Bürgi and Napier, and shared examples of early log tables from his collection. Klaus Kühn followed by reviewing a collection of sources covering the computation of logarithms.

Following the Proceedings, the recipients of the Oughtred Society Awards for 2021 were announced:

Congratulations to this year’s Oughtred Society Award Recipient:
Andries de Man
…..and congratulations to the two recipients of the Oughtred Society Fellowship Award:
Jim Bready
Hubert Weikert

These awards recognize those key members who have gone above and beyond in researching, documenting, and preserving information related to slide rules and calculating devices and towards helping with the growth of our international community of collectors.

After announcements from representatives of the several international groups that were represented at the meeting, an auction of items from the Conrad Schure Collection was held. A total of 26 items were auctioned, among them an early Scientific Publishing Company pocketwatch-type slide rule, several early Tavernier Gravet rules, an early variety of the Gilson Midget with very early steel ‘claw’ cursors, and two Maison Richer stadia slide rules. We have received a great deal of very positive feedback on the meeting and once again, our sincerest thanks for Karl for all of the time and hard work that he dedicated to ensuring that this was a smashing success!

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