Keuffel and Esser

Keuffel and Esser started in New York, selling drawing materials and drafting supplies. In 1876, K&E started selling surveying instruments. The four-story Keuffel and Esser Manufacturing Complex in Hoboken, New Jersey, was completed four years later. K&E was incorporated in 1889. From 1889 until World War II, K&E employed "Spider Lady" Mary Pfeiffer to manage a "spider ranch" for the firm. It produced strands of spider web used in making crosshairs for telescopic sights. The firm designed an eight-story brick and terracotta building in the Renaissance Revival style. The building was completed in 1893, and the company occupied it until 1961. It was designated a New York City landmark in 2005. K&E acquired instrument maker Young & Sons of Philadelphia in 1918 and made it a department of the firm, retaining the brand name for a time. The Leroy K&E Controlled Lettering System uses a pantograph for mechanical technical lettering. In the 1960s, K&E had an office in Montreal, Quebec, at 130 Montée de Liesse. It was one of the main suppliers to major engineering firms in Québec during the thriving years of the late sixties, when the province was booming with construction activities, building highways and preparing for Expo 67. In 1984, Rowley-Scher Reprographics, Inc., a company then based in Washington D.C., acquired K&E's reprographics businesses in Arlington, Fairfax, and Norfolk, all located in Virginia. Keuffel and Esser was acquired by AZON Corporation in 1987. ==Products==

Perhaps most widely known for its high-quality slide rules, K&E made or sold a wide range of drafting, measuring, and calculating products. Among them were drafting kits and supplies, transits, planimeters, pocket and desk calculators, and fraction adders. By 1930 the K&E catalogue contained over 5,000 items. In 1959 a division was formed to specialize in the development and manufacture of optical, mechanical, and electronic systems for precision measurement of lengths and angles. At the time of the company's centennial in 1967 offered 10,000 different products. File:Keuffel and Esser drawing kit open.jpg|Drafting kit (date unknown) File:Leroy letter set.jpg|Mechanical lettering set (1959) File:Planimètre Keuffel & Esser.jpg|Planimeter (1940s) Transit Keuffel-Esser-2 hg.jpg|Transit (1940s) File:Keuffel & Esser - Sperry, Model 4016 Pocket Calculator - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03581.JPG|Pocket calculator Keuffel & Esser Model 4180, Fraction Adder - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03616.JPG|Fraction adder (1913) File:Keuffel & Esser, Burkhardt Arithmometer - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03595.JPG|"Arithmometer" desk calculator File:1970s to 1980s polyester drafting film drawing leads Keuffel and Esser and Ruwe Pencil company no 58 0369.jpg|Drawing leads (ca 1980) Slide rules slide rule exhibit (2013) In 1891, K&E started manufacturing slide rules. Over time it produced a range of instruments, in size, quality, price, and function, with specialized models developed for such tasks as designing municipal sewers, making cement-related calculations, medical functions, commerce, in extra length for enhanced accuracy and in braille for the blind. The company produced the 4139 Cooke Radio Slide Rule, designed in the mid-1930s by Nelson M. Cooke, of the Navy's Radio Materiel School, thousands of which were made. The K&E 4081-3 Log-Log Duplex Decitrig was a mainstay for engineering students and practicing engineers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. During World War II, the company made fire-control instruments for the US government and won seven Army-Navy "E" Awards for Excellence in Production. With the advent of the pocketable electronic calculator in the 1970s, slide rules became obsolete for most uses. Slide rules had never been very profitable for K&E, so it was not difficult to discontinue the line. K&E's market share shrank because of other technological advancements, and the firm shut down its slide-rule engraving machines in 1975. Over the years, K&E had amassed a collection of hundreds of slide rules, nomograms, and mechanical calculators, of its own make and others. Around 2005, this collection (which had been acquired by successor companies) was donated to the MIT Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts), greatly expanding their existing holdings. Selected items from the archives are usually on display at the museum. File:Slide rule scales front.jpg|K&E 4181-3 slide rule, front scales File:Slide rule scales back.jpg|K&E 4181-3 slide rule, rear scales File:Keuffel & Esser Model 4081-5, Log Log Duplex Decitrig - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03677.JPG|High-precision extra-length engineering slide rule 4081-5 File:Keuffel & Esser Model 4128 Nordell Sewer Slide Rule - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03674.JPG|Sewer slide rule File:Keuffel & Esser - Picker X-ray, Fetal Medical Slide Rule - MIT Slide Rule Collection - DSC03680.JPG|Fetal medical slide rule File:Keuffel and Esser Portland cement slide rule-IMG 5831-gradient.jpg|Portland cement slide rule File:Vintage Keuffel & Esser Duplex Merchant's Slide Rule, Model 4095-3, 10-Inch Linear Slide Rule, Made In USA (21291599232).jpg|Simplified merchant's slide rule File:Braille Model 4081-3 slide rule-IMG 5835-gradient.jpg|Braille slide rule 4081-3 ==References==