A. F. Metal Rietz

This is my week for mystery slide rules! This one arrived today, and in the materials used for its construction it is unlike any other slide rule I have ever seen…

Click on the thumbnails at right to get full-size (300 dpi) scans. They are JPGs this time, so they’re not quite as huge as the PNGs I subjected you to yesterday…

The main mystery is this: who is the maker? A. F.? This rings no bells with me…

The bottom photo shows the slide set up on edge to be scanned. This shows you the bizarre construction of this rule. What you’re seeing is the ends of metal bars, roughly rectangular in cross-section, arranged so that if you’re holding the slide rule for normal use they run vertically! How odd! The metal bars appear to be embedded in a vinyl (or something similar) extruded matrix. Both the stators and the slide are comprised of two layers of the material I just described sandwiching an inner layer of a transparent plastic with a yellowish tint. You can’t see it very well in that scan, but that transparent layer is a little wider than the other layers on the slide (forming runners) and a little narrower on the stators (forming a well for the runners to run in).

Does anyone have a clue who the maker is? What the alleged benefits of this construction technique were? Any references to information about it on the web (I googled, but found nothing)?

I’d appreciate comments on this post if you have information…

Quote of the Day

The crazy folks in California (where I live) have a voter initiative (Proposition 87) on the ballot this election that would raise taxes on oil from California, and use the money raised to fund a slew of unspecified, politically-controlled energy initiatives. If there was ever a recipe for wasting billions of dollars, this would be it.

The Wall Street Journal’s commentary page chimed in on this subject today, in their inimitable fashion. Some excerpts:

...

The jewel in this liberal crown is Proposition 87, which would raise taxes on oil extracted from California by 1.5% to 6%, depending on the price per barrel — all in the name of reducing energy consumption and dependency on foreign oil. Let us run that by you again: The idea here is to tax California oil in order to get Californians to use less Saudi oil. Brilliant.

If approved, the law would raise costs on California’s oil producers by as much as $4 billion over the next 10 years. California would overnight become the state with the highest tax on oil producers in the U.S. — which makes as much sense as Vermont levying the highest tax on maple syrup. Not one penny, by the way, would go to close Sacramento’s enormous government debt burden — which may rise by another $40 billion if the multitude of bond initiatives for new public spending are also approved by voters this November.

...

Former President Bill Clinton is starring in a pro-87 TV ad that began running last week. Al Gore is raising money for the initiative, alongside Hollywood economists Geena Davis and Julia Roberts. Its main financial supporter is Hollywood producer Stephen Bing, who is also rich enough not to care about any increase in energy prices; his $40 million contribution is believed to be the largest individual donation to a ballot initiative in history. One co-chairman of the initiative, Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist, has contributed $1 million to the campaign. Mr. Khosla happens to own an ethanol plant outside of Fresno — just the operation that, who knows, might be eligible for funding from this new energy welfare fund.

...

Love that bit about the Hollywood economists…

The latest polls have likely voters supporting Proposition 87, 48% to 38%, with 14% undecided.

If Julia Roberts supported a proposition to require all California residents to whack themselves in the head with a sledgehammer every morning, I’ll bet it would pass…