Serial Number 2449 1907Also marked PLUQ E534 3B_D_5 P98 S.G. LUSBY in case.
This piece is composed of a laquered cylinder with a mahogany handle at one end, in total 33 cm long. On this cylinder is mounted an outer cylinder 15 cm long and 7.5 cm in diameter. The scales, originally probably white, are considerably yellowed. The calculator has a total mass of about 900 g not including the mahogany case which accompanies it.
On the outer cylinder is a helical logarithmic scale 500" (41'8" or about 12.5 m) in length. This cylinder can be slid and rotated upon the inner one and hence with the correct sequence of movements, multiplications and divisions can be made and the answers read off the two pointers which project over the cylindrical scale. Results can be obtained to four and frequently five decimal places. The calculator may be used either held in the hand or mounted on the end of its case, although this example has no mounting bracket on the case. On the inner cylinder is a scale of logarithms to four decimal places and a scale of sines. (Two other models were available - one has a table of useful data in place of the two scales; the second (the Fuller-Bakewell calculator) has a scale of cos2a and sinacosa and is intended for Tacheometrical Surveying).
This calculator originally belonged to S.G. Lusby, who was appointed as an assistant lecturer at The University of Queensland in 1912, and who remained with the Physics Department for several decades.
AM
This item is part of the UQ Physics Museum Good Old days of Calculation Tour
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