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The Origins of Cyberspace collection described as lots 1-255 will first be offered as a single lot, subject to a reserve price. If this price is not reached, the collection will be immediately offered as individual lots as described in the catalogue as lots 1-255.
PALMER, Aaron. Palmer's computing scale. N.p, 1843.
Details
PALMER, Aaron. Palmer's computing scale. N.p, 1843.
Engraved volvelle (by George G. Smith) mounted on heavy cardboard, edges bound with gilt leather strips. 280 x 280 mm.
The earliest version (Feazel's issue 1) of the first circular slide rule published in America, issued before John E. Fuller's acquisition of the copyright. Palmer and the engraver George Smith began working on their design for an "endless computing scale" in early 1841. It was copyrighted in Boston in late 1843, and versions of the device continued to be produced until at least 1852. Palmer's slide rule enjoyed only a limited success, largely because of poor marketing and the American public's fear that use of the device "[would] tend to weaken the mind, by causing it to rely upon mere mechanism to make its numbered computations" (Fuller, Key to Fuller's Computing Telegraph [1846], quoted in Feazel 1994, 15). Karpinski 1940, 439, points out that Palmer published A key to the endless self-computing scale, showing its application to the different rules of arithmetic (Rochester: P.S. Stoddard, 1842). When OOC was written, OCLC cited no copies of this edition of the calculator, and there were no copies in RLIN. OOC 353.
Engraved volvelle (by George G. Smith) mounted on heavy cardboard, edges bound with gilt leather strips. 280 x 280 mm.
The earliest version (Feazel's issue 1) of the first circular slide rule published in America, issued before John E. Fuller's acquisition of the copyright. Palmer and the engraver George Smith began working on their design for an "endless computing scale" in early 1841. It was copyrighted in Boston in late 1843, and versions of the device continued to be produced until at least 1852. Palmer's slide rule enjoyed only a limited success, largely because of poor marketing and the American public's fear that use of the device "[would] tend to weaken the mind, by causing it to rely upon mere mechanism to make its numbered computations" (Fuller, Key to Fuller's Computing Telegraph [1846], quoted in Feazel 1994, 15). Karpinski 1940, 439, points out that Palmer published A key to the endless self-computing scale, showing its application to the different rules of arithmetic (Rochester: P.S. Stoddard, 1842). When OOC was written, OCLC cited no copies of this edition of the calculator, and there were no copies in RLIN. OOC 353.
Further details
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