Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Engineering Instruments, Inc., Peru, Indiana, 1958



Engineering Instruments Inc. started out as the Lawrence Engineering Service in 1938, employing 10 people.  The company became know for the first 25-cent slide rule.  The founders, Lee and Vivian Lawrence, divorced in 1947.  The company became the wife's property, who gave it the new name.  It lasted another 20 years until a fire destroyed the factory.  Lee went on to found a plastics factory which, among other things, produced the Etch-a-Sketch toys.

For more information, visit The Unique Lawrence.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Indeed, progress be damned!
Recently scored a Lawrence 10-B slide rule from a thrift shop for the princely sum of $2. Instrument is over 70 years young and is simple yet elegant. I've managed the former but not the latter...
I hope to use it for another 30 years and get my money's worth. $2 is $2 after all...
I hope to use it to design an aeronautical craft utilising the Magnus Effect. I've been reliably informed that there is a future in the design & manufacture of heavier-than-air devices. The Sonora Aero Club of California is apparently making great strides in that field of endeavour.
In numero veritas,
P.

Mister G said...

Sonoma Aero Club reference...
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/charles-a-a-dellschau-dreams-of-flying-the-amazing-story-of-an-airship-club-that-might-never-have-existed/274170/