Dietzgen N1732 Micromatic Decimal Trig Log Log

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Original Owner: William Page Morris. He used this slide rule while attending the Colorado School of Mines and later in his career. The following biography was written in 1969 when he received The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) AIME Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal: "William Page Morris was president and a director of the Duval Corporation of Houston, Texas. During his 38-year career in mining, he has given unselfishly of his time and talents to numerous associations. Mr. Morris received his degree in mining engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1930. He began his mining career a year later with Valier Coal Company in Valier, Illinois. In 1932 he joined United States Potash Company in Carlsbad, N. M. and stayed until 1940, worked first as an underground motorman and later (1934-1940) as a safety and haulage engineer. In 1940 Morris went to work for International Minerals & Chemical Corporation in Carlsbad and stayed on until 1949 when he joined Duval Corporation as general superintendent. At Duval he was named vice president and assistant general manager in 1954, executive vice president in March, 1957, and president in June, 1957. In October of 1967 he was appointed president and a director of Duval Sierrita Corporation and in September of 1968 president and a director of Duval Corporation of Canada. He is also a director of Duval Sales Corporation. Mr. Morris is a director of The Sulphur Institute, the American Potash Institute, Inc., and the New Mexico Mining Association. He was the 1962 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Colorado School of Mines."

Eugene Dietzgen Co. History - 1885-2002

In 1881, Eugene's father sent him to America to escape the Kaiser's military draft and to hide some of his father's socialist literature; the literature had already landed Joseph in jail a few years before. Eugene was only 19 years old when he arrived in New York City. He began work with a German drafting company, and eventually moved to Chicago.

In Chicago Dietzgen started the Eugene Dietzgen Drafting Company, the company was founded on November 13, 1885 under the name of Luhring & Dietzgen. This partnership was succeeded by Eugene Deitzgen & Co. in 1891. Successor corporation under the name of Eugene Dietzgen Co. of Illinois occurred on February 3, 1893 and the present corporate company, Eugene Dietzgen Co. of Delaware was incorporated in Delaware on October 29, 1917. By 1906, Dietzgen had two manufacturing plants.

The company was noted for its production of slide rules, which Dietzgen started in 1898 after acquiring a patent from John Givan Davis Mack (1867-1924). His company's Mack Improved Mannheim Simplex Slide Rule sold from 1902 to 1912 for $4.50.

Dietzgen was heavily influenced by his father, one of Karl Marx's favorite philosophers. He provided his factory workers with many amenities not often found in the 19th century. These included separate bathrooms for men and women, open windowsills with flowers decorating the air, and a general atmosphere of a healthy working community. Dietzgen 's first wife could not bear him children; they divorced, and in 1912 Eugene moved to Zurich, Switzerland. There he met his second wife, Jansen, and they had three boys and three girls.

The company still exists, and its second building remains as a part of DePaul University, at the corner of Fullerton Avenue and Sheffield, in Chicago's once heavily German neighborhood of Lincoln Park. The original building still stands at 218 East 23rd Street, Chicago, operates today as Dietzgen Corporation, a privately held company. Ref: compleatsurveyor.com

Chronology of the Dietzgen company.

• 1885 - German immigrant Eugene Dietzgen founds his own engineering supply house as both a dealership and manufacturers' representative in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1893 - First manufacturing facility opened producing T-squares, drawing boards, surveying instruments and other engineering supplies that are now highly valued by collectors for their craftsmanship and quality
• 1906 - Second manufacturing facility opened at Fullerton and Sheffield Sts. In Chicago. This plant was continually expanded until sold in 1976. It is now a historical landmark.
• 1920 - Dietzgen becomes the exclusive U.S. marketer of German dry "diazo" positive-reproduction white printer papers.
• 1959 - Dietzgen becomes first company to market commercially viable polyester drafting films.
• 1974-1976 - Regional coating plants are combined with distribution centers to better service primary marketing regions at competitive cost.
• 1986 - Large document copier media - Dietzgen's first digital printing products - is introduced.
• 1995- In its 110th anniversary year, Dietzgen announced the acquisition of the Klingler company. The newly consolidated corporation enhances both firms' contributions to the marketplace by providing new technologies, new products and new services to the reprographics industry.
• 2002 - Nashua Corporation purchases Dietzgen assets and integrates them with its own growing digital imaging business. Retaining the Dietzgen name, this new division brings a new customer focus and paper converting expertise to the business.
• 2004 - Nashua acquires the Magellan line of media to position Dietzgen as a full-service provider to the growing large-format graphics market.
• 2005-2006 - Dietzgen opens new facilities in Jefferson City, TN and Cranberry, NJ, while upgrading its current plant in Los Angeles, CA, to provide better service to a customer base that has grown to more than 1,500 dealers and service bureaus.