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K+E DORIC 9071-3
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LAST OF THE DORIC SERIES TO BE FOUND
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How many of us actually get excited about non log-log duplex rules? For sure all of us have them in our collection, but what place do they hold in it? The big log-log types get most of the "air time" on the discussions, which is only right since they attract the most interest. But here's one to get excited about, especially if you're me.
The slide rule you see pictured here is K+E's DORIC 9071-3 duplex decitrig slide rule. Never seen one before? Well, I have personally only seen two, and I only can find evidence of one other in a collection, making a grand total of three known. The other one I saw sold on E-bay about two years ago. So what are these things?
Everyone is familiar with K+E's 4181 series plastic ( Ivorite ) slide rules. They are very collectible, and usable, and were the plastic version of the mahogany 4081 series rules sold at the same time. The Plastic rules came in a pocket size which the wood ones did not, but otherwise were similar and went through many of the same scale and layout changes that the wood rules did.
But before the 4181 series came out there was the 9081 series, much discussed previously on this site. Most of the 9000 series rules are well documented, and again many have been covered here before. None of them are exactly common, and actually the most common is the N9081-3, again the precursor to the 4181-3. ( Actually there was an N4181-3 between there but whatever!) This 9071-3 is actually the last one of the 9000 series to be discovered.
As you can see from the scans, it is very much a plastic 4071-3. But it has some features that are decidedly unusual. Note that it uses non-slanty numbers and scale letters, like the N9081-3 I have shown with it. These are the ONLY TWO DORIC rules WITHOUT slanty figures. And by that I mean these two rules specifically. ( Of course, the other two 9071-3 rules don't have slanty figures either, but this is the only known N9081-3 like that.) All others have figures like the all black 4181-3 rules. Also note that while it DOES have directionally slanted trig numbers, they are on the OPPOSITE SIDES of the lines from what we usually see on K+E rules. This differs from the N9081-3 in the scan with it. And, note the somewhat misaligned scale letters, very very untypical of K+E. A very odd rule. Just what's up here?
After talking with slide rule experts Michael O'Leary and Clark McCoy, the best theory is that after K+E decided not to produce the plastic 10000 series, or after a very short production run on them ( hard to say which, as manuals for them exist but no rule of either size has ever been seen!!), they brought out the 9000 series rules. Whereas the 10000 series rules used a scale layout unique to them, the 9000 series would differ by offering plastic variants of ALREADY EXISTING scale layouts. (The 10002 would have been a 10 inch rule and the 10000 a five inch.) Oddly in this mix, which occurred in 1948, the 10000 DID LIVE ON as the 9068-1!! Same exact scale layout. Presumably then they opted to cancel the 10 inch version and go ahead with a plastic version of their already well known duplex decitrig polyphase, the 4071-3, which had already had a long production. This then is that rule, the 9071-3. One wonders why they didnt make the pocket rule with the same scale layout as this, perhaps they were already too far along making the mandrels for the 5 inchers, I don't know, but they didn't.
The 9071-3 first appears in the parts listing of the 1948 K+E catalog. It is not in the 1947 at all. We can safely assume that production for it was less than a year. No manual specific to it was needed, as I'm sure it used the 4071-3 manual with an insert saying it had the same scales and was ok to use. Many later K+E rules did this, one distinct advantage of having the same scale sets on both materials. A good cost cutting move. But perhaps due to slow sales coupled with a need to keep costs down, the 9071-3 got the axe. We can tell from the number of rules we see that the 4071-3 was outsold by the 4081-3 by a wide margin, and that being the case why produce two variants of a slow mover? And let's remember that we see a fair number of N9081-3's too. Better to use the plastic production facilities for other types and stick with just the 4071-3.
So to the list of known 9000 series rules, namely the N9081-3, 9061-1, 9068-1, and 9050-1, we can now add this rule, the 9071-3. We probably have seen the last newly found type in the 9000 series with this rule ( excepting prototypes if any exist) as thorough scouring of all known K+E catalogs have turned up no other models to look for. While all the 9000 series can be called uncommon, this is surely the rarest, and to me one of the neatest. It's short run speaks to us about the business end of production, a fact sometimes ignored in collecting. It's about supply and demand. Sometimes even if you make a really cool thing, not enough people will buy them to make it a viable thing. It's just economics. So it's neat when you think about it that way too. It is something that apparently few wanted, manufacturer OR customer, which now makes me want it more!
On a final note, having mentioned the 10000 series rules above, did you know that parts for them were listed in many later catalogs? Just like this here 9071-3. As was a pocket sized N9081-1!! I have never seen any of the three, in fact the 10000 series remain one of the great slide rule mysteries. Just keep your eyes peeled. If they're out there, one will turn up eventualy. I hope.
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ABOVE AND RIGHT: scale layouts of 9071-3, both sides. Note non-slanty letters/numbers, and positions of numbers on trig scales. These early 9000 rules have the serial no. duplicated in full on the EDGE of one body rail, like contemporary mahogany types and UNLIKE later 4000 series rules.
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ABOVE: 9071-3 (top) compared with N9081-3. Only two DORIC rules exist with these non slanted scale letters and numbers, here are both together. Both were probably made some time in 1948 as best I can tell. While the 9071-3 did not continue in following years, the N9081-3 did but revised with the more familiar slanty figures, which carried over into 4181-3 production.
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