K&E 4110 --- POWER TRIG Slide Rule

13" Mahogany Mannheim Style

The 4110 slide rule is not listed in any catalog that is available at this date. It is a heavy frame rule built on the large Mannheim frame used for the 4096 Merchants Slide Rule. An article in the March 1993 Oughtred Society Journal by Osborne I. Price describes the background of the rule. The Name "POWER TRIG Slide Rule" was not know until the recent aquisition of an original manual.


John Tyler, Layman Kells, Willis Kern, and James Bland received a patent for the rule in 1942. The stated objectives of the inventors in the patent application was to provide a simple looking slide rule with tangent and sine scales of increased range and a new arrangement of the log log scales. The C and D scales have two log cycles while the A and B scales have four log cycles. All scales are on the front of the rule. The Log Log scales are not segmented and related to the A and B scales. Haveing the Log Log scales unsegmented makes the rule very easy to use. With the rule being longer than standard 10 inch rules the two cycle C and D scales have the resolution of a standard 8" slide rule.


One specimen in my collection came with a manual. It has the name "Power Trig" for the rule. This manual can be viewed in the manual section of this site.


The preface in the manual describes the intent of the rule by the inventors. While the rule is different from any before it, it is elegant in its own right. It is too bad that it never gained popularity.

Specimen #1 --- Serial # 772801

Specimen #2 --- Serial # 789280 with orignal manual.