Elemoto Screw Selector slide guide
My father recently found this 1960 slide guide in a toolbox once belonging to an Arthur L. Reynolds of Pittsfield, MA. By sliding the inner card through the sleeve, the user can reveal sets of corresponding measurements in the diagram windows. This card is instructive on how to machine new standardized parts and helpful in extrapolating other dimensions from one measurement of an existing part. The standardization of the measurements of simple component parts facilitated collaboration on complex machines across time and different workshops.
The logo of the card’s manufacturer, “Elemoto” uses Commercial Script. The rest of the card is set in various weights of Futura and Futura Condensed.
A similar Elemoto slide guide, custom-made for the tool manufacturer and distributor, Keuffel & Esser Company can be found in the collections of the Hoboken Historical Museum. At the time, K&E was based in Hoboken, NJ and Elemoto, in nearby Teaneck, NJ
Another sort of analog calculator in the museum’s collection is an adding machine for measurements, also made by Elemoto for K&E around the same time as the slide guide.
The numbers in the decimal equivalents charts appear to be from Kabel (or Sans Serif). “Keuffel & Esser Co.” is set in all-caps Franklin Gothic. Their biline logo is custom drawn (see Skin & Bones for a related, albeit later typeface).
Here, Elemoto appears in a different script, set on a curve and shown in reverse. Its name is Mandate. Maybe this was just before Commercial Script came to be in use for the Elemoto logo, or maybe it was the result of constraints of printing on the plastic face of the adding machine. Other features on the plastic face appear to be hand painted or stamped.
An illustration of the Dimension Adder. The fonts used for the publication fall outside the focus of this post.
