Keuffel & Esser Company 127 Fulton Street

The Keuffel and Esser Co., also known as K & E, was a drafting instrument and supplies company founded in 1867 by two German immigrants, William J. D. Keuffel and Herman Esser. It was the first American company to specialize in these products., p.24 Keuffel and Esser was acquired by AZON Corp. in 1987.

History

Keuffel and Esser started in New York, selling

drawing Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface. The instruments used to make a drawing are pencils, crayons, pens with inks, brushes with paints, or combinations of these, and in more mod ...

materials and

drafting Drafting or draughting may refer to: * Campdrafting, an Australian equestrian sport * Drafting (aerodynamics), slipstreaming * Drafting (writing), writing something that is likely to be amended * Technical drawing, the act and discipline of compo ...

supplies. In 1876, K & E started selling surveying instruments. The four-story

Keuffel and Esser Manufacturing Complex The Keuffel and Esser Manufacturing Complex is located in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The western concrete building with the four-sided clock tower was built in 1906 and opened in 1907, after the previous building was destro ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58, ...

, was completed four years later. K & E was incorporated in 1889. In 1892, the company commissioned the architecture firm of De Lomos & Cordes to build a showroom and offices at 127 Fulton Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

. The firm designed an eight-story brick and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

building in the

Renaissance Revival style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

. The building was completed in 1893, and the company occupied it until 1961. It was designated a

New York City landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

in 2005. In the first decade of the 20th century, Keuffel and Esser introduced a new line of surveying instruments based on the work of John Paoli, an Italian immigrant in Hoboken. A new

was built in 1906. The building was converted to housing in 1975 and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

on September 12, 1985. The Leroy K & E Controlled Lettering System uses a

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

for mechanical

technical lettering Technical lettering is the process of forming letters, numerals, and other characters in technical drawing. It is used to describe, or provide detailed specifications for, an object. With the goals of legibility and uniformity, styles are stand ...

. Image:Slide rule scales front.jpg Image:Slide rule scales back.jpg K & E acquired Young & Sons of Philadelphia in 1918 and made it a department of the firm. In 1891, K & E started manufacturing

slide rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...

s. The company produced the 4139 Cooke Radio Slide Rule, designed in the mid-1930s by

Nelson M. Cooke Nelson Magor Cooke (28 November 190330 November 1965) was a leader in developing electronic schools of the United States Navy, the recipient of the Navy Commendation Medal and Medal for Humane Action, a post-war engineering entrepreneur, and an a ...

, of the Navy's

Radio Materiel School The Radio Materiel School (RMS), operated by the United States Navy, was the first electronics training facility of America’s military organizations. During the 1920s and 1930s, it produced the core of senior maintenance specialists for the Navy� ...

, thousands of which were made. The K & E 4081-3 Log-Log Duplex Decitrig was a mainstay for engineering students and practicing engineers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.Pictures of K&E Slide Rules;http://www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/KECollection/collection.htm During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the company made fire-control instruments for the US government and won seven

Army-Navy "E" Award The Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to companies during World War II whose production facilities achieved "Excellence in Production" ("E") of war equipment. The award was also known as the Army-Navy Production Award. The award was cr ...

s for Excellence in Production. With the advent of the electronic, transistorized calculator in the 1970s, slide rules became obsolete for most uses. Slide rules had never been very profitable for K & E, so it was not difficult to discontinue the line. K & E's market share shrank because of other technological advancements, and the firm shut down its slide-rule engraving machines in 1975. Stoll, Cliff. "When Slide Rules Ruled." ''Scientific American''. May 2006. In the 1960s, K & E had an office in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, at 130 Montée de Liesse. It was one of the main suppliers to major engineering firms in Québec during the thriving years of the late sixties, when the province was booming with construction activities, building highways and preparing for

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

. In 1984, three years prior to Azon's acquisition of K&E, Rowley-Scher Reprographics, Inc. (a company then based in Washington, DC) acquired K&E's reprographics businesses in Arlington and Fairfax, VA and in Norfolk, VA. Keuffel and Esser was acquired by AZON Corp. in 1987.

References

;Notes

External links

Information about Keuffel and Esser from National Museum of American History
- Sphere Research Corp.
Guide to the Leroy Lettering Set Manufactured by Keuffel & Esser 1970
{{Authority control Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey Hoboken, New Jersey German-American culture in New Jersey Tool manufacturing companies of the United States 1867 establishments in New York (state) 1987 disestablishments in New Jersey Design companies established in 1867 Manufacturing companies established in 1867 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1987 Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey