Hemmi Bamboo Slide Rule Company

Hemmi Bamboo Slide Rule Company Ltd. in Japan is the oldest and most well known Japanese manufacturing company making slide rules. Jirou Hemmi and Company was founded in 1895 and, in 1912, was granted by the Japanese Patent Office Patent No. 22129 for their laminated bamboo construction method for slide rules. As a young company wanting exposure to a larger market, They started by selling distribution licenses to three other companies: the Fredrick Post Company of Chicago, Illinois, the Hughes-Owen Company of Canada and Tamaya & Company of Tokyo, Japan. Tamaya, an already a well-established and well-known firm in Japan, began selling Hemmi Slide Rules in 1913. The Hughes-Owen Company of Canada (another old firm), began selling the Hemmi Slide Rules in Canada in 1914 and in 1931, the Fredrick Post Company, of Chicago, Illinois, began selling them in the United States. All of three of these companies were selling Hemmi-manufactured Slide Rules under their own and Hemmi’s name. Sun Hemmi also supplied re-branded OEM slide rules to other North American companies like Lafayette, Lietz, and Geotec. Early examples may have had the “Made in Japan” or “Made in Occupied Japan” sanded off due to anti-Japanese sentiments after WWII. It is estimated that Hemmi produced about 15 million slide rules altogether.

More info at

• https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Hemmi.shtml
• https://www.sliderule.ca/hemmi.htm
• https://computermuseum.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/Detail/objects/2730
• https://www.sphere.bc.ca/oldsite/test/hemmi.html