Wizard Fire Stream Calculator Slide Rule

This rule has a rectangular wooden base, a wooden slide, and a metal runner. The scales and instructions are on paper pasted to the left side of the base, both sides of the slide, the base underneath the slide, and the runner. Given the pump pressure, hose length, and nozzle size, one can find nozzle pressure, gallons of water flowing through the nozzle per minute, and the effective reach of the stream emerging from a fire hose. The slide is marked: THE (/) WIZARD (/) FIRE (/) STREAM (/) CALCULATOR. The bottom of the base is marked: COPYRIGHT 1933 BERTRAM E. ADAMS BROOKLINE MASS. A sticker on the back of the base reads: JAN 23 1933 (/) © C1 I pub. 7077.

The inventor of this object may be Bertram Ernest Adams (b. 1885). Adams graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in sanitary engineering in 1915 or 1916 and subsequently became a noted magician based in the Boston area. Best known for his 1921 book on card tricks, Adamatica, he served as president of the Society of American Magicians in 1932 and 1933. He was a registered voter in Brookline, Mass., as late as 1959. His papers are in the Boston Public Library.

References: Library of Congress Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Part 4, Works of Art, Etc., n.s. 27 (1932): 157; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Register of Former Students 55, no. 15 (1920): 9; MIT Alumni Office, "News from the Classes: Complete List of the Members and Addresses of the Class of 1916," The Technology Review 18, no. 7 (1916): 791; "List of Voters in the Town of Brookline [Mass.]," August 1959, Precinct 9A, 21, http://archive.org/details/townofbrooklinel599broo.

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