Seeking information about a Refinery’s Pocket Calculator.
“I look forward to hearing anything your knowledgeable AOGHS community can tell me about my rather mysterious AC-ME Pocket Calculator.”
David Rance of Sassenheim, Netherlands, has collected a lot of slide rules — the analog calculating devices that became obsolete when handheld electronic calculators gained widespread use in the early 1970s. Rance and others like him have preserved “pocket calculator” collections around the world.
Some of the calculators Rance has in his collection came from the petroleum industry. Researching one years ago, he discovered the American Oil & Gas Historical Society, thanks to recommendation by a staff member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT Museum in Cambridge.
Rance contacted AOGHS in 2016 to find out if the historical society might have information about an Oklahoma-based refinery supply company’s slide rule.
Before computers, there was the slide rule — the pocket calculator.
The AOGHS Research Forum hosted a request for information about a 10-inch wooden slide rule with “Refinery Supply Company” and “AC-ME Pocket Calculator” printed on one side.
Originally from England, Rance worked in the petroleum industry for 25 years before moving to “the main bulb-growing area of the Netherlands.” Retired from the industry, and now a dedicated academic researcher, he maintains his own website, David’s Calculating Sticks.
Refinery Supply Company
The MIT museum describes the calculators as “the iconic instrument of the engineering profession. Every significant human-built structure of the past 150 years has involved its use.”
Rance’s ruler from the Refinery Supply Company is among the more obscure examples. “Sadly, like the one in the MIT collection, it came without any documentation and despite my best efforts, I still know very little about its provenance,” he noted in his email to AOGHS.
The Refinery Supply Company of Tulsa and Dallas “appears to have a rich history as a major supplier/reseller,” notes collector David Rance of the Netherlands.
MIT was founded in 1861, two years after the first U.S. commercial oil well. The Tech, a student newspaper, in 1884 provided a colorful account of a Pennsylvania oilfield fire (see Oilfield Artillery fights Fires).
AC-CURATE ME-ASUREMENT
The slide rule was used in the petroleum industry for orifice meters, Rance noted. “With the slide rule it is possible to calculate gas flows directly from static pressure, differential pressure and orifice coefficient settings.”
The supplier, the Refinery Supply Company of Tulsa (and Dallas), “appears to have a rich history as a major supplier/reseller,” notes Rance. “I believe ‘AC-ME’ refers to the aptly named ‘AC-CURATE ME-ASUREMENT PRECISION INSTRUMENTS’ company, possibly once based in Piqua, Ohio,” he added.
Refinery Supply Company of Tulsa was established in 1923, his research found, but there has been little more information about the company’s slide rule. “Can the AOGHS help? From your archives or anyone associated with society, can you tell me anything about this AC-ME pocket calculator, the Refinery Supply Company or the AC-CURATE ME-ASUREMENT PRECISION INSTRUMENTS Company?
Adding to the mystery is that the slide rule was made in Germany, Rance noted in his 2016 email to AOGHS. “A more natural choice would have been one of excellent U.S.-based slide rule makers such as Keuffel & Esser Company. So it begs the question, why would a Tulsa-based supplier import such an item?
“I look forward to hearing anything your knowledgeable AOGHS community can tell me about my rather mysterious AC-ME Pocket Calculator,” concluded Rance, a member of the British Slide Rule Circle (UKSRC) and the Dutch Circle for Historical Calculating Instruments, among other academic groups.
From David Rance’s collection: MIT Antenna slide rule for radar antenna performance — classified during World War II.
“When it comes to researching aspects of an interesting slide rule, I am dogged and I only ‘give up’ when I feel I have exhausted all the possible avenues for resolution. Sadly in the end when it came to the Refinery Supply Company’s slide rule, I concluded “nobody knows,” he added in a later email.
He did get some help from the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, including that the company was the sole supplier of the Hays Gas Analyzers, patented in 1916 for measuring the pressure or volume of a gas. But there was little else to be found.
Shortly afterward, Rance summarized what he had found about his “mystery” slide rule and posted it on his website, Refinery Supply Co.: AC-ME Pocket Calculator. “So as my collection is (too) large, I closed the case on Refinery Supply Company’s slide rule and concentrated on getting more of my collection catalogued and uploaded to my website,” Rance explained to AOGHS.
“I resigned myself that some old, apparently established, companies just fade away and sadly leave no discernible footprint,” he added. “From my experience mergers and takeovers are often the culprit – the new owners having no interest in the past, simply dump everything.”
The original Refinery Supply Company building still stands at 621 East 4th Street. Further research revealed the manufacturing portion of Refinery Supply was split off as a separate business and incorporated as Refinery Manufacturing in 1949. Four years later, Refinery Manufacturing became Chandler Engineering with A.W. (Bill) Chandler, president.
Chandler Engineering in 1981 was acquired by EG&G, (Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier), which began in 1931 as a technology company founded by MIT professors. In 2025, the Refinery Supply Company, which today advertises its precision gauges, testers, and other oilfield products with the motto, “Serving the oil and gas industry since 1923,” is headquartered in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, another dedicated group of slide rule researchers was founded in 1991 and evolved to an international organization with members in 20 countries. Since 2021, Rance has been a board member of the Oughtred Society, the global torch bearer when considering the preservation and history of slide rules.
Comment to share any information about David Rance’s Refinery Supply Company slide rule.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Petroleum Objects & Oilfield Artifacts.” Author: Aoghs.org Editors. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/petroleum-objects-oilfield-artifacts. Last Updated: November 16, 2025. Original Published Date: August 23, 2016.
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