Why "Reuleaux"?
Here at Reuleaux, we often get asked where our company name and logo comes from (and how to pronounce it - more on that later!).
Reuleaux was founded by three like-minded individuals, Becky Watson, Kempton Cannons and Guy Redhead with a clear vision of the type of business they wanted to create by working together.
They believe that by joining forces their whole is greater than the sum of their parts and wanted a name and logo to represent that.
Why Reuleaux?
A Reuleaux triangle is a shape formed from the intersection of three circular discs, each having its centre on the boundary of the other two. Its boundary is a curve of constant width, the simplest and best known such curve other than the circle itself. Constant width means that the separation of every two parallel supporting lines is the same, independent of their origins. It is also the most efficient area of any shape with a constant width.
Once they'd found the image of a Reuleaux triangle, understood how it is formed and what it means they loved the way the circular discs represent the three founders and the central triangle the best of all of them working together.
Where does it come from?
Reuleaux triangles are named after Franz Reuleaux, a 19th-century German engineer who pioneered the study of machines for translating one type of motion into another and who used Reuleaux triangles in his designs.
However, these shapes were known before his time, for instance by the designers of Gothic church windows and by Leonardo da Vinci, who used it for map projection.
So, there you have it! Oh, and by the way it's pronounced Roo-Low! (ʁœlo)
