PLUS
EQUALS
Have fun!!
I don’t need this one. I’ve got my own in my office drawer.
My first year of college chemistry 101 we had a test where we had to compute the number of moles, of whatever it was and it was a simple problem. When I was attending Tech, at least that first year, they still used slide rules although those spanking new TI-55s were just coming on scene.
I still had the slide rule, and the problem was actually an exercize if you knew how to use one....add/subtract instead of multiply/divide using logarithms....
About the time I finished the problem, I heard a bunch of moans and glanced up around the lecture hall and I saw a bunch of TIs/equivalents with their LEDs blinking “EEEEEEEEEEEE....”
The prof set it up where they’d overflow....
Pickett N3 ES
K&E Deci-Lon
K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig
Hemmi 259D (the rule I used in school)
Faber-Castell 283N (IMO the coolest rule ever)
Not that either one did me much good. I flunked out of Differential Equations in college...
Or as my daughter would ask - is there an App for that, dad?
PLUS
EQUALS
Really interesting. They were gone by the time I was in any school at all.
How did you make that?
By the time I went through school we weren’t taught to use these. Thanks for sparking a few minutes of interest... I can kind-of do basic multiplication now :P
That is TOO COOL
Cool! Thanks.
Great post! My Dad used his to design electrical equipment for the New York City and other subway systems, the monorails at Seattle and original Disneyland, and rail cars that dumped the cement for the Glen Canyon Dam in AZ. It was literally the last item he removed from his desk when he retired at age 80, though he’d switched to computer long before then.
I have a Pickett All-American hanging on the wall of my office. It is 4 feet long. When people ask me about it I tell them I use it for really big problems.
I don’t have a slide rule, but do have a Curta Type II calculator in its original box with original instructions thta I bought in early 1970 to do estate and tax work. In 1971 the first of the electronic calculators came out, making my Curta instantly obsolete, so I decided to keep it as a curio that might someday be very valuable. Right now it’s worth about $1,300 vs. the original price of about $150.00.
I still have my K&E log-log-decitrig that I had in the 50s in college, I still carry it in my glove box in my pickup.
Why would I want to be tied to a computer, when my Post slide rule is right here in it’s leather case on my belt?
Mark
BTW, AWESOME page!
Mark
Like others have said, I resisted calculators until the first chemistry test where all the calculator users were done and I was still whizzing away on the sliderule. I saw the light and never looked back.
pingus!
Back around 1966 I took a class on slide rule. I recall the instructor had a huge one on the wall above the chalk board. I had a cheap plastic one then later got another a much more expensive tho still plastic one. I probably still have them somewhere.
A few months ago I found the first calculator I ever bought. It was a Sears (electronic slide rule). This would have been around 1973. I have at least a dozen high end calculators which use LCD display, and they will run for a very long time before the batteries go dead.
The old Sears one uses 4 AA batteries but it has a beautiful green display. I had quit using it because it ran through batteries fairly quickly. Now it is the only one I use as about the only use it gets is to balance my checkbook and it will run for months just doing that.
40 years old and it still works perfectly.