Musings on a Slide Rule

[rwsmith]

But not nearly......

I always wanted a high-quality cased sextant to go with my WWII Hamilton marine chronometer just as a curio but I never bought one. As with slide rules, there's not much need for sextants and chronometers today as even the cheapest GPS device is far more precise (and much simpler) for determining latitude and longitude.

But not NEARLY as much fun.

I will have to say though that after I learned CAD you couldn't drag me back to a drawing board with a team of mules.

 

[jag312]

Yea, that's a thought. I may need to figure the resonant frequency of something. Isn't it the inverse of 2 pie times the square root of the inductance times the capacitance?

Pie? Pie! I like pie! Make it apple, blackberry, or peach. I'll even try apricot or plum. But I don't understand what language you're speaking.

 

[Rustyt1953]

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ySl_Nk_G-cw[/ame]

 

[427mach1]

Remember programming with FORTRAN?

Remember it? We're still using it! Some of our programs trace back to the late '60's.....

 

[Protected One]

R.E. Drake, Jr., born in 1898, was a University of Michigan, class of 1920, BS in engineering. (His dad — Rollin Edward Drake — too, was a Michigan grad, with a degree in dentistry.) Young Rollin was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and, I surmise from my brief research, also received an MS from UM in 1922.

This is his slide rule. It is 10” in length and made of mahogany covered with engraved white celluloid:



Keuffel & Esser Co. was a leading slide rule manufacturer for many years. This model, the 4092, was available from 1909 to 1921. But the 4092 with the indicator in frameless glass with plastic edges fastened by screws, well, that was introduced in 1915. It sold for $12.50 at the time, which with inflation would be $291.65 today.

I have the same slide rule AND case (no snap) that I picked up for $2 at a yard sale about 10 years ago. It brought back memories of my high school years where everyone in the electronics curriculum was required to learn how to use one.
Junior year (1972)a classmate show up with a HP calculator in a belt carrier. Paid $150 for it. We were all jealous.

I keep it around to stump my younger co-workers with. And if by chance one knows what it is, THEN I bring out the "stick aluminum" that we used for drafting on mylar back in the day. That gets them every time.

 

[Protected One]

But not NEARLY as much fun.

I will have to say though that after I learned CAD you couldn't drag me back to a drawing board with a team of mules.

Agreed!
I would LOVE to go back to the board. That's when you had to have drafting skills AND actually know how to design something. Everyones work was distinguishable from anothers, and a sence of 'style' could be imported into ones work.

CAD, while quicker, removed all the other desirable elements of the work.

 

[Dave_n]

If I really want to cause "eye-rolling" I bring out my Otis King cylindrical slide rule. This is the equivalent of a 60" linear rule and to see people's eyes glaze over is hilarious. Used it for many years doing chemistry in the UK and brought it over with me in 1968. Dave_n

 

[rwsmith]

Yes, I enjoyed the 'artistic' side.....

Agreed!
I would LOVE to go back to the board. That's when you had to have drafting skills AND actually know how to design something. Everyones work was distinguishable from anothers, and a sence of 'style' could be imported into ones work.

CAD, while quicker, removed all the other desirable elements of the work.

I was a better designer than I was a draftsman. And I liked drawing, but having to erase large parts of pictures to redraw an idea was NOT fun, and it never looked good. With CAD I could grab half of the drawing and stretch the thing as far as I wanted and never touch an eraser and my 'erasing shield'. My drawings LOOKED dang impressive and I could blast out designs with the system that I had. It was a slightly specialized system that blew Autocad out of the water every year at the CAD 'Shootouts'. One of the managers told me that I built up 'incredible' speed in turning out drawings. Of course they didn't pay me more. I loved the old ways of doing things and I have a special feeling for the old instruments and doing a job 'by hand'. But this was my job and tremendous boost in quality and production made it highly preferable in my case.

Oh,BTW. I was the only one that did what I did in a research department, so any time saver was a godsend. When I went on vacation all the work was there when I came back.

 

[rwsmith]

Yes, I enjoyed the 'artistic' side.....

Agreed!
I would LOVE to go back to the board. That's when you had to have drafting skills AND actually know how to design something. Everyones work was distinguishable from anothers, and a sence of 'style' could be imported into ones work.

CAD, while quicker, removed all the other desirable elements of the work.

I was a better designer than I was a draftsman. And I liked drawing, but having to erase large parts of pictures to redraw an idea was NOT fun, and it never looked good. With CAD I could grab half of the drawing and stretch the thing as far as I wanted and never touch an eraser and my 'erasing shield'. My drawings LOOKED dang impressive and I could blast out designs with the system that I had. It was a slightly specialized system that blew Autocad out of the water every year at the CAD 'Shootouts'. One of the managers told me that I built up 'incredible' speed in turning out drawings. Of course they didn't pay me more. I loved the old ways of doing things and I have a special feeling for the old instruments and doing a job 'by hand'. But this was my job and tremendous boost in quality and production made it highly preferable in my case.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I remember back in the day when our company bought the Engineering Manager a HP "Scientific" calculator, I think they gave $800.00 for it. Wasn't long until you could by them much, much cheaper. All of the slide rules disappeared.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[rwsmith]

The TI demo

I remember back in the day when our company bought the Engineering Manager a HP "Scientific" calculator, I think they gave $800.00 for it. Wasn't long until you could by them much, much cheaper. All of the slide rules disappeared.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

The man would throw them on the floor or against the wall. HP made GREAT stuff back in those days and I swore by them. I bought HP printers up until they 'turned' on the customers, now I won't touch their stuff.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My 'eurika' moment.