Slide rule???

[compound driver 2]

Hi
just out of interest how many of us still use a slide rule in the shop? I have to admit to never having owned an electric calculator, I still stick with a 12 inch slide rule.

Come to that how many would own up to still using one?

Cheers kevin

 

[rake60]

I have one that gets played with every now and then.
It's old and worn. Some areas are a little difficult to read because or that.

When I was 16 years old a basic 4 function calculator cost $50.
The average blue collar wage at that time was $2.35/Hr and I had
a part time job. Made enough to buy a $50 4 function calculate!
It used 4 AA batteries that wold last 6 hours.

The slide rule still saw a lot of use at that time.
Not so much today...

Rick

 

[mklotz]

I used slide rules all through college. I would have killed for a scientific calculator - especially in physical chemistry and statistics classes.

My current programmable HP35S has programs stored in it for a variety of shop tasks. Can't do that on a slip stick. In addition, it does fractional arithmetic without the need to convert to decimals first. Try adding 1 & 31/64 + 5/16 on your slip stick.

They are handy for propping open the top of the toolbox, though.

 

[Bogstandard]

As far as I can remember, pocket calculators came in at the beginning of the 70's. Before that, everything I did was with a slide rule. It went into the bin years ago.

But I do know that I would still be able to use it after all these years, some things are never forgotten.

John

 

[Tin Falcon]

I am in the beginning of the electronic generation. I do not recall using a slide rule in school. The calculator of choice in high school was the TI-55 It had a rechargeable ni-cad battery little red LEDs ,tiny keys and was"Programmable" it came in a case with a belt loop you could pick out the college prep students because they were the ones with the TI-55s hanging off there belt. I have a couple slide rules around the shop but never used one.
I have several calculators I use the work horse is a TI 83. I have contemplated getting an older palm with machining programing but it is somehow not top priority.
Tin

 

[Lew Hartswick]

I still have the Picket model 4 vector hyperbolic log log that I bought my senior year in high school and
used in college but dont realy use it in the shop. Most of the shop tasks anre not that trig intensive.
The HP calculators show "a few" more significant figures and carrying 4 or 5 places is good when there
are a lot of calculations to be made before rounding at the end. I could be persuaded to part with it I
suppose if the collectors are intested since I doubt I'll ever need it and I'm not a "collector" of anything
but junk. ps. that makes it just shy of 60 years old.
...lew...

 

[zeusrekning]

I have to say this is one of the first pieces of machinery I know nothing about. I thought it was a post about 6" scales or something. Someone post pics. I still use my antique TI-82 my dad bought me when I took Trig in 9th grade. I lost it for about 4 years and really enjoy the fact that it is one of my oldest tools(longest owned)
Tim

 

[Lew Hartswick]

zeusrekning
I just sent you a couple of pix of some slide rules.
...lew...

 

[Loose nut]

WHY??

A $15.00 solar powered calculator with all the bells and whistles is a far better solution.

 

[gilessim]

Funnily enough, I also used a slide rule for years, 30 years in fact, I hate calculators ,but I bought one recently for inches to metric conversions ,here in Italy I'm obliged to be metric!, I always used tables for sin's, tan's etc. BTW all the plumbing tubing here is still in whitworth!, an inch is a "pollice" (pronounced polliche) in Italian, which means thumb!...

Giles

 

[Bogstandard]

Loose Nut - Why?

We of the older generation didn't have the electronic gizmos that you have nowadays, and as I said, the first real calculators didn't come out until the early 70's.

So it was either longhand with pencil and paper, abacus if you could use one, or the slide rule, which was the scientific calculator of it's time. Most of the knowledgeable people chose the slide rule.

 

[jgarrett]

I have a 4" round slide rule around somewhere..also have a 4 function Heathkit calculator that I paid $99 for!!!! Was a good deal back then. One of the first courses I took in the military extention classes was how to use a slide rule...they still facinate me
Julian G.

 

[Stan]

I must be the antique here. About 1970 I was repairing 4 bangers made in Japan that had Nixie tube readouts with rows of boards covered with TTL chips. It sold for a measly $2200.00. Not many years after that my TI salesman showed up with a remarkable pocket calculator (4 banger with pi and square root) they called the electronic slide rule for $125.00. I stll have it and it still works well. I also have a 6" slide rule kicking around the shop somewhere.

 

[rake60]

I must be the antique here. About 1970 I was repairing 4 bangers made in Japan that had Nixie tube readouts with rows of boards covered with TTL chips.

Now that hurts! LOL
The first machine I ran that was equipped with a DRO had Nixie tube readouts.
Watching those numbers click away as the tool was approaching a hard shoulder was an
exercise in concentration.

I would more often than not set a dial indicator on the ways and depend on it rather then
the digitals. Now I depend on a computer to run the program I'd put in to do it all in a CNC
and trust it completely.

When I got my first calculator I found myself checking it's answer with the slide rule.
In time I learned to trust it.

 

[nkalbrr]

I had a slide rule in school. I think it got tossed. I remember in the early 70's when one of my teachers bought himself a LED watch , now they come in boxes of cereal

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Ahah! I looked around and found mine from high school in the sixties. I don't have a clue how to use it anymore. Those brain cells never made it out of the sixties alive. ;D

The thing even has a real leather case that is still in excellent condition.

 

[SteveA]

Remember a buddy and I carrying slide rules around in junior high because we thought they were cool. Couldn't figure how to work them, though. Then we moved up to inexpensive scientific calclulators, first the TI-35, then the HP-15, which I still consider to be the ultimate. Few years ago I rediscovered slide rules and now have a modest collection. Use one around here sometimes. Keep a couple in the desk at work and use one now and then. Usually when some youngster has said something about my age. When the rediscovery happened, turned out I had no trouble figuring how to work them - with the benefit of a good technical education.

Steve

 

[Loose nut]

Loose Nut - Why?

We of the older generation didn't have the electronic gizmos that you have nowadays, and as I said, the first real calculators didn't come out until the early 70's.

So it was either longhand with pencil and paper, abacus if you could use one, or the slide rule, which was the scientific calculator of it's time. Most of the knowledgeable people chose the slide rule.

I too learned how to use a slide ruler "back in the day", we did have calculators though. They covered half of the desk, punch in the numbers pull lever, punch in more numbers, pull lever, punch in function, pull lever, get answer on tape. The really fancy ones were electric. I don't miss any of them.

Someone who was an expert with a slide rule could do wonders even by todays calculators standards but most of us were not experts, they are difficult to use and it is so easy to make a decimal point error, learning to use one properly took a long time.

I bought my first calculator in '75, a Bomarc or some such, can't remember, to long ago for my worn out brain, it was a simple (by todays standards) 4 function with 2 memory locations, cost about $80.00 then, a week pay (military, they don't pay well) for me.

You don't see many people (as in none) using slide rulers anymore because even the die hards learned that a $15.00 solar powered calc. will do more, is easier to learn and doesn't make as many decimal error's and as much as most of us "old farts" (yes I'm one of them too) would like to live in the "simpler" past sometimes you have to admit there are times when an update in technology is useful.

 

[Bogstandard]

Ah!! Milton,

The deluxe model with a magnifier and leather cover, as sure sign of affluence.

I couldn't afford those sorts of luxury accessories on a weekly spending salary of £1 -10 shillings ($3). I paid for mine on the drip, over I think, two months. In the days when they put it away for you until it was paid for. Unlike nowadays, where you can go out and buy whatever you want, over a squillion years.

I am sure many of us went almost blind, cramming for exams in bad lighting, trying to read the results.

John

 

[Rog02]

This thread got me to thinking, so a quick inventory of my desk turned up the following,
Slide Rule Type Calculators:

• One, POST VersaTrig 1450 Slide Rule
• One, AccuMath 400 Slide Rule
• Three, E-6B Flight Computers (Circular slide rules)
• One, Mk 8-B Airspeed/Density Altitude Computer (Circular Slide Rule)
• One, STIRLING Pocket Metric Converter (Slide Rule)
• Five, Various Chip/Speed Calculators

Electronic Calculators:

• One, TI-92 Programmable Graphing Calculator
• One, TI-85 Graphing Calculator
• One, TI Compu-Link Cable (Connects the calculators to my Computer)
• One, TI-83 Scientific Calculator
• One, TI-30X-IIS Scientific Calculator (solar powered scientific)
• Four, Electronic Calculator/Phonebook/Dayplanners
• Five, "Advertising Freebie" Calculators

Not bragging, but rather trying to make the point that these things kind of creep into your life.

Like several of the other contributors, I was introduced to a slide rule when in junior high school (anyone else remember the BIG slide rule hanging over the chalkboard?). My math teacher was a customer on my paper route and would give me tutoring on weekends and over the summer months. At first I was taught to just operate the slip stick without understanding what made it work. When I took Electronics I in high school, the first semester was a crash course in math and the theory and use of slide rules. When I was working on my pilot license the instructors were amazed how quick I picked up on the E-6B.

I bought my first calculator shortly after after graduating high school but as it was rather restricted in functions I still found myself using the slide rule a lot. As calculators got better, I used them more and the slip stick less.

When I finally got around to college at the advanced age of 40, I was shocked when I walked into math classes and was told that a calculator was needed. The classes consisted more of how to work a calculator than understanding the math. I even took a 2 credit hour course on TI-85 operation. While I will readily admit calculators make my life a lot easier, I am amazed at the number of people that have never been taught the basics of math.

As I overheard an old flight instructor when his student insisted on using an electronic E-6B instead of learning to use a manual one, "What are you going to do when the batteries die?"

OK, rant off!

As Marv suggests, a programmable calculator can have the formulas we use on regular basis stored, ready for instant use. I pick up used TI-85s at garage sales for $10 or less and after downloading the desired programs from my desktop computer I scatter them around the shop.