Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/06

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Subject: [Leica] Re: [LRflex] Digital Leica "M"
From: abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)
Date: Tue Dec 6 15:58:38 2005
References: <4395CAEB.B5832339@pacbell.net> <NEBBJDFBIKOBILIKPPBNGECIDDAB.red735i@earthlink.net>

On 12/6/05, Frank Filippone <red735i@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Speaking of slide rules, which of course, we were not really doing...
>
> MIT has the old K+E collection of slide rules.  I wonder if BD or someone
> else knows if they are available on display?
>
> Apparently there are some really weird ones.....
>
> I found the article in my father's copy of the MIT Alumni journal.
> Apparently the "curator" thought that the really large, around 6 foot, 
> slide
> rule for teaching was really rare....  She looked around 30 years old.
>
> How many of us in our 50's or 40's were put through slide rule learning
> using one of these old timers?
> How many of us still remember how to use a slide rule?

Me! Me! Although doing the fancy stuff on the log-log scales is now
beyond me, the basics I remember and I most definitely remember how to
do order of magnitude computations so I get the decimal point right.

> How many of us still OWN a slide rule?

I still have the one I got as a senior in high school and which took
me through college and the Navy and college again. It's a Pickett
vector-hyperbolic in yellow. I also have a MUCH older K&E bamboo with
ivory face that's illegal about everywhere now to do anything other
than look at. Like the keys on my piano (also ivory) it's a beautiful
instrument to hold. It literally has a warmth to it that the Pickett
never had in all its yellow aluminum glory.

My freshman year college physics professor had a large circular rule
with a magnifying lens that was quite wonderful.

> How many of us still USE a slide rule?

Nope. I use a calculator or the computer. (I also have an ORIGINAL
HP35 that I used all through my time in the Navy. Still works but has
to be plugged in, the battery has gone belly up low these many years
ago. Still love HP calculators though. Reverse Polish definately seemd
to make sense to me.

Adam

Adam


Replies: Reply from jbilin at axionet.com (Jacques Bilinski) ([Leica] Re: [LRflex] Digital Leica "M")
In reply to: Message from jerryleh at pacbell.net (Jerry Lehrer) ([Leica] Re: [LRflex] Digital Leica "M")
Message from red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone) ([Leica] Re: [LRflex] Digital Leica "M")