Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Anyone up for a slide rule trip? http://web.mit.edu/museum/about/news/slide.html On 12/6/05 2:03 PM, "Richard S. Taylor" <r.s.taylor@comcast.net> wrote: > Good Lord, a slide rule thread! My high school in Brooklyn had 9- or > 10-footers over the blackboard in every classroom. They were removed > a dozen or more years ago as obsolete and put into storage. Our > alumni association has been auctioning them off at yearly reunions > for quite a while now so they must be gone. I'm surprised to hear > they are rare. > > I wonder what one does with a 10-foot slide rule. Hang in in your > living room, maybe? > > Most everyone I knew used K&Es but I was a big fan of the Picketts - > still own three of them - though the oxidation on the slides sure > left your hands dirty after a long homework session. Have one > six-inch K&E, too. (Why so many? It's sort of like collecting Leica > lenses, right?) > > I used them for years until the HP35 calculator was introduced -at > $435.00 in 1972 dollars. > > Mine are all seriously shopworn. Like a lot of older technologies > they were nice to use because you could easily understand the > underlying principle of operation. > > We used to say engineering was a three-digit world, exactly the > resolution of the slide rule. Now, it's commonly a five or six digit > world with many calculations many, many digits more. > >> 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? >> How many of us still OWN a slide rule? >> How many of us still USE a slide rule? >> >> Old Timers........Youngsters....... and Slide rules.... >> >> Frank Filippone >> red735i@earthlink.net >> >> >> >> Yes I know that there are a handful of so-called >> "classic" computer collectors, like slide rule collectors. >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >