Slide Rule

[xelasnave]

I bet many dont even know what a slide rule is..
But way back in my school days they were very slick indeed.
Does anyone still use them?
I fancy they must be a collectors item by now.
alex

[acropolite]

I still have one somewhere, remember them well, I had both straight and circular models and I can still use mine (at least if I can find it).

[wavelandscott]

I too learned the "art and magic" of the slide rule in school...

While I never really use it anymore, it is still fun to pull out and show the kids...

I hadn't thought about it for a while...I wonder if i can find it?...must go try...

[seeker372011]

I was in year 4 engineering when I first saw one of those new fangled scientific calculator from Texas Instruments ..a very short time later I bought my first Casio and that was it, good bye to the slide rule. Dont know where it went to.

My slide rule was a work of art though, made in Germany, supposedly the best, can't remember the brand name after all these years

You know something even more archaic than a slide rule- a T square. Anyone ever use one of those :)

[xelasnave]

I am at my fathers house in Sydney and clearing out stuff only yesteday I found the "T"square I made in 2nd year (I think). And how about the drawing board ..was that it?.. the one you either pinned the paper on or if real flash used fancy buldog clips to hold the paper and slid said t square up and down the left side to possition the ..whatchamacallits... and french curves.... I tell ya sonny I remember when you could buy a packet of chips for sixpence those were the days... wheres my blanket its getting chilly
alex

[Starkler]

It was in grade 6 when I first saw an electronic calculator. A big chunky thing with red led display which really chewed batteries.
I did get to use a slide for a little while but I certainly didnt master it before getting my first calculator in year8 I believe.

T-square? For drawing? Yep used one throughout high school before PC's became common.

Who still plays vinyl records? Does anyone still have a turntable capable of playing 78rpm records?

[seeker372011]

well I have a record player with a horn that you have to wind up to play.No electronics at all. I had one scratched 78 record to go with it

think its a fake "antique" though so not sure it counts

[xelasnave]

Hey Seeker I also found a stack of records...the flat ones not the cylinder type like I had when I was a boy:lol: :lol: :lol:
alex

[wavelandscott]

In terms of calculators, I remember when my family got our first one used exclusively for doing the books on our farm when I was about 14 years old...it replaced an adding machine. It was a big clunky Texas Instrument thing red display but ours plugged in...

We used slide rules in science classes until I graduated high school...my teachers allowed the use of slide rules but no calculators...at university I got my first calculator of my own.

My Junior year at high school saw the first computers...TRS80 I think we had 6 of them for about 750 students...

My father in-law still regularly plays his vinyl records (and he has made sure that we have retained the capability to play "records" too although we don't)...he is a vinyl nut and has the gear to play any vinyl you've got...

[xelasnave]

Ok who used ink well and steel nib pens... biros were not allowed as they were the work of the devil
alex

[Starkler]

Careful you dont drop any, they might smash ;)

[xelasnave]

Oh those were the days... I remember riding in a horse draw "sullky" into Casino to pick up the block of ice for the ice chest.
alex

[merlin8r]

I remember that NASA engineers used to boast that they could work out a solution on their slide rules faster than the computers could.
Yes, I used to use a T-Square in tech-drawing class, on a drawing board. It was supplemented with various set squares.
As for biro's, here's a great analogy. NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that would work in zero gravity. The Soviets used a pencil.

Clear skies,
Shane

[GrahamL]

I remember the t square and drawing board you made in woodwork
ink wells and still nib pens were long gone by then though
Slide rule ? ,think i saw one once what did they do ,pardon the ignorance :P

Knew an old fella fairly recently alex , who vividly remembers the first
truck arriving in lismore ,they used to take cattle from the coast up there
tie up the stirrups on the horses point them towards home crack the whip and send them on there way ,they knew the way home 40 kms
and they would get a ride back in one of these new fangled wheeled jallopys.

[Starkler]

I still remember as a kid being woken sometimes in the early morning hours by the clip-clop sound of the horse drawn cart and the tinkle of the milk bottles as they were delivered.

[acropolite]

The name Aristo and model Studio seens to ring a bell... and here you go, can't find mine at the moment, but, for those of us who have fond memories, here's Eric's Slide Rule Site (http://www.sliderule.ca/)

[avandonk]

The last time I used a 'slide rule' was one of these for navigation. It had to be second nature as you were expected to do it while in control of an aircraft. Those were the days. Avgas went to almost $2 a gallon!

Notice it is a DEAD Reckoning Computer. One mistake... Cumulus Granitus

Bert

[xelasnave]

I can remember large ocean going vessells alongside the whalves in Lismore, milk was poured into the jug you left out, and the baker delivered the bread in a horse draw cart.
Hey this is time travelling for sure and they said you could only expect to travell forward.
alex

[acropolite]

I have one of those too Bert, Wizz Wheels they're nicknamed, and are still used for navigating the skies. You can't get a Private Pilot's licence without being able to operate a Wizz Wheel. When your GPS has gone kaput, a purely mechanical calculator and a map is a must.

[avandonk]

Yes you are right modern technology is great but a fail safe backup system no matter how crude is a must. In the end the best computer you will ever own is between your ears. A Necktop.

bert

[xelasnave]

I think that puts me in the 16k Tandy catagory;) :D
alex

[xelasnave]

Now they wee cuting edge and only a little over $2000 and a dot matrix printer was only $1500... we worked out that in the office we spent over $25,000 on stuff that $300 would get ten fold today.. first luch box phone $4000 now a phone can be had for $50 or less
alex

[acropolite]

Yep, had one of those too the, Dork Smuth "System 80", it too came with a humungous 16K of ram upgradeable to 48K (with dual floppy drives) if you bought the expansion interface. Permanent storage was on audio cassettes unless you had the expansion interface with FDD's.

[JohnG]

Ah memories, still have my Jeppesen Flight Computer from my Helicopter days.

Cheers

JohnG :lol:

[seeker372011]

Aristo

Yep!!! that was it indeed

[seeker372011]

I was once the proud owner of the Timex sinclair "home computer"--any one remember that?

[avandonk]

I was put off by computers in 1968 by a DEC PDP 8 with 2k of memory. It was the size of a fridge. It consisted of discrete component structure ie single transistors. You could get it to work better by connecting wires at the back OH JOY!. I had to learn machine code to do anything significant.

Now I have six computers and they collectively have more processing power than the whole of CSIRO had fifteen years ago.

And I still have trouble! Thats why I have six. One that works and the others to make sure it does!

Bert

[Dujon]

Me too. The slide rule was a mystery for a while but I managed to master it. Mind you, if you put one in my hands now I'd probably be lost. How quickly we forget - unlike riding a bicycle.

I'm not sure whether or not I ever owned a slide rule though. My father was a surveyor so there was always one in the house for homework (his, mine and my siblings') and suchlike. My father eventually came into possession of a mechanical calculator. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called but it wasn't half a miracle of mechanical engineering. It consisted of a cylinder with dial-up numerals around the top lip and a fold out device - it looked like a ring pull from a soft drink can, only much more solid - which, once your settings were done was whizzed around at a million miles an hour in order to perform the calculations. This was compacted into a cylinder about, oh, I don't know, say 3" high and 2" in diameter.

Alex, as a child I'd occasionally help the local milkman, sitting on the back of the dray and leaping off with a ladle (there's probably a more accurate term) and racing up to each front door to pour the milk into the jugs left on the doorsteps. When I started work in a bank one of my duties as office junior was to empty, wash and refill the inkwells (black and red). The ink had to be made freshly each day. Ballpoint pens were not allowed; the reasoning was that no one was sure as to how long such impressions would last, so, being tied down to a system which required long term retention of records, understandably they were banned.

I also had to set and light the fires in wintery weather. All calculations were done by hand. In order to get us sprogs up to speed we were given a page of the telephone book each day and consigned to a corner to add up a column of 'phone numbers. Ah, halcyon days.

Shame on you, Alex, for bringing back all these memories.

[xelasnave]

John..we are lucky we can still sortta remember:lol: :lol: :lol: .
alex:lol:

[jakob]

The Curta Peppermill
Made in Lichtenstein
We used it to calculate with 9 digit Logarithms!

[h0ughy]

gee this is geriatric walk of fame in this thread!!!!!!!!

I was lucky and missed out on using the slide rule, however I lived through the sinclair, microbee and texas TI99A days, commmodore32 and the commodore64, the ibm ps1, HP Apollo then on into the 286's through to present. I still have my HP42 calculator, barcodereader wand, and programs

[Ric]

I remember the first year they allowed calculators to be used in my school.
The rules were that you were allowed to use them in general classes but they were banned in exams, a strange ruling that was revised after the first mid year exam when half the school did poorly.

cheers

[Dujon]

Thanks, Jakob. I think the one my father used was more like the images below so it's probably just a later model that he had. (see attached images).

I must remember to ask my mother (who is still alive - my father passed away in 1977) if she still has the machine somewhere. Possibly not as it could well have belonged to the people for whom he worked.

This, by the way, was probably in the late '50s or, at a stretch, 1960.

[Omaroo]

We learned to use a slide rule throughout high school, but were the first year that were allowed to use non-programmable calculators for the HSC. I had a Hewlett-Packard HP32E reverse polish number. Great calc because no-one else knew how to use it - so it was never borrowed by anyone. :)

The year was 1980.

[hogly52]

The Faber-Castell was my slide rule of choice. I had two, the wooden single face style, and then the upmarket. double sided plastic one. If I want to blow a few minds at work I'll bring it out occassionally to upset the younger engineers who have never seen them. But before the slide rule, there was the log tables, and I haven't seen them for a long time, and they never appeared in my kids school book lists either.

I saved a fortune, $200+, for my first HP33, back in 1972?. Currently using a HP39g+. First computing done at Swineburn Institute in Fortran with punch cards and day(s) turn-around times, provided your compiling was correct. My first experience with Basic, was with a machine the size of a fridge. Oh how its changed!

Yup, back in Oakleigh, we had milk and bread delivered by horse drawns carts in the mid to late 50's. I even remember when doctors made house calls!!!

Love the nostalgia threads. ;)

Cheers,

Graeme

[Omaroo]

Wasn't the HP35 was it? I know that it was released in 1972 as an "electronic sliderule". The HP33EC came out in 1978 along with my HP32E. All great units. I wish I still had mine as I now run a HP12C, but miss the larger form factor. Ah, those were the days..... :)

[Dujon]

Me too, Graeme. Not so much as what they are but what they do to help your own memories of times of yore.

I have very little grey matter between my ears but whatever I do have I like to protect. Dredging out information stored and unused for year upon year is part of that exercise. For instance this thread has prompted me to research the site of two of my greatuncle's farms, on Google Earth, and then try and put my memories into context (after all an eight year old does see the world through different eyes than an old phart) ;)

[hogly52]

Yes it was. Thanks for prompting my memory. It was part of the series including the HP45 and later the HP65.

Hey, I'm 54, I'm allowed some "grey moments"!

Cheers,

Graeme

[Omaroo]

Hey Graeme, the machine the "size of a fridge".... wasn't a PDP was it? :D

[hogly52]

Can't help you on that one. I wasn't it's administrator just a user.

Cheers,

Graeme

[Suzy_A]

Hi All,

I still use a slide rool.

You are still required to know how to use one for many aviation exams. Have a look at http://www.casa.gov.au/fcl/exams/cyber/material.htm

"Nav Equipment
When permitted, the term 'Nav equipment' includes:

Dividers
Compass
Protractor
Ruler (or straight-edge)
non-electronic 'aviation wind triangle and circular slide rule' computer. eg Jeppesen Sanderson CR or other brands of similar type or a manual slide rule"
"(Electronic flight planning device/computer is NOT permitted in place of Jeppesen CR or a manual slide rule)"

....

"The ATPL exams"
(Airline Transport Pilot Licence - ie to fly a 7X7 etc for Qantas etc)


"6. APLA
Required/to be supplied by candidate
Navigation equipment
B727 Performance and Operating Handbook
CAO 20-95.2 "

[Nordo]

I've just come across this thread and read all the posts. I reckon I could list the age of all the poster's based on their comments (a la Henry Higgins).

I remember, and used almost everything that has been mentioned (except the Curta Peppermill).
We had milk delivered bulk into a billy. My parents had a stack of 78s. I was an ink monitor in my class. I owned a Commodore 64. I used 4 figure logs and trig tables in high school, which later extended to 8 and 10 figure tables at work (survey).
I designed a 20 storey building (200 Queens St, Melbourne) using a 2 sided slide rule and 8 figure log/trig tables.
Later on I owned an HP45 (could never trust using the "stack" memory).

I remember working in an engineering office during school holidays. They had a calculating machine that was wheeled around from desk to desk. You pushed a few things, then pulled the big lever at the end - like the old poker machines.
The worst thing in a drawing office was the pens:sadeyes: . You put a drop in ink between two blades (resembling a pair of tweezers), then turned a screw until the pen made a line just the right thickness - but of course by then the ink had dried up and you had to start all over again:mad2: .

[Dujon]

Ha, ha, Nordo. I used those yonks ago when I did tech. drawing. Mind you it was not often and, if memory serves, 'twas only experimentally rather than a course requirement (we generally used various pencil grades and cartridge paper).

Do draughtsmen (sexist, I know) still use linen paper? Occasionally my father would bring home a few sheets of the stuff - presumably drafts which were no longer required. A bit of a soaking and you finished up with a lovely sheet of linen. My grandmother, who was a fantastic seamstress, put them to all sorts of good use.

Oh yes; shouldn't that be 'Enry 'Iggins? ;)

[mickoking]

I was doing a course in the RAAF in 1988 and we were taught how to use the slide rule there. But as soon as I graduated I used a calculator and totally forgot how to use a slide rule. They occasionally pop up in Op shops.

[Suzy_A]

Hey!

How old do you think we all are!

I've still got some 78s - they don't do everything on CDs! (Actually, I don't anymore - my older sister turned them all into ashtrays and clocks...) And I had a C64 - I still use an Amiga monitor as a TV. And I've used a HP45 - I worked in a hospital (not that long ago) where one was still used and a guy that lives near my mother has a PDP11 in his shed. For those that don't know, a PDP 11 was a computer (one up from a mini and one down from a mainframe) that had... 512 KB and ran at .. 4 MHz I think.... Fast for them daze - it would take about 20 users at once. And when I started uni, there was a Perkin Elmer 8/32 - with a whole 1 MB of magnetic core memory! It was fondly known as the 'Elmer Fud'. When the power went down, you'd just wait and when it started up again, everything was still there! That was the great thing about MCM. MCM, for those that don't know, is a type of memory that was made by in India or Afganistan by nimble little carpet weavers that wove mm sized magnetic cores onto wire lattices. They held the memory by being magnitised N or S. If the electrickery went off - they held their polarity, and so when the computer booted up again, everything wuz still there.

By the way, I met someone a couple of years back who was a .... can't remember what their job title was.... They are retired now, but they were a professional maths calculator who worked at Myers. At the end of the day, they were given the list of sales and went through and calculated - in their head - the day's sales. Prior to that they worked on ballistic (artillery) tables but were replaced by a computer with 512 B (that's bytes...) and used about a MW.

[xelasnave]

Hey Suzy I owned a real estate office and at the end of the day I could could calculate the number of sales our sales staff of 3 had made, it was easy unless they each made a sale:lol: :lol: :lol:
alex

[Nordo]

When I was in my early teens my father bought me "The Trachtenberg (?)System of Speed Maths". I only gave it a cursory glance, but it had all these nifty ways of doing large heavy calculations in your head. I couldn't see how I could impress girls with it so I lost interest.
There was a TV show where competitors had to be the quickest to write down the answer to large calculations. The better ones would be writing the answer down before the host had finished reading the question.
Perhaps we shouldn't be bringing old TV shows into the discussion;) , but I used to love "Why Is It So?" with Julius Sumner Miller. I was only a kid, but it was still my favourite show.

[xelasnave]

When I got my hands on a calculator I pulled it apart and came up with the idea they could be worn on the wrist, I rebuilt it to fit and worn so. I went to a patent attorney to patent it and was told the idea was not novel enough to get the patent, so I gave up on the project.
Moral of that story is if your expert does not give you the advice you want to hear find one that does.
alex

[Geoff45]

Unfrortunately, this is one of those urban myths that should be true, but isn't. For the real story see http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

BTW I still have 2 slide rules, both made by Faber-Castell
Geoff

[Omaroo]

It's a great story. I used to collect FSP's. I have lots of them in all different manner of styles and shapes. I've had them for years and am yet to have one run out. :) I've also yet to test any myself in +150C or -150C temps or in lieu of gravity. Maybe one day!:D

[Suzy_A]

[quote=Nordo]...but it had all these nifty ways of doing large heavy calculations in your head. I couldn't see how I could impress girls with it so I lost interest.
quote]

Reminds me about Nikola Tesla - when he was 12 or so, his maths teacher (who hadn't prepared the lesson) told the class to work out the answer of 1+2+3+4+....+100, thinking it would take them an hour or so.

It took Tesla about 30 seconds - and he did it in his head.

0+100 = 100
1+99=100
2+98=100
...
...
...
49+51=100

so there are 50 pairs of X+Y = 100, so that equals 5000. And then there is 50 left over, so the total is 5050!

Easy!

[johnno]

Hi All,

I have never used,But own a couple of slide rules,from my father's estate,

I do remember being left handed in school,and being made to change over,because"You will smudge your work,when you use the ink well"

I was born in 1949.

Regards.John

[Nordo]

Nikola Tesla was one of the world's most brilliant inventors, and least known.
As a kid I always wanted to build a tesla coil.
Tesla invented many things we take for granted (eg brushless electric motors).
He wanted to distribute electricity not with wires, but electromagnetic waves - hence the tesla coil. The tesla coil I made plans was a high voltage coil orientated vertically. You could show off it's properties by doing various "tricks" including holding a fluorescent tube in the same room and it would light up.
Doing a google search for Nikola Tesla or tesla coil, will give you hours of fascinating reading.

[Geoff45]

[quote=Suzy_A]

Same story about Gauss when he was 6. Actually there is a very simple formula:
sum of 1st n integers = 0.5*n*(n+1).

[Gargoyle_Steve]

I appear to have been born in a gap between most of the rest of you ..... meaning I was born in 1964.

I never had or used a slide rule at school, and neither did we have ink wells, biros were ok even at primary shchool from about grade 3 or 4 onwards.

There was no such thing as a computer at primary school, and at high school we had a PDP-11 (card reader data entry only, lead pencil not punch cards - if you've done that you know how bad it can be)
:bashcomp:

There was also a "compact" 4k desktop type computer, whose brand escapes me at present, it was a rather unusual brand, but similar to early Tandy, etc units.

We had bottled milk deivered in Bisbane, but on weekends up to Gympie (reasonably large town) to visit my Aunt & Uncle the milk there (in town) was still delivered fresh to your jug / cannister / whatever.

Mum and Dad still had some 78's around, and of course we had a turntable that played them - does anyone know what the hell the 16 speed was ever used for?? Apart from making Elvis, Frank Sinatra, etc, sound very weird - which I did often.

Dogs roamed the streets freely - our street had 12 houses, and 14 dogs - they hung out mostly in one large group, with a couple of "outsiders" - and no one got bitten (except dogs) and no dog catchers ran around trying to take them away to have them put down.

I remember at primary school when the price of a sausage roll went from 5c to 8c in one jump - parents screamed! :lol:

I remember when lollies were at most 1c each, you could get a stomach ache for 30c, if you had 30c that is. Those red raspbery lollies were still 3 for a cent .. ggez I ate a lot of those. Rainbow monsters were the dearest - 3 for 2 cents, how shocking! Around this time I think I got 50c a week pocket money, and was damned pleased to get that too.

Good days .... good memories!

[Omaroo]

LOL!! Memories! :)

Yup - I remember the time when Big Ben meat pies went up from 12 to 15 cents. It nearly broke the bank!

'Stomach ache for 30c' ... yep - I think they were called "fruit cocktails" if I remember rightly. Being able to somethimes (if you saved up)pull out a two-dollar note in the school lunch time canteen line was special.... :D (especially when you got ten cents a week pocket money)

[matt]

Hmmmmmmmm

Appears I'm also one of those "in between" generation types. Born in '67.

My first real memory of anything computerish was the Sinclair ZX80.

I was "lucky" enough to receive the ZX81 for Xmas the following year.

I say "lucky" coz it has an on-board memory of a laughable 1K!!!

You actually had to spend more money to acquire a bulky 16K plug-in unit which really changed your life:rofl: