slide rules

January 17, 2006 12:31 AM

Virtual slide rules, a gallery and some hoaxes.
posted by dhruva (13 comments total)

My dad had a circular slide rule - they were company issue. I played with it as a kid. Guess that's why I have problems making friends.
posted by magpie68 at 1:13 AM on January 17, 2006

Interesting. Got me to google the old slide rule that mostly been sitting on my shelf for 5-10 years something, and it seems the same model (faber castell novo duplex 2/83N) have been sold for anything from $20 to $180 at ebay... I always thought it was worthless...
posted by rpn at 1:45 AM on January 17, 2006

Heh, the other day my Mother gave me the slide rule I used in school and one that my Grandfather had. I had been meaning to search for some instructions (like almost everything I learned in school, I have forgotten how to use it). Thanks for saving me the trouble!
posted by dg at 3:58 AM on January 17, 2006

what the bloody hell is a "slide rule"
posted by Pericles at 9:00 AM on January 17, 2006

what the bloody hell is a "slide rule"

An abacus with numbers printed on it.
posted by wah at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2006

Here's another nice collection of slide rules, including the very rare V-69 V-69 Hey! Alka-Juster.
posted by katinka-katinka at 9:11 AM on January 17, 2006

Geekiest. Thread. Ever.
posted by wsg at 9:33 AM on January 17, 2006

Pickett used to sell every slide rule with A teaching guide for slide rule instruction [pdf], by Maurice L. Hartung -- my grandfather.

We had a briefcase full of sample slide rules from his career, which is now on permanent loan to -- I think -- the University of Wisconsin, where he began his academic career.

Geek cred? Well, I thought it was cool to take one of those slide rules to junior high school. (It came with a leather case!) I learned differently.
posted by dhartung at 12:47 PM on January 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

In my school, we were banned from taking calculators to exams, so I just used an old slide rule that I sorta inherited from my grandfather (he was an engineer). None of the teachers suspected that it was anything more than a fancy ruler :)
posted by dhruva at 3:24 PM on January 17, 2006

Being in one of the last freshman engineering classes that had to learn how to use a slide rule I was taught by a grad student from India that was going to return to India after the school year and, with his family, start a slide rule factory. I have always wondered how that worked out.
posted by mss at 4:00 PM on January 17, 2006

This is *very* good.
posted by tomharpel at 7:52 PM on January 17, 2006

my father, a civil engineer of the old-school variety, likewise collects sliderules...
posted by RockyChrysler at 8:13 PM on January 18, 2006

what the bloody hell is a "slide rule"

Jeez how old am I exactly?
posted by magpie68 at 7:28 AM on January 20, 2006