OT -- Slide Rules

Ray Newman · Post by **Ray Newman** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:56 pm

Slide Rules?

Anyone still have or use one?

I haven't seen a slide rule in use in 30+ years.

Back when I graduated from Sewanhaka High School in â€˜64, 98% of the guys had a Pickett -- wonder what ever happened to mine. In those days, if you had a K&E (Keuffle & Esser), w/ a case/scabbard it was a symbol you -- or more correctly your parents -- had disposable income.

I still have my TACRO drafting equipment though. IIRC, Dietz & K&E also made drafting kits?? Ah!, the days of Mechanical Drawing class w/ Mr. McMillian -- was the last class of the day & if you finished the plates -- drawings -- early, he would look the other way as you snuck out a bit before the end of the day bell.

Guess w/ the advent of computers & hand-held calculators, slides rules & drafting sets have been regulated to the second-hand shops....

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:07 pm

Last I heard they were bringing big bucks on Ebay.

No kiddin

deerwhacker444 · Post by **deerwhacker444** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:10 pm

I have one somewhere, but it's a cheap one. Don't know how to use it, nobody around to teach me either. Looking back, I find it truly amazing that we were able to land on the moon with nothing more than a slide rule.....

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:18 pm

I have 3 or 4.

My favorite is a Log Log Duplex Trig K&E Pocket model.

But then, I'm a Geek.

alnitak · Post by **alnitak** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:34 pm

I have a couple too. Play with them every now and then. Went to buy some off e-bay a few months back, and they are pretty cheap ... unless you pick up a rare German one (depends on features). But a like new K&E goes for $15-20.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:42 pm

Find some Log Tables on the internet and that's a slide rule. Every number converts to one on the log chart and then you can add and subtract insteat of long division or multiplacation.

rhead · Post by **rhead** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:43 pm

I still have my Post-Versalog with the case. I keep it om my desk and use it once in a while just to freak out the kids. It sets next to a jar of cats eye Marbles that is labled "Do you know where yours are? At least mine aren't lost"

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:46 pm

BlaineG wrote:Find some Log Tables on the internet and that's a slide rule. Every number converts to one on the log chart and then you can add and subtract insteat of long division or multiplacation.

I still have my Log Book from FDC school...

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:49 pm

Old Ironsights wrote:
BlaineG wrote:Find some Log Tables on the internet and that's a slide rule. Every number converts to one on the log chart and then you can add and subtract insteat of long division or multiplacation.
I still have my Log Book from FDC school...

The engineer/surveyor I worked for had the leather bound 12 place book for first order control work.......A wonderful work, indeed and what an invention!!! We built the first A bombs with those tables...not possible otherwise......

PJA · Post by **PJA** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:52 pm

I am sitting here looking at a Pickett Simplex Slide Rule from my high school days (Class of 1955). It sits on a bookshelf along with a letter opener from Typewrither Export & Wholesale Co made from "Genuine Cable Wire-S. F. Oak." Bay Bridge ("Holiday Greeetings, 1938"). I still use the letter opener, but not the slide rule.
Pete

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:59 pm

PJA wrote:I am sitting here looking at a Pickett Simplex Slide Rule from my high school days (Class of 1955). It sits on a bookshelf along with a letter opener from Typewrither Export & Wholesale Co made from "Genuine Cable Wire-S. F. Oak." Bay Bridge ("Holiday Greeetings, 1938"). I still use the letter opener, but not the slide rule.
Pete

Funny. I've got an Aluminium Pickett Duplex Trig (1010-ES) here on the desk...

I guess I'll have to take a pic of my slides & Log Book...

Jayhawker · Post by **Jayhawker** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:12 pm

I still have one in my toolbox in the garage.

hfcable · Post by **hfcable** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:12 pm

somewhere, i have the large pickett in its leather case and the small pocket pickett in its case as well. i can never find them when i want to show my computer pro son how easily they worked.....and the last time i did find them i couldnt find the manuals that go with them! someday...

foxtrapper · Post by **foxtrapper** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:22 pm

Hey Ray are you talking Floral Park Sewanhaka High?

jeepnik · Post by **jeepnik** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:25 pm

Just reached into the desk and pulled out a pocket size Pickett. Can't believe there was a time I could actually read that thing. Everything is so small and blurry. Got a couple of larger ones in a closet somewhere. Heck, just played with it. I can still remember how to use it. Something never go away.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:34 pm

Hmmmm

Slide Rules or Slides Rule......

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:02 pm

Top to bottom:

Picket Duplex Trig Model 1010-ES

K&E Bamboo "desk" model 68 1617 simplex

Frederick Post (Bamboo, made in Japan, HEMMI - Sun) Mdl 1446 simplex

K&E LLDT Pocket (resin plastic), Model 4181-1 (my favorite)

El Cheapo plastic Sterling Simplex

1956 TM 6-230 Log & Math tables (Common Logs & Functions of Angles in Mils)

And the good ol' "How to use the fool things" book.

JoeArizona · Post by **JoeArizona** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:12 pm

I have 2 but I couldn't remember where the batteries go, and I must have lost the charger, so I just put them away again. (hope I remember where).

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:16 pm

I have several. Let's not all put them on eBay at once...

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:41 pm

I have two, one a circular one.

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:52 pm

I too have a circular slide rule.

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:56 pm

Bought a big one for all the science classes I'd be taking, and after taking an extra class in high school to learn all the funky odd scales on them.

Then my freshman college class was the first one who was allowed the then-new calculators. So, After wasting $35 on a slide rule I never used, I spent another $100 on a calculator just to do basic math, trig, and log functions...

Grizz · Post by **Grizz** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:15 pm

At base camp in AK I have my highschool slide rule, cheap plastic job. Also have several of my Dad's circular flight computers. They flew a lot of hours and a LOT of miles.

jhrosier · Post by **jhrosier** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:31 pm

I have several, scattered around the house. They do bring back fading memories...

My pride and joy was a circular sldie rule. Still have it.
It seems like a shame that they will be sold cheap as curiousities when we are gone.

I bought a nice Pikett pocket slide rule at a yard sale for fifty cents just a few years ago. I had no need of it, but couldn't bear to see it laying there with such a low price. Even if I don't use it, I appreciate the craftsmanship that went into it.

A slide rule reminds me of a time when most people were proud of their work.

Jack

Rustolium · Post by **Rustolium** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:54 pm

My Dad collects them. Tried showing me how to use them more than once. I got him one used for range finding for a 105mm howitzer.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:11 pm

Somthing to consider:

A Man who knows how to use a Slide Rule, and make Powder and Alcohol will never want for work after the first EMP hits...

bj94 · Post by **bj94** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:11 pm

I have at least 5.

I used the Pickett "Texas Speed Rule" in high school. Then in college I bought a Pickett with more scales and it came with the small model too. Then about 10 years I got the idea to get a couple of the K+E bamboo models on ebay just for grins.

I know that there are flight computers that are basically circular slide rulesk, in fact I recently owned a watch that had a circular slide rule around the bezel. I know how to operate it, but at my age it takes pretty good reading glasses to see it so I traded it.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:59 am

I'd love to find an aluminium Picket Pocket LLDT in good shape...

I'm always so afraid of breaking the bezel on my K&E. I'm on the second slider and it's nigh impossible to get replacement parts.

Noah Zark · Post by **Noah Zark** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:06 am

The first two years of college in the mid 70s, we were prohibited from using the prohibitively expensive pocket scientific calulators, you know, the $350 HP35, and it's more powerful brother, the $400 HP45?

I had a white plastic Pickett in high school, my parents gave me a yellow professional Pickett for HS graduation knowing that I'd be going to college at some point after I did my hitch in the USMC (draft number was 13, decided I'd serve on my own terms in my choice of services). The yellow Pickett was my constant companion throughout college after two years of active duty, but I did succumb to a $300 HP45 when the price came down and the HP55 was introduced. Yes, I still have the HP45, and it still works in daily use. I've had to make new battery packs and power adapters, but that was NBD. I digress.

A technician friend at my first job noticed my Pickett on my desk and gave me a Sama & Etani Model 600 pocket circular slide rule with a "General Electric" imprint on it; he got several from a relative that sold turbine generators. I carry the GE S&E in my briefcase all the time, and frequently use it. It never fails to draw comments when I do.

When I left my first employer after 14 years, my co-worker friends asked what they could get me for a going-away gift. I said "Nothing, just something to remember you all by. You know my wacky absurd, dry sense of humor -- something that I'd appreciate."

They took up a collection and got a $100 bill, they all autographed it and had it framed -- $100 that I could never spend. They nailed my sense of humor with that one.

They also gave me a 22" long K&E N-4096 desk model slide rule that my technician friend fished out of a dumpster some years earlier that was THROWN OUT during a cleanup of the plant laboratory. He knew I liked to use slide rules, and thought the big K&E an appropriate gift.

Both the Benjamin and the 22" desk K&E are treasured mementos of great times and greater friends.

I'll have to snap a pic of the big K&N for youse guys.

I'll quote my late maternal grandfather when the first (and expensive) digital watches and electronic pocket calculators came out: "Nice. But what do you do when the batteries die?"

That's why I still use slide riles.

Noah

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:15 am

Noah Zark wrote:...That's why I still use slide rules...

Slide Rules and Pump Fountain Pens...

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:27 am

I have a Post 1460 Versalog (Japan-Hemmi) in leather case I bought new in 1964. It is in perfect almost new condition and if anybody wants it, Thirty dollars ($30.00) will get it mail to your very own mail box.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:47 am

Charles wrote:I have a Post 1460 Versalog (Japan-Hemmi) in leather case I bought new in 1964. It is in perfect almost new condition and if anybody wants it, Thirty dollars ($30.00) will get it mail to your very own mail box.

Claimed! PM me with Mailing addy please!

crs · Post by **crs** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:00 am

Yep, still have my old circular rule from days at UT and my old circular rally computer from my sports car rally days. Probably can not remember how to use either one now!

jhrosier · Post by **jhrosier** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:01 am

Y'all should get a charge out of this:

http://www.taswegian.com/TwoHeaded/UniV ... rtual.html

Jack

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:14 am

Fun, but it ain't long enough to work with...

mescalero1 · Post by **mescalero1** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:16 am

I still have my Pickett & the instuction booklet on how to use it!

jhrosier · Post by **jhrosier** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:10 pm

Old Ironsights wrote:Fun, but it ain't long enough to work with...

You need a larger monitor.

Jack

new pig hunter · Post by **new pig hunter** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:29 pm

when I went to college the Navy gave me a set of Pickett slide rules: 10" and 6", both with leather cases.
still got 'em and the instruction books.

Cheers,

Carl