New use for a slide rule

........no doubt read "On The Beach.."

I will pick up my jacket on the way out.

Depressing but another good read IMHO

As most will know I have a very large collection of slide rules of all types. Standard, rotary, cylindrical etc. Probably more than 300 to date. They range in size from 3" (inches) up to 6'(feet). They are complimented by my collection of Mechanical Calculators which exceeds 100 now. These are not hidden away in drawers but most are on display in the house.

Always interested in any people want to get rid of.

regards

One of the first things I was gifted when I started as a toolmaker apprentice in 1963 was a slide rule. I used the slide rule for most of my apprenticeship before passing it on to a new apprentice when I could afford a new one. I still have the slide rule and a circular one as well as 5 figure log tables. Nowadays several calculators are scattered around the workshop.

My first such line was in watches, it was very convenient. This watch was given to me by my father when I was young. Mark Carson, the author of the slide rule in watches, said: “I grew up without computers. My father, as an engineer, used slide rulers and taught me how to use them when I was 12 years old. The round slide rule was my favorite because it had no beginning or end. Sometimes people ask me how I guess the exact value, for example, 1.1? My father taught me to keep the answer in my head. The slide rule only clarifies the value. If your $ 20 restaurant bill requires a 15% tip, the amount you need will not be 23 cents or $ 230. The invoice with a tip will amount to $ 23 ".

Your post intrigued me, Timothy ... so I went a-googling, and found this: **LINK**

https://www.ablogtowatch.com/how-to-use-a-watch-bezel-slide-rule/

MichaelG.

I too have three slide rules: Faber Castell 57/92 (10", Boots Ringplan Standard (10", and a Helix A50S (5". Of these, the Boots suffers from a rather slack slide which makes life difficult whilst the Helix despite it's short length, has the most scales.

But my Casio HS-5D 8 digit 4 function solar powered calculator gets the most use!

I've also got a vague recollection of being taught how to use the slide rule in C&G Maths 'A' - I can't really see it being taught in 'B' & 'C'. If so, that was in 1959/60 academic year at Bradford Technical College.

Peter G. Shaw

Edited By Peter G. Shaw on 24/05/2021 17:12:40

Yet another Edit. I've got the blasted Smileys! They are NOT part of the original - it should be a double quote in each instance, eg ".

Edited By Peter G. Shaw on 24/05/2021 17:14:31

.

It’s all part of a cunning plot by the Metricators, Peter

Every time you use Inches they insert a stupid smiley

... I presume it’s an attempt at Pavlovian conditioning.

MichaelG.

Curses foiled again.

Thanks Michael, I thought it would be something stupid like that.

Pater G. Shaw

More seriously, Peter

Basically, the forum software has a look-up table of substitutions for certain keystroke sequences

This ‘feature’ could have been switched off, but apparently “the powers that be” decided we should have it.

.

Have a look at this thread from 2014 : **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=99158&p=1

and particularly the third post ... where I wrote:

I think this is a reaonably comprehensive list of the Micro$oft keyboard shortcuts for the dreaded emoticons.

____

MichaelG.

Emoticons.

Here's what I think about them.

Utter, utter, rubbish.

It seems to me that this is (these are?) another silly idea from someone , possibly a so-called programmer, simply showing off and saying, in effect, "Look how clever I am!". What these people forget is that other mere mortals then have to learn these darned things, firstly what they mean, and secondly how to use them. Frankly I don't want to know, and I don't care about them.

This episode reminds me of a time some eight or so years ago when I was attempting to find a Linux distribution which I could reasonably easily use. Now a few years prior to then, I had tried Suse 9 along with KDE 2 and found it quite palatable so naturally I tried again only to find that Suse was now using KDE4. Unfortunately, when attempting to create a better looking desktop, better looking for me that is, I got myself well and truly screwed up. Why? Because the so-called programmer had seen fit to use a tiny device known as an almond which sat in the very corners of the screen looking for all the world like a screen aberration. I, of course knew nothing of this and so Suse was abandoned in favour, eventually, of Mint with the Mate desktop.

Over the years I have, unfortunately, come across a large number of what can only be described as poor, if not bad, programming where the programmer has quite obviously not thought about the end users, eg, the questionaire where I was asked my occupation (retired) - two questions further on, what does my employer do! Another one, a list of options which was in any old random order rather than the obvious alphabetic order: that same list didn't even contain the obvious "None of these".

I apologise for the rant, and before anyone says anything, I am well aware that there is a cost involved. But if poor programming results in the users going elsewhere, then what then does the cost matter?

Gosh, I feel better for that.

Peter G. Shaw

Michael, I am so glad that my words can intrigue someone.

Peter's got it all wrong - 'so-called programmers' are harmless. No, he's been done over by a 'Real Programmer': “If it was hard to write”, says the Real Programmer, “it should be hard to understand.”