I still have my "old Calculator", I bought in the early 60s (slide rule), here at the office! many of the younger guys have no clue to what it is, or how it works...!
WTH is a slide rule? Lp, 8 track, and VHS are things I've heard of or used. But a slide rule? I could google it, but I figured I'd ask here.
LOL, well, its easier for me to show the Wiki, than explaining it...its an 'older calculator ' not using batteries...very handy, mostly came in two sizes a, 14" or a 7" version..the shorter for pocket use...it was mandatory equipment in HS an college up into the 60`s ,70s... the older versions were bamboo covered with ivory, later they were all plastic, mine are...my step dads older one was bamboo w ivory, kind of like piano keys...the bamboo was used because it was a 'stable' wood, didnt expand or contract much.
see even here I find people not knowing what it is....I still have mine at the office, but dont use it much anymore as the calculators are pretty sophisticated now
from the wiki abv:
Quote:
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the slide rule was the symbol of the engineer's profession (in the same way that the stethoscope symbolizes the medical profession).[citation needed] German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun brought two 1930s vintage Nestler slide rules with him when he moved to the U.S. after World War II to work on the American space program. Throughout his life he never used any other pocket calculating devices; slide rules served him perfectly well for making quick estimates of rocket design parameters and other figures
Some engineering students and engineers carried ten-inch slide rules in belt holsters, and even into the mid 1970s this was a common sight on campuses. Students also might keep a ten- or twenty-inch rule for precision work at home or the office[14] while carrying a five-inch pocket slide rule around with them.
the ten and 5 inch sizes they refer to are the actual scales , I`m referring to the actual size of the entire instrument
