A young engineer came into my office carrying something long and thin. "What's this and how does it work?", he asked.
That opened the opportunity for a teaching moment on the history and operation of the Slide Rule. He actually managed to get through 4 years of engineering school without learning what a slide rule was. The other grey hairs and silver backs gathered around and offered their personal experience with the care and feeding of their own slide rule.
If you were an engineering student, a slide rule was your constant companion. You had special stuff to lubricate it with and there were special adjustments to keep everything aligned and accurate. Everyone had their favorite material: Aluminum for durability and bamboo for dimensional stability. If Iran popped a nuke tomorrow and the EMP fried all the calculators in the city, you could still use a slide rule. It's sad to see them go the way of the buggy whip.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I still have mine! :-)
I keep TWO in my desk at work. I whip one out from time to time, first, to keep my hand in, and second, because it astounds the youngsters.
MC
Post a Comment