"Simulated Pickett N4-ES Slide Rule". (For all you egg heads.)

AntiQuark ^ | Feb 6, 2005 | Derek

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Islander7.

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[SatinDoll]

Somewhere in the house is a small, simple slide rule: it is round.

I do not know the manufacturer’s name, but it belonged to my dad, who was a nuclear engineer. He had a collection at one time, but I don’t what he did with them.

[kitchen]

Boy, talk about dull. Saturday night, 11 PM, and I’m reading a thread about slide rules. I’ve got a couple around here somewhere... and there is my Dietzgen 1734 - on my dresser. Still slick after 45 years. Down the hall to the computer “lab” and there’s it’s replacement, an HP 67. I am not going to fire up the 8088 or 286.

[Mike Darancette]

Sad to say I used one sort of like this one (K-E Decitrig).

[skinkinthegrass]

This is a fully functional, virtual slide rule, the sort
used to land Neil and Buzz on the moon... Have fun!!hmmm....I rather use an Curta, (somewhat easier to use)...

http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm

[skinkinthegrass]

I had a K&E log-log-decitrig..got pretty good at using it, too..had one...lost in tech. drafting school....
bought ti-58/rom chip (what a piece of cr@p)/
then got hp-33/11/15/28/48sx/49g/hp-50g.

[skinkinthegrass]

..but do have a Curta Type II calculator in its original box with original instructions
that I bought in early 1970 to do estate and tax work. In 1971 the first of theelec-
tronic calculators came out, making my Curta instantly obsolete, so I decided to
keep it as a curio that might someday be very valuable. Right now it’s worth about
$1,300 vs. the original price of about $150.00.WOW! ..You have one...*thumbs up*...
think of all the Techie doomsday guys out there
would give for it...worthy of black/gun smithing skills.

[FreedomPoster]

Bfl - I need to send that to a Greek friend.

[skinkinthegrass]

probably a Circular Calculator that came w/ a design manual,
Effects of Nuclear Blast. real handy.

[alfa6]

Things that make you go Hmmm

Regards

alafa6 ;>}

[GATOR NAVY]

I'm afraid this is the only slide rule I'm familiar with, but as with the types here, it can be faster than a calculator if one knows how to use it properly.

[Condor51]

I still have my two slide rules:

• Post, Student Model w/ original case.
• Post, Versatrig 1450 w/ original case and instruction manual.

Back in my day, aka Prehistory, it was Post (or K&E) for quality Architectural/Engineering equipment. From Slide Rules to: Scales, Triangles, French Curves, Mechanical Pencils, Compass-Inking Sets, Templates, etc. As I recall Pickett brand 'stuff' [technical term ;-)] came out later.

It's kind of funny now but the guys (ewwww, how 'sexist') were either Post, or K&E -- like Chevy vs Ford. I turned out to be 'Post'.

[left that other site]

I LOVE Wilson Pickett!

As for slide rules...I know it was what was used to land on the moon, although I was a washout in math, and never learned to use one.

Being a musician, I teach my students that Mozart wrote out the orchestral scores of his symphonies without any erasures or strike-outs, WITHOUT A COMPUTER!

They have a hard time wrapping their heads around that. LOL.

[El Gato]

I have several slide rules. A Harvard PhD in physics I once worked with kept one of his on top of his computer monitor for “backup”. Before we had individual computers, he kept it on top of his terminal. :)

But while slide rules were used in the design of the equipment used to put men on the moon, computers were used for the guidance calculations, among other “real time” thing, as well as design simulations. IBM 360, IIRC, which was a room sized computer, if you included the disk drives, printer, control terminal, etc. But the actual CPU was more the size of the Presidential desk.

[El Gato]

Right now it’s worth about $1,300 vs. the original price of about $150.00.

Meaning it has more than kept up with inflation. $150 in '71 dollars would be about $850, today.

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

[libstripper]

Cool use of graphics for your reply. I also have a 1966 (that’s right, 1966) Smith-Corona electric portable typewriter that still mostly works. I’ve thought about the possibility of taking the Curta on a flight but decided against it because it looks a lot too much like some kind of a sophisticated terrorist grenade. In fact, if I offered to operate it to show what it actually was, I’d probably have five ot six security personnel jump me and call the bomb squad.

[skinkinthegrass]

I’ve thought about the possibility of taking the Curta on a flight but decided against
it because it looks a lot too much like some kind of a sophisticated terrorist grenade.
In fact, if I offered to operate it to show what it actually was, I’d probably have five
of six security personnel jump me and call the bomb squad.LOL!..don't that; there's nothing more the D(nc)HSS troopers would love...
Headlines: "Vast Right Winger " from FreeRepublic planned attack(s) on..."

[TexasRepublic]

Some people do in fact call Curta the Math Grenade. I have a mint 2nd model. Have you seen what they sell for on eBay these days?

[skinkinthegrass]

Have you seen what they sell for on eBay these days?..saw US$1,150.00+...
more than 10X cost...but worth it.