My Grandfather was a structural engineer (helped design some of the major power stations in the North West and also South Americas first Gas powered plant in the 70's) and was raised on slide rules! I always remember him opening his buereau and there would always be one at hand, just in case! We owe a lot to these wonderful 'calculators'. Sadly, I am not sure where his are now, must ask mum!

Have you learnt how to use the thing?

i was secondary school between 76 and 81, was taught how to useone but i think i might struggle now !..we even got given one on our first day at school if i remember

andym

End of the 1960s we was using sliderules in my education as an industrial mecanic (maskinarbejder), after my education I continued using it a couple of years, but then the small handy pocket calculaters got cheaper and more sofisticated and the sliderule was obsolete. It was also used in DK in high school and universities 60s-70s.

I had a small one that fit in my brest pocket, some 15 cm long, for "on the floor use", and one big one, like in your pic, but mine was made to also serve as a drawing ruler (to draw lines in scales), a slide rule is a wonderful handy instrument when you know how to use it, super fast calculator, and yes faster than a pocket calculator and more convenient to use. For the small ones you needed a very good eye sight.❓

I think it was around 1980 when when we were first allowed to use calculators during certain classes in school. To confuse people, I learned to use my father's old slide rule and brought it to class. Much hilarity ensued!

Wish I knew where that thing is now. It was a (Western) German pretty large device; can't remember the brand though...

Way back whe`n, I used to use a cylindrical variant - bit like a telescope with a cylindrical cursor in the middle, brilliant piece of kit - equivalent to a 2 metre slide rule - its floating around here somewhere, if I can find it I'll digi it

Tony

I am old enough to have grown up in a house with a slide rule in the cupboard, yet young enough to have never used one.  Give me an RPN HP calculactor and I'll take on any of you "a slide rule is faster than a calculator" posers....  😎

@Soren Mexico - couldn't stay away, could you?  Or did the server timeouts go away?

I have a slide rule - and can use it! My physics teacher however memorised log tables and could perform long multiplication in his head quicker than a calculator - and I saw him do it! I have to confess to always using log tables rather than a slide rule - easier and quicker. Calculators were relatively new and you were not allowed to use them in exams.

I still have my slide rule that served me well right through to HNC. We used to call it a "guess stick" as the results could be far from accurate, and trying to decide where to place the decimal point in the answer could be a nightmare. Can't help but think today's generation have it too easy!

Neil.

Rich wrote:

@Soren Mexico - couldn't stay away, could you?  Or did the server timeouts go away?

I have difficaulties in staying away, but the timeouts are still there, or I get the "you have come to this page ----, please tell us about it. The moderators dont know about it or something like that, so I will stay away as much as I can, until someone does something.