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Tool What is this type of ruler called?

Tool
Susquatch said:
I'm a bit late to this, but I think that has to be a steel copy of the original engineers "slide rule". It was prolly made before logarithmic and trigonomic scaling was developed.

Sorry guys, I just couldn't help myself. Just kidding.

But seriously, when I took engineering, they didn't have scientific calculators so we all had slide rules. I still have mine some odd 55 years later.

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Never was an engineer, but I do like the old stuff. (That's why I'm on the board with you guys). :p

I picked up a second hand Pickett "Super-Computer" slide rule including the "Bat Case" a few years ago. Came out of Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg. Apparently all the cool kids wore it on their belt so they would be able to calculate a log anywhere in the building. I can just about see two of them eyeing each other up from the far ends of a hallway and preparing to see who had the fastest draw.


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Tomc938 said:
I can just about see two of them eyeing each other up from the far ends of a hallway and preparing to see who had the fastest draw.
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The slip sticks on some of them were not locked in and were free to go flying if you swung the main body hard enough! More than a few of them were launched at colleagues after some snide remark!
 
Used to haul loads of melamine out of a place called Riddle in Oregon. You'd get a manifest from an office and present that to the two old guys in the warehouse. The manifest itemized product in square feet so the first thing that the two old guys had to do was to convert square feet into sheets, all different lengths and widths. The manifest was placed on a dias and the first old guy would read off the first item, pens would fly on paper and the first old guy would announce the number of sheets followed 1-2 seconds later by the second old guy who only ever said "concur". If you pulled out a calculator they would roll their eyes and beat you every time, by a considerable margin at that.
 
Susquatch said:
I'm a bit late to this, but I think that has to be a steel copy of the original engineers "slide rule". It was prolly made before logarithmic and trigonomic scaling was developed.

Sorry guys, I just couldn't help myself. Just kidding.

But seriously, when I took engineering, they didn't have scientific calculators so we all had slide rules. I still have mine some odd 55 years later.

View attachment 46347
Click to expand...
Jeez... did you have an abacus in public school? :p
 
Chicken lights said:
Jeez... did you have an abacus in public school? :p
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Na, they were reserved for the kids that behaved and stayed in class. I hated school as a boy and was always faking permission slips and spent most summer days at the pond on a home made raft or catching turtles, frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish.

In the winter I made snow forts and went rabbit hunting.
 
whydontu said:
Why do I have a mental image of a big hairy kid stomping through the snow drifts yelling “get back here, you wascally wabbit!”
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No idea. Fudd was short and bald. I never looked like Fudd even upside down.
 
Susquatch said:
Na, they were reserved for the kids that behaved and stayed in class. I hated school as a boy and was always faking permission slips and spent most summer days at the pond on a home made raft or catching turtles, frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish.

In the winter I made snow forts and went rabbit hunting.
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You didn't happen to paint a fence did you? Huck Finn?
 
Jumping in late here - but loved my slide rule. Mine is in the top right drawer of my office desk. Still works perfectly, decades later and no new batteries required.
You old guys forgot to mention log tables. Needed them for increased decimal points. That’s where the calculator was a leg up.
I’m also quite sure that the first moon landing had a slide rule on board.
 
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