Funny that people are talking about slide rules. A week ago that was a thread on a machinists' forum I belong to. My post there:
Slide rule geeks
I graduated from high school in 1960. My school had for many years been a trades training school, with many shops, and every student had a shop major that he (not she, this was the '50s) would concentrate on his last two years. There were lots of shops and shop majors - the usual like machine and electric and automotive and sheet metal, but around there (Portland Oregon) I never heard of a high school with a large foundry shop or an aircraft shop.
I wouldn't have gone there (it was a magnet school, anyone in the system could go there) except for a visit to my class of eighth graders from the school's new principal. Recruiting. He'd been there only two years and his vision was to turn that trade school into a dual-path school where students could take trade-intensive courses or college-prep courses. But those of us in the college-prep program still had our shop major for our last three years.
In my freshman year my favorite was machine shop - and of course math class. I was in the math club my whole time there.
The principal's plan worked very well. I got lots more genuine shop background than I would have in any normal high school and a very good math/science start.
But back to slide rules. I and all my friends were geeks, before the term meant something more than a carnival freak. We carried briefcases, slide rules in holsters swinging proudly from our belts. I was a bit different because I also rode a Harley (it was all I could afford) but still a geek through-and-through.
The principal decreed, in my junior year, that there would be a slide rule contest - sure, sign me up! That year I nervously sat in a chair on the stage with eight or ten other guys in front of the other 1800 guys in the school while they watched us sweat over tricky problems with the clock running. I took second place. First place was taken by the principal's son. No, it was not a fix. He was brilliant. The next year the principal decreed that previous winners (his son) would not be eligible for the contest.
I won first place that year, but never knew whether I could beat his son (my friend Roger) head to head or not.
Yeah, I can still use a slide rule. My first one was a Post log log duplex decitrig that I bought with my paper route proceeds. Gave it to my son who was fascinated by it when he was in high school. Haven't used one in anger for many years, but I'll never lose the touch.
Old man rambling...
-js
There are no stupid questions. But there are lots of stupid answers. This is the internet.
