Slide Ruler

When I were Young we did not had calculators (except a coffee mill Facit) and we all were using slide rules or log tables. For special tasks (or handouts) we made our own slide rules made of cardboard and plastic (straight and circular).

it is easily done by using a log scale. for square you use half the distance. etc.

We also created lookup tables similar to slide rules.

Well Forest Gump Thank you for the input but believe it or not slide rulers are required and allowed during tests in my classes not Calculators. But thanks for the info.

I was doing some work for a farmers periodical advising farmers on all sorts of questions. The stuff was printed, laminated the works. I would imagine something similar in quality or usefulness as you require.

Another cheap method is producing formula calculators on log-log paper sheets.

Or on calculation graphs (i forgot the name) it is really simple to produce but handy and as accurate as a slide rule.

If you need a real slide rule - try Faber Castell

Thanks - I will take the hint and change my name - for no reason at all.

What species of hominid are you and where have you been hiding for so long?!

Do I know you ?

Beats the heck outta me? Do you ever get down to the sewers much?

If you cannot find the original manufacturer, or they are out of business. Contact the guy who had it and copy the information. You can then have one made (not out of cardboard either) If you can get me a copy of the original, I can make you one. However, it will not be cheap. There is another option, ebay has a system where you can post what your looking for, which people with nothing better to do look and see if they have what you want. You just might get lucky. Or you can make the cardboard version, that will impress your co-workers, dont forget to use a crayon during the manufacturing process.....

Yes your right unfortunatley I have been around all type of searches but I think I will try Ebay what the heck... Thanks and yes I will be seeing the customer again soon so i will try to see if he can part with it. I just dont have the time to R& D one or ten. Thanks for your input.

So you rub two sticks together and you get GPS data instead of fire.

Try here.

Googled this maybe it will help, searched Slide Rule. Some are for sale I didn't look at all 2 million ++ sites -- maybe you can find something.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Slide+Rule&btnG=Google+Search

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,240,000 for Slide Rule

Thank you for the input I will try to review searches as soon as i put todays fires off my desk.

Hi chrashdive,

I still have my K&E (Keuffel & Esser) log log slide rule. Never use it anymore but just keep it around for posterity I guess. Below is a picture of it. I also have a small Pickett Simplex Trig, model 902-T rule. Deitzgen was also a major supplier of slide rules. The K&E that I have is very similar to the Dietzgen Cat. no. N1725. You might try googling these companies for more info.

Try this site for vintage slide rules. Here is a good Dietzgen site, and here is a good Pickett site.

Hope this helps,

-John

"TAD True Position Tolerance Comparator (or Inspector's Aid) from TAD

Products Corp. of Beverly, Mass. Question: "Does anyone know were I may obtain a slide rule of this nature?"

Google for "slide rulers" AND "slide rules" you will get different lists of results!

BTW First time in well over 60 years that I have encountered the term "slide ruler." It was alway slide rule!

It might be a direct translation from German or whatever.

The first slide rule I bought had a ruler. marked in inches.

"The first slide rule I bought had a ruler. marked in inches."

Not the first but a 5" pocket slide rule had a ruler along the top edge as did a large 10" simple slide rule. Also have a spiral slide rule with a 20' scale on 8" dia. disc.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only old guy participating here -- some of the rules mentioned are from way back

I own a thriving business supplying slide rules as firewood for running solar-powered calculators in the dark - Who said you couldn't accomplish anything really good by rubbing two sticks together.

Now that's true innovation, slide rules are still a very useful tool.

Those solar powered calculators would't be here if not for their ancestor the sliderulethal.

I would rather burn the calculator and use the slide rule.

One trick you had to learn was to get the decimal point in the right position, Factor 10 errors was easily made.

...you Guys certainly brought back memories.......

Yes, memories that I try to bash out of my brain with what's left of my slide rule!!!

The item you are looking for is more properly called a "slide chart" rather than a slide rule. I would suggest looking on ebay for a geometric tolerancing slide chart under the "slide rules". They pop up often, and many of us mechaical engineers still keep one around, even though we have transitioned to CAD systems (I use Pro-E at Sun Microsystems).

As a side note, I am also the curator (and webmaster) of the International Slide Rule Museum www.sliderulemuseum.com as well as the webmaster of the Oughtred Society www.oughtred.org

Take time to visit, and if you want to donate your dad's slide rule (or your's) to the museum, send me your (or your dad's) picture with it and what it was used for.

Thanks,

Mike 303-921-8709

I'm a bit late to this discussion... but thought for what it's worth everyone might like to see this lovely marriage of old and new technologies made by some clever bloke called Andrew...

http://www.taswegian.com/TwoHeaded/UniVirtual/UniVirtual.html (sorry, link no longer available)

(tip - scroll button on your mouse makes getting around the rule easier).

By the way - I always wondered what a slide rule did, so I bought a couple off Ebay last year - calculator is quicker, but I'm a slide rule junkie now (my brother thinks I'm turning Amish). It's is a nice way to demystify some basic principles of maths for anyone who grew up in the era of difficult numbers appearing by press-button magic.