rbowman wrote:
On 02/16/2018 05:37 AM, Dan S. MacAbre wrote:
I do have a slide rule, but never had to use it much. I still have my
old log books, too. I remember a few of the rich kids at the school (a
grammar school, so an interesting mixture of scruffy kids like me, and
rich kids) had the Sinclair calculators, and we'd have fun getting them
to display ShELLOIL and ESSOOIL.

In college the ultimate status symbol was a Keuffel & Esser slide rule
with the optional magnifying cursor carried on your belt in a leather
sheath.

Personally, I had a $1.50 plastic 'Accu-math' with just the C, D, and CI
scales. Periodic rubbing with a #2 drafting pencil kept the slide
sliding. I got the same answers as the $30 models.

I have a British Thornton one here in the drawer next to me :-) Right
next to my Flexicurve and my ICL flowchart template. On a nearby shelf
is Macmillan's 'Logarithmic and other tables for schools' by F. Castle.
I could never bring myself to throw these things away :-)