[NA but interesting] Big cylindrical slide rule - anybody ever used one?

RussR

RussR

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My wife is visiting her mom right now and found this in her house. It's a cylindrical slide rule that from my research was patented and likely produced in the late 1800's. Given how we like archaic technologies around here (our engines, airplanes, round gauges and E-6Bs :D ) I figured some would find this interesting. Has anybody ever used one?

The model is a Keuffel and Esser 1740, and it's in the original case.

To make it aviation related, if this was built in the late 1800's, it's possible the Wright Brothers themselves used it.

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Man. I can barely work the basic stuff on my old slide rule from high school over 50 years ago. That one looks like a nightmare.
 
That's pretty neat. The former president of the company I work for would like that; he runs an engineering museum with a large collection of slide rules, both general purpose and specialized. The company still distributes one for pneumatic and hydraulic calculations, which is useful for a quick check without firing up the computer app.

My 8th grade math class was the last to be taught how to use a slide rule. The teacher had a giant slide rule, about 6' long, hanging over the blackboard. The following year, students were all told to buy a calculator.

In college, I brought a calculator and a slide rule to important exams. That old slipstick saved my butt a couple of times when the calculator batteries died.
 
Plus 1 on the giant 6 foot slide rule at the front of the room.

I wore out my cheap first slide rule before I finished 20 semester hours of engineering college classes, bought a Keuffle and Esser, and wore it out before calculators became available.

Next, the company bought me a log log Triplett aluminum, it did not get much use.
 
www.allaboutastro.com

All About K&E Rules

Introduction Chapter 1: Understandings and Conventions Chapter 2: Rules of the Single-Sided, Mannheim-Type The Mannheim Family The Polyphase Mannheim Family The Modern Polyphase Family...
www.allaboutastro.com
 
It's actually not know as a cylindrical slide rule, but rather a Thacher Calculating Instrument. Does the same thing as a regular slip stick, but of one that is 40 feet in length....
 
Dana said:
My 8th grade math class was the last to be taught how to use a slide rule. The teacher had a giant slide rule, about 6' long, hanging over the blackboard.
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I was involved in a project that was a major gut and rebuild of a high school. One of those giant slide rules was left. I thought about taking it home, but figured I had NO NEED and NO SPACE for it. But it would be cool to have one.
 
Dana said:
My 8th grade math class was the last to be taught how to use a slide rule. The teacher had a giant slide rule, about 6' long, hanging over the blackboard. The following year, students were all told to buy a calculator.
Click to expand...
We didn't see calculators until after I was out of school. Radio Shack sold the first one that I saw. It could add, subtract, multiply and divide, and that was all. It had tiny numbers that had small lenses over them to make them barely readable. It ate AA cells rapidly. And it cost $99, in about 1972. That's about $750 in today's dollars. Not many folks had them.

Now you can buy a far more capable calculator at a dollar store for a couple of bucks, and its battery lasts almost forever.
 
Dan Thomas said:
We didn't see calculators until after I was out of school. Radio Shack sold the first one that I saw. It could add, subtract, multiply and divide, and that was all. It had tiny numbers that had small lenses over them to make them barely readable. It ate AA cells rapidly. And it cost $99, in about 1972. That's about $750 in today's dollars. Not many folks had them.

Now you can buy a far more capable calculator at a dollar store for a couple of bucks, and its battery lasts almost forever.
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If it even has a battery. Tons of them have solar cells.
 
I thought a slide rule is when a player has to make a bonafide slide to the base and not go out of his way to break up a double play.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
LOL. Somehow that feels like it deserves a significant digit surrounded by two others on each side…:biggrin:
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Some digits are more significant than others, of course. You’ve heard of thumb on the scale, haven’t you? Just pointing that out, lol.
 
Piperonca said:
Some digits are more significant than others, of course. You’ve heard of thumb on the scale, haven’t you? Just pointing that out, lol.
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Sure - and some are better for scratching the forehead than others…

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RussR said:
My wife is visiting her mom right now and found this in her house. It's a cylindrical slide rule that from my research was patented and likely produced in the late 1800's. Given how we like archaic technologies around here (our engines, airplanes, round gauges and E-6Bs :D ) I figured some would find this interesting. Has anybody ever used one?

The model is a Keuffel and Esser 1740, and it's in the original case.

To make it aviation related, if this was built in the late 1800's, it's possible the Wright Brothers themselves used it.

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View attachment 131984

View attachment 131985
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So mom has had that thing all along and it just now got found.
 
I hope they didn’t leave the batteries in since 1880….just think of the corrosion damage. Probably won’t work anymore.











:biggrin: :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
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