Date
21 - 26 of 26
Slide Rules and Slipsticks - in the 1960's B.C. - i.e. (Before Computers)
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Roland Christen
We had a giant one up on the wall in the math lecture room at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It was used to teach incoming engineering students (like myself).
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Christen <karen@...> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Sat, Mar 13, 2021 10:34 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Slide Rules and Slipsticks - in the 1960's B.C. - i.e. (Before Computers) This whole topic has been hilarious. Barry wins.
Karen
AP
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Barry Megdal
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2021 8:21 PM To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Slide Rules and Slipsticks - in the 1960's B.C. - i.e. (Before Computers) Yes – that is a 6-foot slide rule on the wall. Couldn’t resist buying it years ago at a garage sale. These used to hang on the blackboard in my high school chemistry class so they could teach us how to use them.
And my new Mach2 in the foreground just to make the photo appropriate for this forum
J
 Dr. Barry Megdal
President
Shb Instruments, Inc.
19215 Parthenia St. Suite A
Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 773-2000 (818)773-2005 fax
Faculty (retired)
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Caltech
-- Karen Christen Astro-Physics -- Roland Christen Astro-Physics |
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Eric Dreher <ericpdreher@...>
Having grown up during the Mercury launches onward, my childhood hero became Wernher von Braun. During a 2016 visit to the Cosmosphere Space Museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, I spotted a slide rule in a glass display case. For obvious reasons, I had to take a photo.
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Joe Zeglinski
I think the note above Von Braun’s slide rule is
appropriate.
Recall the movie sequence in APOLLO-13, Tom Hanks is asking mission control
to double check his gimbal angle corrections. The scene shows the guy on the
desk giving a thumbs up after verifying with his K&E slide rule. One man
with a slide rule can do wonders. They had an IBM-7094 but no calculators for
that? Rescue hinged on a slide rule.
Certainly reinforced my respect for the ground control
team, and what could be done without massive computers.
Joe
From: Eric
Dreher
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2021 3:00 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Slide Rules and Slipsticks - in the 1960's
B.C. - i.e. (Before Computers) Having
grown up during the Mercury launches onward, my childhood hero became Wernher
von Braun. During a 2016 visit to the Cosmosphere Space Museum in
Hutchinson, Kansas, I spotted a slide rule in a glass display case. For
obvious reasons, I had to take a photo.
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Richard O'Neill <syzygy42@earthlink.net> <syzygy42@...>
I still have my Pickett rules, A pocket size 6" and two 12", all in leather cases. Surprisingly, after more than fifty years I still remember how to use most of the scales!
Richard |
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weems@...
Through most of middle and high school I used a circular slide rule. In senior year I used money from my grocery store job to buy an HP45. When I got to engineering school, one professor insisted that pocket calculators were a fad, that circular rules were not good enough, and that I had to buy a straight rule. The local engineering supply had, for a while, taken top-quality rules in trade for calculators. So I was able to pick up a used Dietzgen 1734, with a mahogany core and teflon bearings, very cheaply. I still use it in my CS classes, as an example of 0th generation computing technology. It is still in its orange box and leather holster, with the manual wrapped around it.
Early computers I've used and/or programmed include: IBM 360/20, 360/40, 1130, 1620, PDP 8/L, 8/E, 8/I, 12, VAX 11/780, CDC 3300, Cyber 74, Cyber 180. Also a research machine using a glass delay line associative memory in combination with surplus core memory units from the IBM 7030 (I still have some of the core planes, drivers, and manuals). The 3300 had the coolest console of any of them, with rows of projected octal digits. The research machine had the weirdest instruction (skip on sunny Sundays). Chip |
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Oh the memories! Post a pic of the Dietzn. Don Anderson
On Thursday, March 18, 2021, 12:27:51 p.m. MDT, weems@... <weems@...> wrote:
Through most of middle and high school I used a circular slide rule. In senior year I used money from my grocery store job to buy an HP45. When I got to engineering school, one professor insisted that pocket calculators were a fad, that circular rules were not good enough, and that I had to buy a straight rule. The local engineering supply had, for a while, taken top-quality rules in trade for calculators. So I was able to pick up a used Dietzgen 1734, with a mahogany core and teflon bearings, very cheaply. I still use it in my CS classes, as an example of 0th generation computing technology. It is still in its orange box and leather holster, with the manual wrapped around it. Early computers I've used and/or programmed include: IBM 360/20, 360/40, 1130, 1620, PDP 8/L, 8/E, 8/I, 12, VAX 11/780, CDC 3300, Cyber 74, Cyber 180. Also a research machine using a glass delay line associative memory in combination with surplus core memory units from the IBM 7030 (I still have some of the core planes, drivers, and manuals). The 3300 had the coolest console of any of them, with rows of projected octal digits. The research machine had the weirdest instruction (skip on sunny Sundays). Chip |
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