Do I have the only slide rule

[lowell holmes]

Do I have the only 6" Pickett Model 600 Log Log slide rule left in existence?

Just curious.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Maybe.

But I might have the only 13" Teledyne Post No. 1414 log log slide rule.

[Jamie Buxton]

I have one. The marking on it is N600-T. I have the leather case too.

[Stan Calow]

I have one. If only I could remember how to use it.

[Rich Riddle]

What are you discussing? Never heard of it.

[Tom Stenzel]

What are you discussing? Never heard of it.


Um, OK. ;)

Pickett N803 Synchro-Scale for me, also with a leather case and belt clip. Was it the height of cool or nerdliness to have one hanging from your belt?

I also have a pre WWII Gibson circular Midget (answer good to 1 in 30,000, the manual says so!) that I picked up for 50 cents a few decades back. I'm afraid to us it, the plastic fingers look like they're made of acetate or something like it and look pretty brittle.

-Tom

[John M Wilson]

Well, maybe that means I have the only Pickett Model 120 Microline (with case), but somehow I doubt it...:cool:

[Bruce Page]

I had one years ago. I think I tossed it when I bought my first TI calculator.

[Rich Riddle]

Ok, so it functions much like a calculator. Some of the old timers in here might have started with an abacus.

[Michael Weber]

Do they still make addiators? Bought one for an accounting class.

[Stan Powers]

I still have two
A ten in. Post and a 6in. circular.
I haven't used either one in years. It might be fun to try and "teach" the grandkids some rainy afternoon.

[Mike Henderson]

I have a Post. When I was in college, almost everyone had a Post. We'd often get together to work out homework assignments and when it came time to pick up your slide rule, we couldn't tell which belonged to who. And that was important because each person adjusted their rule to their liking. Some liked them tight and some loose.

So I had my initials engraved on the metal holding it together. I still have mine and could probably use it, but not with the ease I had when in college. Watching a bunch of engineering students work their rules during a test was interesting.

Mike

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[Bruce Page]

Here's a pic of my Curta "pepper mill" calculator circa mid 50's that belonged to my dad. It replaced his slide rule. I was forbidden to even touch it when I was a kid.

[Von Bickley]

I wish I knew what happened to mine.

[Bob Turkovich]

Maybe.

But I might have the only 13" Teledyne Post No. 1414 log log slide rule.

Either you are not the original owner or it was given to you at birth. (1942!!!!) :p

(Post Versalog Model 1460 owner here - circa 1968)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Either you are not the original owner or it was given to you at birth. (1942!!!!) :p

(Post Versalog Model 1460 owner here - circa 1968)

Actually, it was issued to me for some engineering classes I was taking about 1974. It was new and still in the box when I got it.

[John Stankus]

Do I have the only 6" Pickett Model 600 Log Log slide rule left in existence?

Just curious.

I've got several slide rules
Here at home
6" unmarked
12" Pickett N-500-ES
and for interthread connections a metric english unit conversion slide rule
At the office
6" Dietzgen (if I am remembering correctly) I hand this one to students who forget their calculator
6' I don't recall the brand (oh and that is not a typo, it is a 6 foot slide rule) I'll try to remember to take a picture on Monday

John

[Rich Riddle]

Here's a pic of my Curta "pepper mill" calculator circa mid 50's that belonged to my dad. It replaced his slide rule. I was forbidden to even touch it when I was a kid.
Bruce,

Those things are worth some money on eBay, wow.

As a side-note, this thread makes me feel young. Thanks guys.

[Frederick Skelly]

I don't have one, but I remember seeing a six footer like John describes. I was told that it had hung on the front wall of a classroom and the instructor used it to show students how to operate theirs.

[Michael Schneider]

Engineering school was in the early eighties for me. HP 41 hung from my belt. Wish I had kept it, but I gave it away years ago.

There is app for hp 41cx on the apple app store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i41cx+-rpn-calculator-printer/id289068865?mt=8.

here is an app for you old school slide rule folks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-slide-rule/id421890273?mt=8

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

I have a 6" & a either 10" or 12", don't remember the model numbers. Saw them the other day while emptying out the house after the flood.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Engineering school was in the early eighties for me. HP 41 hung from my belt. Wish I had kept it, but I gave it away years ago.

There is app for hp 41cx on the apple app store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i41cx+-rpn-calculator-printer/id289068865?mt=8.

here is an app for you old school slide rule folks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-slide-rule/id421890273?mt=8


My first scientific calculator I got in 1975 or 76. I held Sears feet to the flame when an advertised price came out. I had been using my slide rule and a misprinted Sears ad had a price of $32 IIRC instead of $132. I bought it forcing them to honor the advertised price. I don't remember what HP model it was but it used reverse polar notation entry which took a while to learn to use.

[Michael Schneider]

Reverse polish was a big hp thing. Too bad that division exists no more.

It was an advantage on tests. I remember the average grade on early tests were in the 30s or 40s out of 100. With RPN (Reverse polish notation), you did not need to use parentheses, and there were other shortcut. One did not need to use as many keystrokes as the TI's.

Every little bit helped in those days, since everyone did not move on.

[Bruce Page]

Bruce,

Those things are worth some money on eBay, wow.

As a side-note, this thread makes me feel young. Thanks guys.


Yeah, one of my kids will probably sell it. :rolleyes:

[Art Mann]

I have a small collection of slide rules from various places just for conversation pieces. Unfortunately, none of them are the one I started engineering school with. I paid a princely sum for that thing as a poor college student. When Hewlett Packard scientific calculators became available, slide rules became worthless within a year. At first, professors wouldn't let the wealthy students use them because it was such a huge competitive advantage.

[Scott DelPorte]

They still taught how to use them in high school when I was that age, but they stopped a year or two after I went through. Relatively inexpensive calculators were beginning to come on the market by then. I still have an old plastic one floating around.

[Rick Potter]

Still got my slide rule in my desk. Started taking engineering courses in '63. Students got an hour or two per quarter, on the one computer at Cal Poly. I never even got to see it before I dropped out to get married, but I was told it took up a whole room.

I will bet I am the only one here who knows how to operate a Comptometer :rolleyes:.

[John K Jordan]

Do I have the only 6" Pickett Model 600 Log Log slide rule left in existence?
Just curious.

I'll have to check my collection. If I don't have one just send yours here and it can rest in good company.

A fun thing is to hand a slide rule to a teenager who knows everything.

JKJ

[Stan Calow]

When I got that first TI SR-10 ($100 at Kmart) to replace my slide rule, I thought that black plastic case hanging off my belt would be the ultimate chick magnet at college. Turned out not to be the case.

[Tom Stenzel]

I will bet I am the only one here who knows how to operate a Comptometer :rolleyes:.

I've found this isn't the place to make blanket statements like that.

Now that the dust has cleared from digging in my desk drawers I also found the cheap plastic Accumath I used to terrorize the new apprentices at work. Since physical hazings weren't allowed anymore we had to work on the mind. Bought it at a drug store when those things were the norm.

I also found my Bailey Meter Company Orifice and Flow Nozzle Calculator good for steam, liquids and gasses. Not too old as it has the Wickliffe zip code on it. Plus a couple of "cardboard calculators" as we called them, paper slide rules given out by companies to make using their product easier. I really need to clean more often.

A friend of mine has a working Friden. How many out there have seen one at all?

-Tom

[Jim Huelskoetter]

I was in school during the transition. First day of Thermo the Prof said " there is a rumor that I require a calculator, but that is against school policy. But I do require answers to 8 significant digits."

[Lee Schierer]

I still have my 12" K&E slide rule with the leather case. I was going to make a case for it to hang on the wall above my computer in my office when I was working. That said"In case of emergency break glass"

[John K Jordan]

I still have my 12" K&E slide rule with the leather case. I was going to make a case for it to hang on the wall above my computer in my office when I was working. That said"In case of emergency break glass"

That's funny. Maybe include a little instruction sheet - only one in millions would be able to even multiply with one.

I wish I had salvaged one of the big teaching slide rules that used to hang in the front of high school science classrooms. That would be great in a museum.

JKJ

[Bill McNiel]

Still have my Pickett N903-ES and original case, can't see the numbers any more and its not because they faded. Architectural School required 3 years of Structural Engineering.

[julian abram]

Post 1452WL here, still in my desk drawer in like new condition in original leather case. Purchased for Chemistry class in 1971. I remember seeing my first handheld calculator about 1972 or 1973. A kid in a chemistry class had a TI unit, we all gathered around him after class to gawk at it, we were in aw. I think he told us his parents paid like $800 for it. By the time I was in grad school in 1976 I purchase a TI calculator for about $60 bucks.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a small collection of slide rules from various places just for conversation pieces. Unfortunately, none of them are the one I started engineering school with. I paid a princely sum for that thing as a poor college student. When Hewlett Packard scientific calculators became available, slide rules became worthless within a year. At first, professors wouldn't let the wealthy students use them because it was such a huge competitive advantage.

Memories, my HP 33E still runs if I put batteries in it.

My HP 11C sits on my desk and gets used daily, it's also "borrow proof", as when it does get momentarily borrowed by one of the young guys at work, they always come back asking where the equals key is.....:-) Regards, Rod.

[Ole Anderson]

I still have my 12" K&E 4801-3 log-log-duplex-decitrig. And my dad's K&E 4092-3 and he graduated 1933 as a CE from Michigan State College (before it became the University).

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It's really amazing that we have this many people or more that hang out at this site who have used a slide rule. Of course, it's something of a gauge on the age of some of us too!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Not amazing at all Ken. Most of us haven't seen the underside of 55 in a decade or two. I am clueless as to where my slide rule is though it might be at my Dad's house stuck in a drawer somewhere. I remember using only a slide rule before dropping out and enlisting in the Marine Corps. After coming back to school in 1969 it was still slide rules until a grad student showed up with the 4 function Bowmar Brain that his parents bought as a Christmas present for $400. It was not much use, but was way kooooolllll to us inginear types. I remember when the HP29C came out and was roughly $1000. Learning RPN was a bit strange at first.

[Rod Sheridan]

It's really amazing that we have this many people or more that hang out at this site who have used a slide rule. Of course, it's something of a gauge on the age of some of us too!

Ken, the only thing it indicates is that we have a lot of older members.

Once the HP calculators came out, the slide rule was finished.............I have no idea why I kept mine until a few years ago.............Rod.

[Steve Peterson]

It's really amazing that we have this many people or more that hang out at this site who have used a slide rule. Of course, it's something of a gauge on the age of some of us too!

My high school math classes all had a 6' yellow slide rule hanging in the corner for the instructor to show us how to use them. Pocket calculators became cheap enough that they were required by the time I graduated in '79. I still have a 12" model somewhere. I also have a couple of math books with all the logarithm tables for more accuracy.

Steve

[John Stankus]

As promised
342783

A Keuffel&Esser Model 100 6 footer
and if you look close a Dietzgen 1771 5 inch

Sorry for not getting the whole K&E in the picture...I need a bigger (and cleaner) office. It is the first day of class here.


John
(who went to school in the red LED TI-30 era)

[Chris Padilla]

Here is my slide rule. Still going strong and working perfectly. :D

342784

[Bruce Page]

As promised
342783

A Keuffel&Esser Model 100 6 footer
and if you look close a Dietzgen 1771 5 inch

Sorry for not getting the whole K&E in the picture...I need a bigger (and cleaner) office. It is the first day of class here.


John
(who went to school in the red LED TI-30 era)
Do you still have the leather case for it?

[Roger Feeley]

I have a couple of Pickett's someplace. I will get them out when it's time to teach my grandson about logarithms.

[John Stankus]

Do you still have the leather case for it?

I wonder how many steer it would take to make the case

[Tom Stenzel]

I wonder how many steer it would take to make the case

Let me get out my HP 11C, er I mean let me whip out my slide rule!

About 0.734%* of a back seat from a leather equipped 1964 Cadillac.

*Odd numbers have more statistical validity.

-Tom