slipping sticks

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Fri Feb 6 11:30:08 1998

At 02:59 PM 2/6/98 GMT, you wrote:
>>>No, I do not have _my_ high school/college slide rule, which was a
>>>magnificent 12" yellow aluminum Pickett with a hard leather case and a
belt
>>>loop. ...
>
>Nice! Why have I never seen an aluminium slide rule?

   Aluminium galls too bad to use with aluminium against aluminium. and it
corrodes too easily, specially around salt and moisture (like sweaty
hands). In the last 10-20 years they have developed coatings to minimize
both problems and it has become more usable. None the less, there have
been a lot of slide rules made of it. My MB_4 and EB-6 aircraft navigation
slide rules are both built of it. My dad had an old (K&E ?) rule that's
also aluminium.


>
>Also, for the benefit of us non-Americans, what approximate age is "high
>school"?
>
>At school slide rules were the only permitted calculating machines in
>maths classes up to age 16 in my day (academic year 1982-83)
>(requirement was dropped a couple of years later). I went through a
>series of cheap plastic ones and ended up with an expensive plastic one
>- I asked the local stationers for a replacement cursor and they sold me
>this really nice slide rule for the same price (one pound) just to get
>rid of it! This too has lost its cursor, tho' I believe I still have
>the rule somewhere.
>
>More recently I bought a decent wooden one for a similar price at a car
>boot sale - still in box with plate glass cursor. I also have a special
>purpose cardboard one with two slides that is meant to calculate the
>flow of water through pipes of various sizes, materials and gradients.
>
>>>700+ units. Me, I have 30, including a 7 foot long Pickett classroom
rule.
>
>Wow! On a 7 foot rule you should be able to get four sig. figs without
>too much interpolation anywhere along the length. Or are the markings
>too coarse for that?
>
>Philip.
>
>
Received on Fri Feb 06 1998 - 11:30:08 GMT