Engineering Slide Rules Have Become Very Collectible

[W2XR]

Apparently the ubiquitous engineering slide rule has become quite collectible.

I still have my Keuffel & Esser Log Log Decitrig slide rule from my college days, although I (like most of us) haven't used it in years.

See the following link. The prices these things are commanding nowadays blew me away, as is the passion of the collectors. No different, of course, than those of us who love to restore and use vintage radio gear.

http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/used.html#catalog

73,

Bruce

[Tom WA3KLR]

A good back-up to have in case of HEMP.

[N8ETQ]

Classic...

  last time I played with a slip-stick "HEMP" was part
of the curiclium... I bought one of those 6 foot long jobs they used
for "educational" purposes just to screw with my Bud KG6AB.
It was hard to wrap....

/Dan

A good back-up to have in case of HEMP.

[N0WEK]

I've still got my old student one and a few high end ones I bought at a sidewalk sale by the local office supply in the mid 70 for a dollar each.

The site with the high prices is mostly dreaming, because if you search for slide rule in Ebay you will find 7 pages for sale averaging less than $10.00; the few that are more than $100.00 are "buy now" sales that don't sell.

If you search for "completed auctions" you see that most that sell go for a few dollars, with a very few bringing $50.00 and they tend to be high end, unique ones.

They are a cool piece of precision engineering.

The last one I saw in regular use was by a older surveyor in the 70s, who said he was used to it, it never ran out of batteries in the field and still worked after he fell in a ditch full of water.

[W1TAV]

^{A good back-up to have in case of HEMP.}


HEMP Help End Marijuana Prohibition    

[w1vtp]

DANG!  Where'd I put that thang 

[Ralph W3GL]

     I still have my "SUN / HEMMI"  Comm rule along with two "CONCISE"
     circular rules, # 28 (8cm) & # 271 (10cm) I used till I acquired my
     first HP RPN pocket calculator back in 1969.

     The round rules were great to carry behind your pocket protector and
     you never ran off scale  

     Picked all of them plus a few more in Tokyo way back when...

     Edit:  Acquired the old HP-35 in 1971 , not '69...  sorry bout that

[N4LTA]

I still have a yellow metal one  that I had in high school and two bamboo ones that I had in engineering school. My senior year a couple of guys had HP35s and that was the end of slide rules.

[AL7FS]

That Hewlett Packard HP-35 RPN calculator was amazing.  It came out in 1971 right after I got out of engineering school.  We had to take 2 credits of "Slide Rule" as part of our curriculum.  My Post Versalogs - Std and 6", are long ago sold.  I kept one Pickett and a couple of Concise round SRs and still take them out occasionally.   Jim in Anchorage.

[WA1GFZ]

I have my Mother's slide rule that she used while working at Raytheon during WW2. She was ticked at me when I broke the cursor. I think I was about 5 years old. I'm more ticked today than she was back then. I also have a nice one with leather case with belt hook. Imagine hanging a slip stick off your belt right next to a KA-Bar with a 1911 on the other side.

I would need the six foot long model to see the numbers today.

[K1JJ]

Yep, sounds like 1971 was the turning point.

I remember the first exam, my first week at U of H. (AAS degree, not EE)  I had no confidence in the slide rule, so did all my calculations by hand. The professor dropped me a full grade on that exam cuz I lacked the precision. After that I learned the SR real fast...

The turning point was in 1971 when we were assigned this long, drawn out calculation for homework based on measurments we each made on a custom project. . I cannot remember what it was, but we were shocked when one of the guys showed up with a little red LED handheld calculator. He did the calculations for each of us in a minute. The teacher found out but wasn't POed at all. He realized that the time had come for change. Within a month most of us had calculators, though we were still required to be proficient on the SR.

Soon after that buggy whips became obsolete and they started making paper money...
T

[K6JEK]

Yep, sounds like 1971 was the turning point.

I remember everyone gathering around at Boeing when the first HP-35 showed up.  But the one that changed my life was a TI that did hex and octal calcs.  When pouring over core dumps it sure was nice to have the TI do the address calculations instead of doing them by hand.  And it was core too, little donuts on wires, not some sissy semiconductor memory.

I gave away my slide rules.  Kind of wish I hadn't.

[AJ1G]

At URI in the fall of 1970 we had to take a one credit slide rule course and a one credit mechanical drawing course.  I had a Post Versalog slide rule with the gray plastic carrying case that I used throughout school and my first few years of work.  I think it was lost somewhere in a house move - wish I still had it.  Think it's the same model that sold for $245 on the linked auction web site!!!

Remember when the first guy in our EE program showed up with a TI LED calculator. He carried it in a case hung from his belt and always tried to sit near the wall outlets during exams so he wouldn't have the calc die in the middle of the test.

I recently came across a small K&E rule that my late father in law used at the RI Radio School in the early 50s, where he took a course in radio and TV repair.  There were crib notes in the track under the slide for the formulas of a parallel resonant circuit and those for inductive and capacitive reactance as a function of frequency.  I keep it in my desk now at work to show the kids working with us.

[K3ZS]

The other obsolete item that engineering students had to buy was their own drafting set.   I still have mine along with the K&E sliderule and nerd belt loop case.

[WA1GFZ]

Gee I still have my hex to octal TI in the basement. I almost threw it away a couple times. I think I'll keep it.

[W9GT]

I had a couple of the K&E bamboo jobs somewhere around here, left over from early days at Purdue-Ft Wayne in the 60's.  I also had one of those large yellow Pickett rules that Collins gave us in late 60's for microwave calculations.  I'll have to see if I can dig that stuff out of the attic.  Wow, remember how cool we thought we were with a slide rule dangling from your belt and a pocket protector with at least five or six pencils and pens in it.  Nerdsville!  

73,  Jack, ,W9GT

[W3SLK]

I got this from G a few years ago and I love it! Maybe Walt, W2DU, used one of these at RCA when he was there?

[Steve - K4HX]

Only engineers used slide rules?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

No. The conductor did, too. And the guy in the caboose.

[Ralph W3GL]

   Mike,

    I gave that to G down at KB3AHE's Pfarty several years ago.

    He told me one time he was saving RCA memorabilia and I had
    used that during my stint at the Camden, NJ  plant, next door
    to the Campbells Soup factory...  When the tomato crop came
    in, the Delaware River ran red...

    That package came in handy many times as the reference data
    refreshed even then shortcomings in the memory department ...
                           ;D

    I never saw one of them up at Astro while I was up there doing
    Test Method engineering.  I doubt Walt  used one however, I re-
    call that one of his assistants carried a rule that looked like a micro-
    meter scale. The only one I ever recall seeing like that.

[W3SLK]

Ralph said:

That package came in handy many times as the reference data
    refreshed even then shortcomings in the memory department

I can see where that would be handy, Ralph. There's a lot of information packed into the whole kit-n-kaboodle. I was fortunate to purchase some of that RCA memorabilia from Gary. I really like what I got.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I still have several slide rules I used back in the "good old days" plus a box full of nomograph charts (rectangular and circular), many with little windows that you moved around depending on what you were calculating. Even have a "etch-a-sketch" type pad with Hammarlund's name on it in that box.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Still have my E-6B flight computer (Whiz Wheel) from the flying days, and a large Picket Sliderule with manual.  I can still work out stuff with the E-6 and do the basics with the Picket.   I would like to get one of those glass velvet cases and put the Picket inside, mount a small brass hammer on the outside with a placard that reads- IN CASE OF COMPUTER FAILURE BREAK GLASS.

[W3SLK]

Ed said:

Still have my E-6B flight computer (Whiz Wheel) from the flying days,

That wouldn't be like an EA-6B type aircraft now would it? We had a squadron jump on-board when we would INCHOP the Med out of Rota, Spain.

[K9PNP]

Still got my 10" Deitzen and a 10" K&E I picked up at a yard sale for $1.  Plus someplace have a 6"; don't remember brand.  Remember when the TI 'SR' series first came out.  Big bucks in those days.