slide rule

     

The slie rule (often nicknamed a "slipstick") was developed by William Oughtred and others (see history, below); it is a mechanical analog computer, consisting of at least two finely divided scales (rules), most often a fixed outer pair and a movable inner one, with a sliding window called the cursor. The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for "scientific" functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but does not generally perform addition or subtraction. The Binary Slide Rule manufactured by Gilson in 1931 performed an addition and subtraction function limited to fractions.

Trivia about slide rule

  • Peter Roget's new device for performing mechanically the involution & evolution of numbers
  • About 1621 William Oughtred invented this device that stuck out of nerds' shirt pockets well into the 20th century
  • Before calculators were common, every student had this jutting from his pocket...& we liked it!
  • Logarithmic tool outmoded by the calculator
  • Keuffel & Esser, the dominant maker of these calculating devices, made its last one in 1975
  • Sam Cooke didn't "know much trigonometry", nor "what" this non-electronic calculating device "is for"

Found pages about slide rule