Do I have the only slide rule

[Ken Fitzgerald]

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

(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/i41c...289068865?mt=8.

here is an app for you old school slide rule folks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pock...421890273?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/i41c...289068865?mt=8.

here is an app for you old school slide rule folks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pock...421890273?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.

[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 .

[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 .

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