Slide Rules, Calculators and other fun stuff 1

[Skogsgurra]

Welcome to a new thread about old things.

The original Slide Rules Collecting thread is now 120+ posts and more than two years old. So it is time to close it and start a new one.

Collecting antique, old, and yesterday's calculating devices is a fascinating hobby. I have learnt about history, commerce, science history and lots of other things that I always find interesting. I have met nice people and - believe it or not - also held little speeches on the subject. Without being hit by rotten eggs and tomatoes!

Slide Rules are still my main interest. But there are also other interesting devices like mechanical calculators, old electronic calculators, drawing instruments, planimeters and what have you. It would be interseting to hear about those things as well.

Welcome!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...

 

[swertel]

French curves. And then really big curves for boat design. You know, the yard sticks that bend and curve to any shape. I can't remember the name of them, though.

And what is a drafting board without the appropriate protractor head on it? Still want to get me one of those, and find room for it in the house.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[70AARCUDA]

re: "100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again..."

...the wheel tends to get "rounder" everytime somebody shortens the "chord" distance and increases the "number" of flat-sided facits in Archemedes' PI-approximation.

 

[BJC]

Adjustable ships curves you can still buy.

http://www.hoylegrips.com/rulers.htm

I never built a ship but they will do curves of any kind.

 

[KENAT]

Eraser shields. Plastic pencil leads.

Needing a knife to both scratch off print and for on linen drawings to cut out sections that were beyond hope due to excessive erasing and then replacing with fresh linen.


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[IRstuff]

All those wonderful Kooh-i-noor ink pens, 0000 and up

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[ewh]

Some of the stuff I had at my drawing board:
Adjustable curves with anchors (for lofting)
Eradicator fluid (for non-erase sepias)
Electric eraser
Exacto knife
"Puffy" bag
Horsehair brush
Kneaded rubber
Proportional dividers
Emory paper
Plastic erasers and spit (for ink on mylar)
Template collections
Compass extensions (for BIG circles)
HB, F, H, etc leads
Adjustable point inker
Non-photo blue pencils

 

[KENAT]

I nearly put electric erasers but you can still get them. I bought a battery powered one at staples just a few weeks ago.

In fact I was surprised just how many 'old' hand drafting tools they had.

When I still had to do hand changes to old drawings back in 99 in the UK I couldn't find the tools, I had to beg borrow & steal them!

So is the US behind the times, did I not look well back in Blighty or is it because my town has a naval engineering base and a college that has engineering classes?

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[BJC]

ewh

What no Pounce? I have a couple of cans butdon't use them. I just collect old stuff when it's handy.
I also have a brand new in the box Ames Lettering Guide.

 

[ewh]

How could I have forgotten the Ames lettering guide!?!
Didn't like Pounce, always seemed to leave my drawing dirtier than it was before I applied it.

 

[IRstuff]

mmm... bluelines, gotta love that ammonia smell



TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[swertel]

You realize that mechanical pencils are getting to be "old" although still used.

I had my favorite brands that I can't find anymore. My favorite was the "pencial chucker." It had the long stick of graphite that was about 2mm in diameter that you had to sharpen. The pencil was no more than an ergonomic collet to hold onto the lead.

I still have my erasing shield, dividers, compass, triangles, french curves, circle templates, elliptical templates (for doing iso views), and shape templates for arrowheads, balloons, and flag notes.

But more on topic with slide rules, what about all the handy slide charts? Ones for bolt sizes, wrench clearances, spring and dowel pins, etc.?

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[ewh]

Slide charts... I used a TAD calculater chart with all of that handy information.

 

[BJC]

If your going to outfit a retro decore in your home office you need a Marchant 8CM mechanical calculator.

 

[Skogsgurra]

Yes BJC, or an HP 9100A. I am still wanting one!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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100 % recycled posting: Electrons, ideas, finger-tips have been used over and over again...

 

[oldfieldguy]

What about the Leroy Lettering set?


old field guy

 

[unclesyd]

For all the HP fans.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/

 

[PeterCharles]

I just looked at the HP museum and saw a Sharp electronic calculator from the late 60's. We had one like this in the early 70's. It must have been a later model as it had 2 memories and I'm sure it did square roots.

This was replaced with a more advanced model with extra maths functions including the ability to do cube roots. It still had the light up tubes and the cube root took about 13 seconds to complete with the tubes flashing numbers as the iteration took place until the final figure was arrived at.

The first pocket one I had was a Sharp with memory, some maths functions and a red LED display. It was battery/mains (rechargeable battery) and had a metal case finished in black. Looked the dogs bo****ks in those days!

 

[ewh]

I didn't mention the Leroy Lettering set because it always seemed to be at someone elses board.
How about pantagraphs?

 

[ewh]

Some things don't change... I still have the same Machinery's Handbook that I had when I was on the board, and it still gets used.