Skogsgurra
Electrical
- Mar 31, 2003
- 11,815
Hello all,
You are invited to share views and thoughts about slide rules. I have been collecting these devices on a rather small scale and had fifteen of them when my collection took a quantum jump. I was visiting the local book store to buy a book on flowers (yes, flowers) when I happened to ask the store-keeper if he perhaps had any slide rules. He gave me a puzzled look and then said "Yes, I found a box with some forty old slide rules yesterday. I haven't decided what to do with them yet".
Need I say that I saved them from the scrapheap? I got a substantial addition to my collection at a price that we both were very pleased with. He because he got anything at all and I because I paid about a tenth of what I had expected to pay.
I have mostly European and Japanese slide rules. Faber-Castell, Aristo, Sun-Hemmi and some less known makes like Graphoplex (French), Diwa (Danish), Royal Slide Rule (British) and Eco Bra (can't make out from where it comes).
There is a certain standardisation among slide rules. There are the scale systems; Mannheim, Rietz, Darmstadt, Electro, Disponent and some other special systems. There is one that intrigues me. It is called Tachymeter and seems to have been used by surveyors. And there are probably many more that I haven't discovered yet.
The slide rules from the BHP era look very much the same except for the introduction of the Duplex slide rules in the late fifties/early sixties. That was also when some colour was added - except for the "reversed" scales (increasing from right to left instead of from left to right) which seems to have been coloured red for a very long time.
It was only AHP that design people started to make the slide rules more and more attractive. Mild colour coding, more scales and cursor lines, extra functions, friction areas to ease handling, table stands and more was added to keep a market that everyone probably already knew was lost. The last slide rules produced were sometimes monsters - or beauties - depending on your personal preferences. I, myself, think that the Faber-Castell 2/83 N (the N is important here) is a beauty. It is the longest 1 foot SR produced, I think. It has 30 scales and it even smells good!
Another favourite is the little FC 67/38b 400 grad Tachymeter. It is a favourite mostly because it is so enigmatic. What are sin.cos and cos2 scales used for? They are probably there for some very valid reason - as is the 1-cos2 scale. Anyone that has information about these scales?
Collecting slide rules appears to be the retired engineer's perfect hobby. We know a lot, but not all, about the objects. We can appreciate the good workmanship, the precision, the artistery and the ingenuity that went into their design and production. And we know how to use them!
There are a few other reasons that make them ideal collector's objects: They are no more produced. They are still available - although in limited quantity. They are not bulky - can be carried with you when meeting like-minded. There will probably never be a fake slide rule - it takes a very complex production facility to make slide rules and the last factory was closed in 1975.
It is a little like collecting Fabergé eggs - only so much cheaper and more interesting.
Comments and answers invited! Do you collect slide rules? Do you have specific knowledge about any special slide rule? What makes do you know about? How do you find them?
BHP = Before HP.
Gunnar Englund
You are invited to share views and thoughts about slide rules. I have been collecting these devices on a rather small scale and had fifteen of them when my collection took a quantum jump. I was visiting the local book store to buy a book on flowers (yes, flowers) when I happened to ask the store-keeper if he perhaps had any slide rules. He gave me a puzzled look and then said "Yes, I found a box with some forty old slide rules yesterday. I haven't decided what to do with them yet".
Need I say that I saved them from the scrapheap? I got a substantial addition to my collection at a price that we both were very pleased with. He because he got anything at all and I because I paid about a tenth of what I had expected to pay.
I have mostly European and Japanese slide rules. Faber-Castell, Aristo, Sun-Hemmi and some less known makes like Graphoplex (French), Diwa (Danish), Royal Slide Rule (British) and Eco Bra (can't make out from where it comes).
There is a certain standardisation among slide rules. There are the scale systems; Mannheim, Rietz, Darmstadt, Electro, Disponent and some other special systems. There is one that intrigues me. It is called Tachymeter and seems to have been used by surveyors. And there are probably many more that I haven't discovered yet.
The slide rules from the BHP era look very much the same except for the introduction of the Duplex slide rules in the late fifties/early sixties. That was also when some colour was added - except for the "reversed" scales (increasing from right to left instead of from left to right) which seems to have been coloured red for a very long time.
It was only AHP that design people started to make the slide rules more and more attractive. Mild colour coding, more scales and cursor lines, extra functions, friction areas to ease handling, table stands and more was added to keep a market that everyone probably already knew was lost. The last slide rules produced were sometimes monsters - or beauties - depending on your personal preferences. I, myself, think that the Faber-Castell 2/83 N (the N is important here) is a beauty. It is the longest 1 foot SR produced, I think. It has 30 scales and it even smells good!
Another favourite is the little FC 67/38b 400 grad Tachymeter. It is a favourite mostly because it is so enigmatic. What are sin.cos and cos2 scales used for? They are probably there for some very valid reason - as is the 1-cos2 scale. Anyone that has information about these scales?
Collecting slide rules appears to be the retired engineer's perfect hobby. We know a lot, but not all, about the objects. We can appreciate the good workmanship, the precision, the artistery and the ingenuity that went into their design and production. And we know how to use them!
There are a few other reasons that make them ideal collector's objects: They are no more produced. They are still available - although in limited quantity. They are not bulky - can be carried with you when meeting like-minded. There will probably never be a fake slide rule - it takes a very complex production facility to make slide rules and the last factory was closed in 1975.
It is a little like collecting Fabergé eggs - only so much cheaper and more interesting.
Comments and answers invited! Do you collect slide rules? Do you have specific knowledge about any special slide rule? What makes do you know about? How do you find them?
BHP = Before HP.
Gunnar Englund
