These two are within arm’s reach as I write
In this world of rapidly changing technology, sometimes we find the old tools work just fine. They may be slower, but they do the same work and they have a lot of advantages, too. My thoughts went off in this direction the other day when I saw a photo of a very recent Russian military training exercise. In it, a crewmember aboard a TU-160 supersonic bomber was doing calculations using a slide rule. Most young people today have never held a slide rule, let alone have any idea how to use one, and yet, there it was.
Photo credit: Russian Ministry of Defense
I have two slide rules on a shelf in my office directly behind me as I write this as well as an E6-B9 computer which is a combination linear and circular slide rule used by pilots for a multitude of in-flight calculations. While never an expert in their use, my skills have long ago atrophied to the point where I can only remember a few basic operations, but the slide rules can sit for years and their batteries never run down, since they have none, and they can withstand an EMP from a nuclear burst, which is likely a reason the Russian air crews still practice using them. Above all, however, is the beauty of what they do, using a series of logarithmic scales, you can do all sorts of math operations much faster than with manual calculations. They’re an amazing invention.
In the movie, Apollo 13, scientists and engineers in Houston were shown feverishly calculating on their slide rules to save the astronauts after an explosion on board made conserving electrical power paramount in order to return safely to earth. They succeeded, too. Not bad for what is now called an “obsolete” tool.
Slide rules used to be everywhere, I remember a very large one, probably 4 or 5 feet long, hanging on the wall over the blackboard in high school math class. Slide rule type calculators were used for everything. Back in the 1960s, Hot Rod magazine used to give away a power and speed calculator with a paid subscription, it was a cardboard slide rule with all sorts of calculations for horsepower, gear ratios, wheel diameter and similar values and it was pretty neat, unfortunately, mine is long gone, but you could find similar slide rules from lots of companies for a wide variety of applications. Many can still be found on eBay. I love those things.
image from Hot Rod magazine in The Kneeslider’s research library
Powerful New Tools – Weak Minds?
Since the ascendence of computers and smartphones, our over reliance on the latest technology eventually results in the diminished capacity to do the work any other way and skills that used to be assumed of everyone fall by the wayside. Without electric power and charged batteries, I wonder how many could find their way very far from home without GPS. Those paper maps every gas station used to have, were great, a quick glance and you could see the general direction necessary and if you could read the road signs, you were set. Do you still use the clear pocket on top of your tank bag for a map? Today, “In one quarter mile, turn right,†is what everyone hears and their brain is simply along for the ride.
Reading books which requires an extended period of concentration is vanishing as a method of learning and the minds of many can no longer focus after experiencing the Internet’s invitation to jump from link to link. Books? The frequently seen “tl;dr†(too long didn’t read) is inserted everywhere before someone nevertheless comments on what the book they didn’t read supposedly said. Think about that. Spelling, which improves if you read because you encounter so many words, has become a lost art.
Instead of artificial intelligence, how about human intelligence?
Nicholas Carr in his book, The Shallows, addressing many of these concerns said the seductions of technology are hard to resist, and they certainly are, but as we turn the page to a new year, perhaps we could make an effort to revive in ourselves the skills we formerly had, turning off the GPS and using a map, reading a book or two and mastering a few old non-computer-controlled tools. You might be surprised at how satisfying it is to use your brain instead of letting the computer do all of the work. It’s what our minds were meant to do and your brain will thank you for it.
Photo of Russian bomber crew member from Russian Ministry of Defense via Zenger
David B says
Thought of this not too long ago when I came across my old slide rule and drafting gear – essential tools for any engineer back in the 60s, prehistoric artifacts to today’s youth. Technological advances have been nothing short of miraculous in many ways, but they have lead to a dumbing down of the population imo.
Paul Crowe says
My drafting tools are in my filing cabinet, when I open the case they have such a precise mechanical look about them, compasses and pencils seated in their velvet lined pockets, plus protractors and triangles and scale rulers, flashbacks to an earlier time. My T-square and drafting board are in a storage room, but it feels good to know they’re there..
I should get those tools out and put them on display with my slide rules.
Paul A. Kalenian says
Slide rules rule!, but i do have an battery powered eraser on my drafting table
Paul Crowe says
As long as the eraser doesn’t decide what should be erased, you’re good.
John Byrd says
Thanks for this Paul. I never learned much to do with my slide rule very well, but still have my abacus, ha ! I am a real basic guy that has serious trouble with tech nerds that seemingly cannot live without their “smart” phones and most of my friends like that don’t even like magazines. Cars ? I think that term is passe’, it should be called “Transportation Devices”.. Bikes need chains, air cooling, wire spoke wheels, and carbs. Cars need radiators, carbs, 4 wheels, three pedals, a driveshaft to the rear wheels, and roll-up windows (if any). Thanks again, I think I’ll get out my old, small, seldom used slide rule and “go figure” !
Paul Crowe says
These thoughts were really on my mind today and I wrote about cars here, I called them transportation pods. Same idea.
Gordon P Taylor says
One of the rules I learned early when using calculating aids, even a slide rule, “is this result reasonable?”.
Answering that question requires some degree of understanding for the framework of the project.
Our new digital calculators bring new perspective to the difference between precision and accuracy. When material specifications have only 2 significant digits, calculating to 5 is misleading.
Welcome to the world of practical engineering.
Paul Crowe says
I had a calculus professor in college who said the same thing, “Is it reasonable?” So many don’t think, they just toss out an answer. It’s like someone confusing millions, billions and trillions, they have no concept of the magnitude of their error. Listen to the average TV news reporter and their ignorance of what’s reasonable is shocking as they mindlessly repeat whatever they’re told.
Russ says
I was using my slide rule in Electronics classes in the early ’70s. I keep one on our fireplace mantel just to attract attention and make youngsters ask “What is it?”.
Paul Crowe says
Some time, a few years ago, I started putting a number of things on display. I had them in boxes stored away and then I thought, why? I had put them aside for the future and that future I was thinking about years ago is right now, so out they came. If not now, when?
Noah Zark says
Can you believe competing for who had the better slide rule? Best was melamine- coated bamboo, Plebs had the plastic ones. 60 years ago!
Thanks for the remembrance! Still use triangles, protractor, and french curves to modify(enhance) my thumper motorcycle.
Cheers!
Rick Murray says
Love my ancient motorcycle with its carburetors and 2 cylinders sticking out in the airstream on either side. I taught myself the most basic skills on a slide rule just by lining up numbers on the scale and looking for correlations. Trig and logs came later. One reason I gladly ditched the slide rule, though, was that it placed the decimal point in the proper place. But one must always ask – is the result reasonable? That requires understanding the problem.
I could go on and on about the dumbing down of our population, but I’ll spare you that. Now if you want to talk politics and the relationship of that to the intellectual competence today . . no wait, no time for that either.
Good article. So true.
Richard Windsor says
I still have my Nestler slide rule from 1961 and a later acquisition Castel plus a good handful of scale rules. However, for Christmas I bought myself Harry Ricardo “The High-Speed Internal Combustion Engine” as well as Phil Irving “Motorcycle Engineering” and “Tuning for Speed” . I’ll come up for air next Christmas. 🙂
Paul Crowe says
Some very good classic books right there. Have fun on your deep dive.
Bob says
Well, there ARE slide rule apps! Can’t wait for the holographic abacus…
The drafting table is still behind my desk, full of drafting tools that can’t be replaced – new ones either feel cheap and nasty – or are extinct. The little box of Staedtler Radett eraser refills has a price tag from a store that closed decades ago. Speaking of which, Alvin closed its doors not too long ago,
JP Kalishek says
I really should refresh my slide rule skills.
I don’t recall coming across my Dad’s in his stuff I inherited, but he may have given it to someone long ago, when he changed vocations and didn’t feel the need to have it or it was in something that got stolen when they were burgled. I did get an old tool box of mics, dividers, calipers, and indicators with a combo of his and my uncle’s stuff (who we also lost this past year, a few weeks after Dad passed). If one upgraded they gave the older one to the other if it was something they didn’t have or was better than what they had.
BennyC says
I recently received some slide rules and a copy of “Kent’s Mechanical Engineers Handbook, Tenth Edition (1923).” It’s very humbling to look through what was available to someone designing a locomotive or plane from the time. The book isn’t hard to source and worth looking through if you’re at all interested in the history of engineering, amazing to see where things have come from.
Bob says
If the combination of old aviation engineering practices, slide rules, and Japanese animation captivate you, then The Wind Rises is worth watching.