# A blast from the past....non bee.



## irwin harlton (Jan 7, 2005)

USED TO HAVE TO USE ONE.......icons ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

irwin harlton said:


> USED TO HAVE TO USE ONE.......icons ago


Showing our age, aren't we?


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

o-ooo
In Russia we called it "logarithmic scale". I have no idea how it's called in English. Yes, I spend a lot of time doing calculations with it. Sometime I missed old days (indicating that I am old), when life were simpler and one actually could disassemble and then assemble thing and it would work... In my "logarithmic scale" we also had a normal precise ruler - it was expected that one use it for technical drawings and "calculator" part is at hands if any quick calculations necessary. Sergey


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I was able to learn beekeeping but not how to use a slide rule. More than a few buttons on a calculator is beyond me too. I have one in mycloset also, next to my dial phone, 8 track player, and reel to reel.


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## dixiebooks (Jun 21, 2010)

Slide rule. I have one or two - somewhere. -js


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## tabby (Jul 11, 2012)

I had a circular slide rule in the 1970's and knew how to use it. I currently have a linear one like the one pictured above. Sometimes I threaten to teach the daughters how to use it.


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

I still have a circular one- built into a pocket protecter.


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## Sam Fugate (Jul 28, 2012)

I still have my users manual, but have no idea where the slide rule is.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

irwin harlton said:


> USED TO HAVE TO USE ONE.......icons ago
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule


icons ago? That some sort of inside joke?


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

I never had to use one...but I was fortunate to have learned machine shop practice with vernier calipers. If we keep this up, I'll have to post pics of my wire recorder: )

Deknow


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## TooFarGone (Aug 19, 2012)

I was in the last class in my high school that learned how to use one of those- 1973 or 74, then our Scientific Calculations and Measurements class got TWO Texas Instruments TI-50 calculators. We thought we were pretty hot stuff...

I really like the old K&E engineering slide rules. I can't remember whether you add or subtract a power of 10 when the slide goes left..


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

deknow said:


> If we keep this up, I'll have to post pics of my wire recorder: )


There are enough of us old geezers on this site that we can surely 'one up' a young fellow like you on ancient stuff.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

TooFarGone said:


> I can't remember whether you add or subtract a power of 10 when the slide goes left..


It was never a directional thing, the way I learned. If you only had a short series of steps you kept track in your head. If you had a large number of manipulations you kept track on paper. 

And three digits of accuracy! We put people into space with these things.

Makes my brain hurt just remembering........


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I once had an Irish beekeeper on the Irish Bee List tell me...

He could sit by the fire and using his slide rule...show that 4 frame nucleus colonies couldn't possibly make the winter...


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## beemilk (Sep 12, 2012)

Slide rules were required for my college chemistry class...back in the late 60's. I try to blame the slide rule for flunking out but it was probably due to the alcohol instead; not the stuff used in chemistry class but the stuff used in rum glass. Interesting though, after four years in the Navy, and going back to college, I am now a Professor of Biology (33 years) at the same exact institution I flunked out of. Should I credit that to hand-held calculators?


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

beemilk said:


> ... Should I credit that to hand-held calculators?


More likely a finely adjusted tolerance for alcohol....after four years in the Navy.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

Anyone know the fascinating story of log tables, a shipwreck, and honeybee comb cell geometry?
Deknow


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

odfrank said:


> I was able to learn beekeeping but not how to use a slide rule. More than a few buttons on a calculator is beyond me too. I have one in mycloset also, next to my dial phone, 8 track player, and reel to reel.


Waaait just a minute. I'm still using the dial phone in my extracting room. I have tried several others there but the ole ringer on the dial phone is the only one I can hear with all the equipment running. It's right over there on the wall by the 8 track tapes.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

deknow said:


> Anyone know the fascinating story of log tables,


Is it even legal to use the terms fascinating story and log tables in the same sentence?


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

It is if there is a shipwreck involved.
Deknow


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## Seymore (May 1, 2009)

Lol - y'all!


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

You can look this up in the ABCXYZ...at least the older versions had this account, paraphrased (from another thread in 2008) it is:


there is also at least one interesting historical account that relates to these "lozenge plates"[That form the bottom of the cell]. apparently, there was a discrepancy between the measured angles of these plates, and the theoretical. there was no resolution in this...until a ship wreck occurred. in looking into the cause of the shipwreck it was determined that the navigation was done properly....but that the standard set of log tables had an error in one entry that caused the ship to navigate into the rocks. this same entry was used in the theoretical calculation of the angles, and once corrected in the table, the theoretical and the measured matched 

deknow


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

deknow said:


> It is if there is a shipwreck involved.


Are ya gonna tell it or not?
Edit: Posted at the same time as the previous.....ya told it.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

I do not know if "logarithmic tables" were involved also, but we had another shipwreck in recent days aiming to Mars. Apparently, there were discrepancy in units between manufacturer and JPL - some used miles and another, kilometers. Space-ship missed... the target... Sergey


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

And then there is the Costa Concordia…but then I’d like to think that their logarithmic tables were a little more current.


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

"I was in the last class in my high school that learned how to use one of those- 1973 or 74, then our Scientific Calculations and Measurements class got TWO Texas Instruments TI-50 calculators. We thought we were pretty hot stuff..."

Same here and I still have the slide rule but the Texas has packed it in yonks ago. We used to share one Texas between about 20 of us - I think the first one cost more then $ 300. Ten years later they gave a more powerful calculator away when you had two or more films developed...but that is another story!


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