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log tables....

Started by: priscus (inactive)

Slide rule, floppy disks....

I wonder how many other such things that will never get used again, I have lying around the house?

Started: 30th Oct 2016 at 16:06

Posted by: kenee (2111)


Log tables and slide rules may become collectors items.
I doubt if floppy discs will, they make reasonable coasters though.

Replied: 30th Oct 2016 at 16:37

Posted by: priscus (inactive)

I don't know about the disks, but I do still have a Five and a quarter inch Floppy Disk Drive. It had very little use, and was still working when removed from machine, a little over ten years ago.

They are fetching far more on Ebay now than what they had cost new, decades back.

example

Replied: 30th Oct 2016 at 17:50

Posted by: orrellite (2427)

I still have my slide rule and well remember doing early calculations using 12 figure logs to achieve the level of accuracy needed for setting out.

Replied: 30th Oct 2016 at 20:47

Posted by: dave© (3507)

Still got my log/antilog tables in a drawer somewhere, last used about 50 years ago.

Replied: 30th Oct 2016 at 22:40

Posted by: priscus (inactive)

Think it is about the same for me.

Replied: 30th Oct 2016 at 23:38

Posted by: graneyjoseph (4618) 

log books essential for solving mathmatical problems.

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 05:52

Posted by: macwil48 (349)

graneyjoseph
one also needed log books when dealing with the police.

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 07:25

Posted by: spud1 (inactive)

I still have my PIC slide rule and the case,I have had it for well over 60 years,not a clue how to use it now though,all the class at Leigh Junior Tech got one as a present,plus a compass set .

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 11:55

Posted by: orrellite (2427)

Spud 1,

put the 1 of the middle slider over the 2 on the lower and read off under the 2 on the middle slider ie 4 that is a simple example of two times two multiplication, just adding log of numbers together

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 12:03

Posted by: priscus (inactive)

I guess that I can still do the straightforward multiplication, division, square, and square roots. My last slide rule was a Thornton's model designed for Engineers/electronics. It has numerous specialist scales and functions: trig, hyperbolic functions, quadrature (difference of two squares). I no longer retain the knowledge of how I once used these.

My very first slide rule, which I gave to a friend when he went to Uni, would make a good collectors piece. Proprietary label was 'Griffin & George', no doubt was manufactured for them by a third party. The engine-divided scales were on white vellum, glued and pinned to a substrate of very dense wood. (Could have been Lignum Vitae.)

It had a wonderful fragrance, and definitely the appearance of an instrument from a bygone era.

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 12:25

Posted by: spud1 (inactive)

Orrellite,that's the only bit I remember,Priscus,mine was made by A.G.Thorntons too,and still looks brand new,we looked after things years ago.

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 16:39

Posted by: orrellite (2427)

sorry to have stated the obvious but I do not think I could explain the other functions.
Mine also is a Thornton 101,wooden not plastic body, but unfortunately has a crack in the cursor caused when it was stolen from my site office but retrieved by the police in that condition, tried many times to get a replacement without any luck.

Replied: 31st Oct 2016 at 17:28

 

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