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Published in Seán M. Stewart, R. Barry Johnson, Blackbody Radiation, 2016
Seán M. Stewart, R. Barry Johnson
Before proceeding further it is worth recalling some of the terminology associated with slide rules which may not be familiar to the modern reader. Broadly speaking, slide rules are of three general types: linear, circular, or spiral. In construction, a typical linear slide rule consisted of a central slide that slides relative to two stationary stocks and was either of the open or closed frame type. For the closed frame type the two stocks were separated by a gutter forming a body around the slide while for the open frame type the two stocks were held together at either of their ends with end braces. For the latter design, as the slide moved, an open gap would appear, hence its name, while no such gap appeared in the former. It was also usual for a slide rule to be fitted with a movable cursor with at least one hairline etched onto it. Scales were inscribed on the slide and one or both of the stocks while other fixed markings which may be found on the rule for the purpose of special calculations are known as gauge marks.
What Constitutes Professionalism?
Published in Kenneth K. Humphreys, What Every Engineer Should Know About Ethics, 1999
Prior to the advent of the digital computer, engineers used slide rules for design calculations. The slide rule was the symbol of the profession and engineering students at any university could usually be visually identified. They wore a leather holster on their belts containing a slide rule. The most common slide rules were about ten inches in length and no engineer would ever be without one. They were vital tools of the profession.
Computer Interface and Hardware
Published in Norman A. Anderson, Instrumentation for Process Measurement and Control, 2017
For many years the slide rule, an analog device, was a universally popular and useful calculator. In recent years, the slide rule has been replaced by the pocket calculator, or electronic slide rule—a digital device. The advantages of the calculator are obvious. Similar advantages, proportional to the required investment, are possible from properly applied digital control systems.
Evolution of detectors for particle physics
Published in Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 2022
Slide rules have been around since the seventeenth century (when Napier introduced the logarithms) and remained the most important ‘portable’ calculation tools until the 1970s, when the first handheld calculators became available. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the slide rule was the status symbol of the engineer's profession in the same way the stethoscope was for the medical profession. Large civil engineering projects were constructed from calculations by hand and slide rules. Calculations for Eiffel Tower were done using a six inch slide rule; which would have a typical arithmetic precision of about three significant digits. An anecdote reports that rocket scientist Wernher von Braun bought in the 1930s two slide rules, that he brought to the USA, after World War II,going to work on the American space program (NASA); he was still using them while heading the project that landed two men on the Moon in July 1969.