Nope. I'm not a collector. I'm a connoiseur. None of my slipsticks
are for-sale. My primary criteria when I see a slipstick are:
scales,
scale arrangement,
special marks and
cursor weirdness.
Those are the things I'm interested in.
Nobody has made any new ones since the late-70's. But Al Einstein had one.
So did Viktor Korolev, the Master Designer of the Soviet Space Program.
The Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building and White House couldn't have
gotten built without them. General Eisenhauer used his to defeat Hitler
as did his aircraft navigators, warship navigators and artillery crews.
For centuries, slipsticks were how calculations got done. That was back
when 'computers' were people who computed numbers.
Carrying mine around, I often get asked if that's REALLY what it looks
to be. Still lots of guys around who grew up using slipsticks in school
and at work. Some of them hated the damn things - too complicated. But
most have fond memories of them. Many still have a stick or two stuffed
in their attic somewhere. They haven't used it in decades but they ain't
giving it up. Unh unh. No way.
Yes. I actually use my guess-o-meters on pretty much a daily basis.
People think they look so complicated that I must be a genius to
for figuring them out. While I don't discourage the notion, I do
know I'm no genius. Not even close. Actually, they aren't all that
difficult to learn with a bit of practice. It's a matter of teaching
your eyes where to look and becoming familiar with how the scales
are arranged. Each manufacturer had their own eccentricities.
The only essential ingredient that slipsticks don't show you, is
the decimal-point. For that you will have to use your brain. Sorry.
There's no way around it. The methods evolved over the years are
pretty simple to learn and quickly become second-nature with
practice and use.
Besides, one of the neat things about sliderules is they are never 'off'.
No matter how it may be sitting, it's showing you a number of interesting
mathematical relationships of various sorts. Just looking at one makes you
think. Before you know it, you got the habit, the boss is giving you
promotions and you're making money hand over fist. Thinking's good for
you.
Aside from their calculating abilities, slipsticks also have enormous
sex-appeal and often make excellent weapons. Whip one of those babies
out in mixed-company and they fairly screm "BRAINS!" in big day-glo
letters. Try that with a calculator and all you'll get are comments
about your 'cute toy'. Walk around with your sheathed Picket N4-ES
"Fat Boy" and Cops will stop you to find out what kind of machete you
got. Rude and impolite people, will have second-thoughts about
accosting you when they see you're 'strapped'. And if they want to
push the point, watch their eyes pop out when they see the sharp,
gleaming, lethal aluminum edge on that N4-ES Dual-Base Speed Rule.
They'll run for cover. People will respect you and you will discover
a newfound sense of self-worth. You'll feel like a SOMEBODY.
Common Gauge Marks:
-------------------
pi = 3.1415...
7854 -tick = 0.7854 = 1/4 pi
greek letter rho = 0.01745 = pi/180
e = natural log = 2.71828
R = 57.3d = 1 rad (Pickett)
U = 57.3d = 1 rad (Thornton)
trig correction marks
36-mark = often on Euro cursors
1 h = 3600 s
1 m/s = 3.6 km/h
1 deg = 3600 arc-sec
1 yr = 360 days
1 kWh = 3.6e6 joules
m = 344
s = 23 (Thornton)
ARISTO
======
(Germany)
Studio 868
----------
ST T1 T2 DF [CF* CIF CI C*] D P S
LL01 LL02 LL03 A [B* L K C*] D LL3 LL2 LL1
color: white
* = yellow highlighting
marks: pi (A/B/C/D/CF/DF), e (LL2/LL3), trig correction marks
cursor: center vertical + 36 Mk (both sides) +
material: plastic
I keep this little 6-incher in one of my BDU pockets for daily use.
It's a terrific all-purpose slipstick just crammed with scales. Even
got a 'p' (Pythagorian) scale on it. Like most Euro sticks it's got
lots of neato cursor marks too and, with that yellow shading, looks
colorful. While handy, I thought a 'shorty' might have accuracy problems.
Not so. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you
can guess nearly as close as with the bigger slipsticks.
DIETZGEN
========
(USA)
1732 "Maniphase Multiplex - Decimal Trig Type Log-Log"
------------------------------------------------------
LL0 LL00 A [CF CIF CI C] D DI K
L LL1 DF [B T ST S] D LL3 LL2
color: creamy white
marks: pi (A/B/CF/DF), 7854-tick (A/B), e (all LL scales),
trig correction marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: plastic
A K+E clone that I keep on my desk for general purposes. No exotic
scales but all the basics. Handy and functional it just looks damn
smart.
DIWA
====
(Denmark)
Businessman # 541-1
-------------------
cm/in sh.d DF [CF % CI C] D Pnds
color: pure white
marks: pi (C/D/CF/DF)
cursor: single vertical centerline + tick for CI scale
material: plastic
A very simple 12-inch business slipstick I got at a Scandanavian
antique shop. It had been sitting there so long the guy practially
gave it away. The currency units are English shillings and pounds.
I thought that was kinda neat, if useless. It's quite prim and
Gay looking. Perfect for Girlie-Men, businessmen, office boys and
others who want to get in touch with their feminine side.
FABER-CASTELL
=============
(Germany)
2/83:
----
K T1 T2 DF* [CF* CIF CI C*] D* S ST P
LL03 LL02 LL01 W2 [W2' L C* W1'] W1 LL1 LL2 LL3
color: white
* = green highlighting
marks: pi (C/D/CF/DF/W1/W1'/W2/W2'), rho (C/D), 36-mark (cursor), s (cursor),
d (cursor), HP (cursor), kW (cursor), e (LL2/LL3), trig corr marks
cursor: full lines: center,left and right edges + 36-mark both sides +
HP and kW on front side
material: plastic
misc: easy-open cursor window
My favorite. The W1'/W1 + W2/W2' scales combine to effectively form
a 24-inch scale on a 12-inch sliderule. This gives you higher precision
for multiplication/division. Has that clean, colorful, precise Euro look
that screams EFFICENCY! EFFICENCY! EFFICENCY! The Euros definitely like
to slip a little artistic flair in with their utilitarianism, hence the
nice color shading. And they like to load the cursor window with all
sorts of helpful little hashmarks.
Keuffel-Esser
=============
(USA)
K+E 4071-3:
----------
DF [CF CIF CI C] D L
K A [B T ST S] D DI
color: creamy white
marks: pi (CF/DF/A/B), 7854-tick (A/B), trig corr marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: plastic
A simple, general-purpose slipstick I bought at a Starvation Army
store. The DI scale is a bit unusual on a stick this simple but
otherwise it's a bare-bones, basic model. Sturdy, nearly indestructable
and perfect for sticking in your back pocket. It's got "U.S. Navy"
stamped on the leather carrying case so I guess one of the number-
crunchers at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard used it. Or maybe some
spy-sub captain figured out his coordinates with it and this was
all that came bobbing back up to the surface after he hit a rock
at 50,000-ft. Your guess is as good as mine.
K+E 4080-3 "Log-Log Duplex Trig"
--------------------------------
LL02 LL03 DF [CF CIF CI C] D LL3 LL2
LL01 L K A [B T ST S] D DI LL1
color: creamy white
marks: pi (A/B/CF/DF), 7854-tick (A/B), e (LL2/LL3/LL02/LL03), trig corr marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: wood + plastic
No exotic scales but pretty much everything else you might need
for calculating. A well-made, all-purpose, up-scale slipstick
that was likely the mainstay of many labs and offices.
K+E 4083-3 "Log-log Duplex Vector" (1947)
-----------------------------------------
LL02 LL03 DF [CF CIF CI C] D LL3 LL2
L LL01 LL1 A [B T ST S] D Th Sh2 Sh1
color: creamy white
marks: pi (A/B/CF/DF), 7854-tick (A/B), e (all LL scales), trig corr marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: wood + plastic
They bumped the DI scale off the 4080-3 to make room for
the vector scales, otherwise it's nearly identical to
the 4080-3. It also gives trig in deg-min-sec instead of
decimal. Decimal is the far and away the most common form.
Like all of K+E's slipsticks, it's well-built: thick and
sturdy. Poke somebody in the eye with it and they'll learn
the meaning of fear.
PICKETT
=======
(USA)
N3-ES: "Power Log Exponential - Log-log Dual Base"
-------------------------------------------------
\/2 \/2 K A [B ST S T T CI C] D DI \/3 \/3 \/3
LL0 LL1 DF [CF CIF Ln L CI C] D LL2 LL3
color: eye-saver yellow
marks: pi (A/B/C/D/CF/DF/CI/DI), 7854-mark (A/B/CF/DF), e (C/D/LL2/LL3), R (C/D/CF/DF/CI/DI),
trig corr marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: metal
The original "Fat Boy" supposedly standard equipment on NASA's
Apollo Moon missions - or so the Pickett PR Department Sling
went. I keep this one in my knapsack at all times. The sqrt and
cube root scales are unusual but otherwise its one-of-everything.
The creme-de-la-creme of it's time I'm sure. It is the sliderule
embodiment of that great American saying: better to have it and
not need it, then to need it and not have it. The bright banana
yellow color and the thin, gleaming metal edges carry just the
right message: be nice to me and we can have fun; mess with me
and I'll chop your fingers off.
N4-ES: "Dual-Base Speed Rule"
-----------------------------
\/3 \/3 DF [CF CIF T T ST S CI C] D DI \/2
LL1 LL2 DF-M [CF-M TH SH Ln L CI C] D LLE LL4
color: eye-saver yellow
marks: pi (C/D/CF-M/DF-M/CF/DF/DI/CI/CIF), R (C/D/CF/DF/CF-M/DF-M/CI/DI/CIF),
7854-mark (C/D/CF/DF), e (C/D/LL3), trig corr marks
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: metal
The other Pickett "Fat Boy" supposedly standard equipment on
NASA's Apollo Moon missions. The N4 has hyperbolic scales while
the N3 doesn't. They bumped off a couple scales to make room
for the hyperbolic scales. Otherwise they're very similar.
Loaded with scales, it can do most any calculation you want.
A real Babe Magnet. They see one of these they'll think you're
Al Einstein's lost Love Child and will want to have your babies.
Or, if you're a Babe, it'll have them begging for you to put a
collar and leash on them.
N904-ES: "Speed Rule"
---------------------
K A [B T S CI C] D L
K* A* [B* T S CI* C*] D* L*
color: eye-saver yellow
marks: pi (A/B/C/D/CI), 7854-mark (A/B/C/D), R (C/D/CI),
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: metal
I found this weird 12-incher in the bottom of a shoe-box full of
rulers at a pawn shop. Bought it for $2. When I saw the back-side
with those strange 'star' scales on it my eyes about popped outta
my head. To simplify finding the decimal-point, the inventor created
a sequence of tiny, seperate 1-10 scales for EACH order of magnitude
(both positive and negative). While the precision is very crude, it
allows you to do the calculation at the appropriate levels of magnitude
and see the result's proper magnitude ie. see exactly where the decimal
point goes. Then you can flip the stick over to find precise numbers on
the regular scales and just plunk the dot in without having to think
about it. Or vicee versee. K00L! Far as I know, it was the only
slipstick made this way.
I accidently ran into a paper written by the guy who invented this
scheme and emailed him. He answered from a cybercafe in Morocco where
he was doing consultancy work for some big corporation.
THORNTON
========
(England)
AD 050 "Log log"
----------------
LL2 LL3 L A [B CI ISd/Td C] D S ST T
color: creamy white
marks: pi (A/B/C/D/CI), m (C/D), U (C/D), s (C/D), L (C/D)
cursor: single vertical centerline
material: plastic
I thought it would be kool to have a Limmy slipstick so I got
this. It's very basic and kind of cheapy made but useful and
durable. It does have those weird ISd/Td scales which seem to
have something to do with temperatures but I don't know how to
use them.