Wigan Album

Have you still got the set squares, Ernest?

Yes, AP, I have all my drawing instruments and slide rule etc.

I thought you would have.

Isn't it strange, I still have my slide rule, even though it has not been used in around 50 years. Yet calculators have come and gone in this period: maybe had half a dozen or so, and have felt no attachment to them. Certainly no desire to keep any of them.

Nice to keep,I still have my slide rule,not a clue how to use it though,it's a PIC,P170,and still in the red box.

My first electronic calculator was a `Sands`Model 004 purchased on 24th June 1974 from Shoppertunities Ltd. for £19.25. It had a DC 9V 006P battery and an AC adaptor was supplied.

Maurice: I guess I could still manage basic multiplication and division operations. The specialist scales for vector analysis, which simplified finding the root of the sum or difference of two squares, I would need to refer to the instructions. Same for the hyperbolic scales for calculating catenaries and the like.


Ernest: What great detail you are able to furnish. I probably, was forced to move from slide rule to calculator ahead of most: The calculation required of me had become of statistical nature, rather than Engineering, and working in one or two 'Parts per Million', wrt frequency stability of quartz crystals did not lend itself to slide rule calculation.

I do, however wish that I had kept my first slide rule, which I acquired when I was at school (branded Griffin & George) it was structurally more interesting, being made of wood, with vellum faces, on which the scales were etched.

AP, Griffin and George also made chemical balances, etc. Haven't seen that name in years!

My Grandad, Joseph Carter, worked at Walkers Bros. In fact he worked there all his working life, as a crane driver.

Maurice: The instructions should be in the box. If not, put `slide rule` on Google.
AP: I kept the receipt and put it in the calculator case.

maybe of interest to some:

http://sliderulemuseum.com/