The way we were: 1963 - my father's slide rule

A week ago I wrote about my father’s slide rule – the one he gave me: the one he used as a civil engineer.

Today my uncle sent me a 1963 photograph of my father, at work, using his slide rule – the one he gave me. I did not know this photograph existed.

My uncle added a photograph of his own collection of slide rules (below).

The way we were: the slide rule (blog, October 5, 2015)

My father gave me my first, and only, slide rule. It was a big deal back then. I was in the last year of high school, and my father – a civil engineer – proudly gave me, his daughter, his work slide rule because I was the only one in the family going onto university to study mathematics. It was like getting a car!

Calculators weren’t around then, but I did have an abacus. With an abacus and a slide rule I could do anything!

I am reminded of my first slide rule because I saw one on display in a museum recently. It was a Russian slide rule. Mine was a German model, the Faber Castell – unbreakable. Mine was a rectangular ‘ruler’ of about 13 or 14 inches long and about 2 inches wide with a see-through plastic ‘slide’ and a red line ‘cursor.’ It was stored in its own bottle-green case. The top and bottom part of the ‘ruler’ didn’t move, but the part in the middle would slide along so that it could be lined up with the scales for performing calculations, such as multiplications, divisions, square roots, and logarithms to two decimal points.

William Oughtred made the first slide rule in England in the 17th century. It was a standard calculation instrument until calculators were introduced in the early 1970s. I was allowed to use a calculator in my mathematics exam, but I didn’t have one because I couldn’t afford it – not a scientific one anyway. Besides, by the time I learned how to use one, it was faster doing the calculations in my head – or on the slide rule. I did eventually move onto the calculator, but it was a real nuisance because it needed batteries, making it costly to maintain. Slide rules last for centuries and no batteries are required.

And if a slide rule was good enough for Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut, to calculate whether he had adequate fuel for the shuttle landing – on the moon, that is – then it was good enough for me.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog