My curiosity has always been piqued about this device. I was born a
generation after sliderules were seriously used. Calculators were
small and cheap when I was a child entering school at the dawn of
the 1980s.
My grandfather was an early computer guy. Among other things, he was
a database engineer for GTE. Amongst the items that made their way
into my parent's home after my grandfather died in 1990 was a slide-
rule tie-tack, and two books of logrhythmic tables. While he was
alive, he was a tremendous benefactor of my computing. From him I
recieved my first two computers. An IBM XT, and a MacIntosh SE.
It was gopherspace that inspired me to actually purchase a sliderule
-- a Pickett & Eckel 1948 model no. 500 Litho-Phase Log-Log. I also
have a hardback book from the 1930s to aid my learning.
