Re: Slide Rule Apps for the iPod/iPhone Message #7 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 12 Sept 2009, 12:01 p.m., in response to message #3 by Howard Owen
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As to quality, the center scale can move vertically with respect to the other two, ...
Back in the day, all quality slide rules were fully adjustable. You could adjust the fit of the slide, alignment of top/slide/bottom and cursor, each side of cursor independently.
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... and it sticks on one side. The slide isn't smooth at any point, for that matter. For me a slide rule is just a curiosity, since I was in the first generation that never touched one.
The professional ones were made either out of mahogany, bamboo, or aluminum (later some in plastic, as Palmer pointed out), and were very precisely machined. You lubricated the mahogany with talcum powder, the Al with petroleum jelly, the bamboo and plastic with nothing. Even so, some sticking (really just slight hesitation) was not unheard of.
It's just a curiosity for me now, but it was an essential tool when I started out.
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