Topic: Nov 12, 1946: The Abacus Proves Its Might

[sam]

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/11/1112abacus-beats-calculator

[Rik]

Clive still uses one 

[Simon]

They were great at school! 

[Clive]

We used to use slide rules too!  But my favourite was the mechanical calculator made in Italy by a company called Monroe.  When making a calculation it would bounce up and down on the desk like something demented.  Then we had an Anita electronic calculator which was the size of a 25" CRT TV set!  How times have changed! 

[Simon]

Yup, and when did you start using paper instead of slate?   

[Rik]

Slide rules were great. 

[Simon]

They were, but I never understood them.   

[Rik]

I loved using them, it felt so adult.

[Clive]

Me too Rik!  A wondrous tool.   

[Simon]

I never really understood what they were for.   

[Clive]

You could make calculations with them by just sliding the various inset rulers around.  All very clever. They were quicker than using log tables.  Whatever happened to log tables?   

[sam]

I still use log tables occasionally, but most of the time I just use logarithms to visualise large ranges of data on graphs.

[Clive]

I've probably forgotten how to use them now.     Shame that technology changes so rapidly. 

[Rik]

Slide rules were just moving log tables.

[Simon]

I never understood either!