An Interesting Baby Boomer You’ve Never Heard Of: Slide Rule Guy
Do you remember slide rules? I remember bringing one to school. I can’t recall what I used it for. Algebra, maybe. Well, anyway, there’s a nut, er, guy from Colorado named Mike Konshak, age 61, who actually collects them. He’s even got an online museum of slide rules. Here’s how he got started:
I’m an engineer. I was thinking if I ever wanted to collect something, I would probably collect slide rules because they’re small, they don’t take up much space, and they’re an engineering tool. Then one day I went on eBay thinking I’d just buy myself about 10 slide rules and put them in a little display case, and I bought a couple. I talked to some other collectors about if you had to have a slide rule, which one would it be? And I bought those. It kept expanding to the point where I ended up with over a thousand slide rules.
I’m sure you’re all excited to learn the origins of the slide rule. In Mike’s words:
William Oughtred is credited as the inventor of the slide rule. He basically took two logarithmic scales and put them next to each other and figured out that you could multiply and divide by adding the logarithms together. He lived from 1574 to 1660. In the 1800s, slide rules became standardized, and it wasn’t really until the 1970s that electronic calculators came out and the slide rules went the way of the buggy whip.
Here’s an extensive interview with Mike about his collection.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I’m looking at a sliderule right now – my dads! Thanks for the link to the museum site!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Wow, you keep a slide rule around the house!
November 13th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I used a slide rule in trig and geometry. I had a rectangular one and a round one. I’m sure I couldn’t remember what to do with it now. Interesting link!
November 14th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Last night I was talking to a friend who worked for K&E here in Connecticut, he worked for them for 20 years, until they shut down the factory. He was saying that management never thought those silly little calculator would never catch on, they were nice for balancing your check book but will never replace the slide rule for serious engineering calculations.
I still have my father’s K&E drafting set and my father’s, my brother’s and my K&E slide rulers.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:54 am
My father was an engineer and I still have his slide rule. I don’t knowhow to use it though.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:07 am
[...] Boomer Chronicles pointed me to the Slide Rule Museum. This is a the same model, featured on the museums website, but Dad’s has a lot less wear and tear. [...]