Well-used Calculators for Hairy-Eared Engineers*
Visit the ISRM exhibit installed in the
Louisville Public Library, Louisville, Colorado.
Welcome! Click Here for Introduction,
Museum Mission Statement, and Donation Policies
New and Recent Additions to the Museum
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ISRM is now administering the International Slide Rule Championships.
Any collector group, school or engineering association are invited to participate. Problem sets provided by
ISRM as well as the Medals to be awarded to the local champions, FREE!
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A new gallery of Technical Slide Charts and Disks. Over
700 pre-programmed calculators made of cardboard or plastic film for designed for specific
repetitive tasks and offered as promotional items.
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A new gallery of Slide Rule Who's Who - Past and Present.
Slide rule manufacturers, inventors, dealers and collectors has been added to the museum.
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A new gallery of Historical Photos of People with Slide Rules.
Over 400 Photographs and Ephemera showing slide rules in action has been added to the museum.
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A new gallery of Patent Database..
Downloadable Patents as early as 1851 to the present day, involving logarithmic calculating devices. Currently 714 U.S. Patents shown. British, Japanese and European Patents are in process. All in PDF file format.
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A new gallery of Herman van Herwijnen's Slide Rule Catalogue.
We've added clickable thumbnails to over 2200 slide rules and slide charts.
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The ISRM's Free Slide Rule School Loaner Program now has many
new sets for use in the USA, Germany, Netherlands and Japan. Teachers may now keep them out for
a full semester! The program has been expanded to include Home Schoolers. Students! - Be
the first in your class to get your teacher or school to participate and receive a FREE SLIDE RULE
that you can keep and treasure forever!
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Free Web Hosting for ISRM Associates Put your collection here!
St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School
in Petaluma, Ca took advantage of the ISRM's Free Slide Rule School Loaner
Program to teach Rocketry fundamentals using Slide Rules. Mike Konshak, the curator of ISRM,
was made an honorary member of Delta V for his continued involvment in both
rocketry and slide rules.
Here's ROCKET LAUNCH VIDEO
of the kid's efforts in using the slide rules to design the rockets. Notice Dick Herman, the instructor,
holding up a Pickett at the end of the video.
Galleries
All slide rules are organized into one of the following
galleries (webpages) based upon the number in the collection
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The original specimens and files found in this museum prior to 2005 were
donated to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California in for preservation
and display. Take time to visit CHM when you are in the area. ISRM continues to expand.
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This May 2006 article is the most recent publication on slide rules and it generated
a renewed interest in collecting or in obtaining one of these mathematical works of art.
Click on either picture to download a 17.25MB PDF scan
of this article written by Cliff Stoll. We thank Scientific American for this
ephemera.
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This November 2005 article is a French publication on the history of slide rules written in French for Pour la science - Les génies de la science, novembre 2005-février 2006, p. 20-23.
Click on either picture to download a 3.98MB PDF scan
of this article written by
Noël Jouenne who kindly submitted this to ISRM.
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Two Bloom County (Opus) cartoons, by Berkley Breathed,
pertaining to the demise of slide rules. It was published
originally in 1988 and later in "Classics of Western Literature - Bloom County
1986-1989" published by Little, Brown Company, 1990. It was one of the last
known references to slide rules in the cartoon world.
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Modern Logo's depicting Slide Rules
USAF Test Pilot School Patch
Edwards AFB California
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Joe Miner, Official Mascot of
University of Missouri-Rolla
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Purdue Engineer's Yell (1960's)
e to the x, dy, dx
e to the x, dx
cosine secant tangent sine
three point one four one five nine
square root, cube root, Btu
slipstick, slide rule, Yay Purdue
Contributed by Bruce Chelf,
Purdue Alumnus (The ISRM curator
subsitutes CSU for Purdue)
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* Hairy-Eared Engineer - definition:
1) An engineer who's old enough to have hair growing out of undesirable places.
2) Who's been
practicing engineering so long that he or she has already made all possible mistakes at least once.
3) A desirable person to have on a project to ensure the mission succeeds.
4) Quote: "Every
project needs at least one hairy-eared engineer" Marvin B. Davis -1980.
(Marvin was one
then and 25 years later, my barber can attest that I've finally made the grade).
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Slide Rule Wallpaper
This wallpaper is a collage of many slide rules. It is 1240 x 1020, 582kb and I have almost every slide rule manufacturer and country represented. Save this file (Right-Click Save Target) and select it using for the background on your computer monitor. 'Right-Click' on your screen and select 'Properties', then 'Browse' to the file to change your wallpaper. I hope you enjoy it.
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Astrological Nerd Signs - A Y2K Compliant Zodiac
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Keuffel and Esser, the Slide Rule
September 24th ~ October 22nd
People born under the sign of the Slide Rule have a particular talent for extending
themselves to handle new problems and situations. They are able to look at problems,
both small and large, and immediately keep the basic details in proportion.
Elegant and dependable, Slide Rules are known for keeping their cool and never
letting on that they're being pulled too far until they reach their limit and abruptly
fall apart.
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Not you? See where your birthday falls in Nerd Signs
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Bennie Tschoerner
Paris, TX
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NEWS: 2009 World (Texas) Championship Slide Rule Competition
The World Championship Slide Rule Competition held on March 14, 2009 in Irving, TX
was won by Bennie Tschoerner, who was also 2007 and 2008 champion.
Bennie lives in Paris, Texas and is a member of the Oughtred Society.
1st Place: Bennie Tschoerner using a K+E 4181-3
2nd Place is Courtenay Martin using a K+E 4081-3
3rd Place is Mike Yancey using a Pickett 905-A Texas Speed Rule
(There were four entrants)
The competition consisted of a set of problems that needed to be solved within a given time limit. The winner who gets the highest number correct wins.
Congratulations to all participants from the Slide Rule Community
and to Skip Solberg the Competition Director.
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Proud Member of
1574-1660
William Oughtred
Inventor of the Slide Rule
1831-1936
Victor Amadee Mannheim standardized modern scales
c1890
DUPA (Aristo) Class Germany
c1900
Englewood (NY) High School Students
c1905
IIT Classroom
1909
IIT Elect. Engineers
1934
Iowa State SR Class
1941
IIT Engineering
1942
Purdue Aeronautics
1952 Edwards AFB
Test Pilot School
1954 Hamburg, Germany
1956 Edwards AFB
Test Pilot School
1965 NCF Math Class
1970Colorado School of Mines
1976 Joe Pasquale (right) Weehawken HS, NJ now a Professor at UCSD
1997MIT SR Class
2006 UCSD SR Intro
Present Collector
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