The Slide Rule: Simplified, Explained, and Illustrated for the Mechanical Trades

Very happy Great Value!

This book reprints a manual 130 years old, as of the time if this writing, and describes practices that were already well entrenched even then. Considering how recently slide rules fell out of fashion, I find their reign, over 100 years, surprising. And, when you see this book's emphasis on carpentry and skilled trades, it's even more astonishing that slide rules appeared in so many contexts - not just the lab full of necktied nerds with pocket protectors.That emphasis on carpentry and skilled trades comes across as this book's strength and weakness. As its strength, this goes over many of the routine kinds of calculation that appear in doing conversions and proportions, in building stairs, and in handling everyday geometry. It gives many examples of chained calculations, showing how easily the result from one step feeds into the next. And, in gentle language, it addresses the mysterious decimal point - slide rules give you the leading digits of an answer easily, but it takes some mental arithmetic to keep track of how many zeroes you need and on which side of the decimal.By focusing on basic, everyday operations, the skips over the more complex scales that appeared during the slide rule's heyday: trig, log, exponential, squaring, and more. And, because of the 1881 publication date, you can't expect illustrations as profuse and clear as in modern how-to books. Those points seem small enough, though. Given the basics, anyone who needs the more advanced features and has them available will be able to work them out for themselves.Slide rules, for better or worse, are nearly extinct in the wild, despite their versatility, ruggedness, and unpowered operation. They've lost none of their appeal, though, as cultural icons and as historical artifacts. If you can't find someone who (like me) remembers how to use one, this book will get you and your slipstick off to a great start.- wiredweird

Old school before we had hi-tech! This was an awesome reference on the slide rule.

The book seems to have been originally published in 1907 under the title, “Some Quick and Easy Methods of Calculating. A Simple Explanation of the Theory and Use of the Slide Rule, Logarithms, etc., with Numerous Examples Worked Out.” A 7th edition of the book was published in 1952. As is often the case, even though the text was revised multiple times, it was not brought up to date. It is for this reason that we have a text published as late as 1946 or 1952, take your pick, which such distracting anachronisms as a description of the cursor as “... a late addition to the rule...”.The book was intended for individual study by those in commerce, engineering, or the mechanical trades, with no prior experience with the slide rule. It assumes the reader has at least a standard secondary school background in algebra and trigonometry. In the Preface to the first edition of the book, the author expresses his belief that most failures to learn the use of the slide rule lie in “... the want of a clear perception of the elementary principles on which the rule is constructed and the attempt to follow, by rote, instructions the reasons for which are not clearly understood.” Accordingly, the text provides not only a standard discussion of logarithms and the logarithmic basis of slide rule operations, but many fully discussed examples, of increasing difficulty, over a wide range of application fields.The scale set used in the standard Mannheim-type: C, D, A, B, S, L, T. Reversed scale operations are discussed. Perry's “new form of slide rule with Log-Log scale” (labeled 'E') is discussed. No specific rules or manufacturers are recommended, although the Section entitled, “Circular Slide Rules” provides instructions for use of the Stanley-Boucher pocket-watch style rule and the Fuller cylindrical rule.There are 48 pages of fully-worked out examples in the areas of mensuration, mechanics, engineering, hydraulics, and electricity. The text provides a 4-place table of logarithms and a well constructed six page index.This book is very useful for providing a historical picture of slide rule teaching, applications, and practice at the beginning of the 20th century.Additional editorial note: In keeping with the book's extended title, “The Slide Rule As An Aid in Calculating With a Short Description of Some Other Labor-Saving Methods...”, the first chapter is entitled “Contracted Arithmetic Methods” and shows a faster method of performing some mathematical operations such as multiplication and division. It is mildly interesting but would have best served as an Appendix since it has nothing to do with slide rule operation. A Publisher's note in the text indicates that this section will be removed in subsequent editions of the book.For more reviews of slide rule texts, see my website at steves-sliderules.info

For those of you who like to fool around with an old slide rule, this is the book to have.

I bought this book to re-learn my old scientific slide rule that I used in algebra, calculus, and physics. This book will not teach you how to take a logarithm base 10 or base e, sine, cosine, a square root or any other root function. It is strictly multiplication and division which I figured out easily before the book arrived. Most of the book is about geometry as applied to construction, e.g. how many boards 2 inches by 4 inches by 8 feet long can be cut from a piece of wood 2 feet by 2 feet by 8 feet. Over all a disappointment for use as a science tool.

The book expains working of slide rule in text. Not much graphics.You would have to concentrate and read text carefully which some what hard to do thesedays.I guesss we are spoiled with all the pitures and drawings.All the text make you little intimidated at first glance but if you take time read carefully you'll find that the book makes very easy to understand.

This book was written over 100 years ago. My dad loved it!