NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Slide rules in movies
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2013 Jul 16, 02:11 -0700
From: Frank Reed <FrankReed@HistoricalAtlas.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 3:32 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Slide rules in movies
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2013 Jul 16, 02:11 -0700
book |
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game | 2003 | N/A | description of Pete Palmer | "At least that's what he did for money, for love he sat down with his charts and slide rule ans analyzed baseball strategies." | Kale | wfkale@hotmail. |
||
Book | e - The Story of a Number, Author: Eli Maor | 1994 | underlying general theory | n/a. some bio details on napier, biggs, oughtred, etc. | n/a | n/a | good, brief background on origin of logarithms, and evolution into common logs as basis for computing. Most of book on the natural log function and interrelationships with various math and nature topics. recommended read. | Mike Bauer | mjbauer001@yahoo. |
Book | The Nine Billion Names of God | 1953 | the lama | "Gladly, |
Matthew Lecin | mijjil@gmail. |
|||
Book | Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home | copyright 1969 | none | Morton Brooks | "The wise son, may, might come in wearing glasses and reading a book or maybe fiddling with a slide rule." | Explaining to the Rabbi how they can spice upthe Passover Seder. | Even authors agree wise people fiddle with slide rules. | Craig Kielhofer | kielhofer@ync. |
Book | Podkayn Of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein | 1963 | unspecified | Clark, Podkayn' |
Calculating a deadline in Venus time | page 145 | Mike Konshak | curator@sliderulemu |
|
Book | Methuselah&# |
1958 | unspecified | Andrew Jackson (slipstick) Libby | Crunches numbers in his head, thus the nickname | Mike Konshak | curator@sliderulemu |
||
Book | Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein | 1958 | 20" K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig and ten-inch polyphase | Clifford (Kip) Russell | I missed my slipstick. Dad says that anyone who can't use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote. Mine is a beauty - a K&E 20-inch Log-log Duplex Decitrig. Dad surprised me with it after I mastered a ten-inch polyphase. | Trapped on Pluto, calculating Pluto's orbit to see how long he'd been a prisoner. | pg 133 | Mike Konshak | curator@sliderulemu |
Book | HaltinG StatE by Charles Stross | 2007 | n/a | Jack | They had pocket calculators back then, and I remember my dad showing me what they used before that -- books of tables, and a thing like a ruler with a log scale on it, a slide-rule. | driving somewhere | I don't recommend the book | Kale | wfkale@hotmail. |
Book | Revolt in 2100 - w/ Misfit , a short story by Robert A. Heinlein | 1939, 1940, 1953 | Circular | Marine Gunner Larsen spun the dial on his slide rule | You've multiplied where you should have divided | Marine Gunner Larsen spun the dial on his slide rule, while Andre Jackson Libby watches. | page 182 - This is the first appearance of "slipstick Libby" in Heinlein novels (see Methuselah&# |
Mike Konshak | curator@sliderulemu |
Disney Channel Movie | Full Court Miracle | 2003 | 10" log log duplex - Versalog perhaps? | algebra teacher | estimating time an emergency generator would run with the available fuel | Who takes a full size rule to HS basketball game!? | Adam Coleman | ||
Magazine | Street & Smith Astounding Science Fiction | Ca. 1955 | Elaborate, two-cursor SR in the future | ?? | none | Holding slide rule | Cover illustration for story "Galactic Gadgeteers" | Phil Stanley | philstan@rcn. |
Modern Marvels | 70's Tech | 2007 | Deci-Lon (I believe) | Attempting a square root- comparison w/ calculator | He was rather unfamiliar with it | Will Norton | mooseman67@comcast. |
||
Movie | Fantastic Voyage | 1966 | Pocket- white duplex bamboo | Edmond O'Brien as General Carter | too busy watching Raquel Welch to notice | They were calculating how long the could stop the patients heart. | Craig Kielhofer | kielhofer@ync. |
|
Movie | The Beast From 20 000 Fathoms | 1953 | Simple 10" white rule -- does NOT seem to be a duplex rule | Professor Tom Nesbitt | Calculating results of a nuclear test | There are sheets of paper that appear to be maps and what MAY be a circular rule (perhaps a Radiac?) on the table in front of Professor Nesbitt. | Wayne Brown | ||
Movie | The First of the Few | 1942 | One or two simplexes and a Fuller | Fiddling around with the the simplex and someone else waving the Fuller around | Character playing R.J.Mitchell (Spitfire designer) actually shot down and killed 1943. | Rod Lovett | |||
Movie | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb | 1964 | Circular (Probably with radio- isotopic half-lives) | Dr. Strangelove (? Doktor Merkwürdigliebe) |
Strangelove speaking: (notices circular slide rule in his gloved hand) ... aa... nn... Radioactive halflife of uh ... hmm.. I would think that uh... possibly uh... one hundred years. | Calculating time until it would be safe to emerge from mineshafts and re-inhabit Earth's surface. | Thanks to: http://www.movie- |
wcroentgen | |
Movie | Time After Time | 1979 | Thacher played by H. G. Wells | 1st scene: a slow pan around Wells' workshop where he built the time machine. The Thacher is on a wall shelf. 2nd scene: In a museum in San Francisco the Thacher is displayed in a glass case as part of a collection of H. G. Wells artifacts. | |||||
Movie | Voyage to the bottom of the sea | 1961 | white bamboo-duplex | Admiral Harriman Nelson | It checks out exactly | Sitting at his desk making computations | A young Barbara Eden appeared in this movie | Craig Kielhofer | |
Movie | 30 Seconds over Tokyo | 1944 | White Bamboo Duplex- looked like a good one at that. | Bomadier (character name unknown) | Figuring time to bomb drop site | Craig Kielhofer | kielhofer@ync. |
||
Movie | Revenge of the Nerds III | 1992 | Early white pickett duplex shown with newer (black cover) Pickett "How to manual" | Pledges | (voice over) "learn the instruments of your fore fathers" | trying to figure out a SR while fellow nerd reads the manual | shows you what kind of movies I like. | Craig Kielhofer |
From: Frank Reed <FrankReed@HistoricalAtlas.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 3:32 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Slide rules in movies
Andrew, you wrote:
"Slide rule people have a database of slide rule appearances in the movies etc."
"Slide rule people have a database of slide rule appearances in the movies etc."
Thanks. It appears the database is members only. I may sign up later to have a look. If you're a member, I hope you'll make sure they have this one in their database. It's an important 250 milliseconds in the film history of slide rules.
You also wrote:
"Also, the fact that slide rule in your picture is neatly aligned with latitude line means that either movie portrays person with moderate OCD, or, more likely, whoever set up the scene did not know what is this thing."
"Also, the fact that slide rule in your picture is neatly aligned with latitude line means that either movie portrays person with moderate OCD, or, more likely, whoever set up the scene did not know what is this thing."
Ha. Yes, it's probably the latter. The main characters (two strange children about 12 years old) would probably qualify for a diagnosis of OCD, but this is strictly a whimsical "scene setter" --a brief transitional image with no suggestion that anyone is actually using a slide rule for
anything. It's just a prop.
I said previously that this wasn't related to navigation, but there's always a way. The nautical charts that appear in this movie are modified from actual nautical charts. For example the movie's "New Penzance Island" is a somewhat modified version of Fishers Island, New York. The little chart image that I posted earlier has a compass rose that shows a variation of 13°00' West labeled "1940". That gives us a line of position. It passes west of Fishers Island aligned roughly along NWbN/SEbE (http://historicalatlas.com/mag/magframes.asp?indate=1940).
-FER
----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
: http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=124623