NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Paul Dolkas
Date: 2022 Jun 22, 18:49 +0000
Alan-
I think the only folks who really got into circular slide rules are (were) pilots, who liked them because they were faster, even though less accurate. (One really doesn’t need to know the
exact time one is going to run out of fuel after all.) Proficiency in the venerable E6-B is still required for a pilot’s license the last time I checked, and of course they also make for a lovely bezel on one’s watch.
-Paul
From: NavList@fer3.com <NavList@fer3.com> On Behalf Of
Alan S
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 8:45 AM
To: Paul Dolkas <paul@dolkas.net>
Subject: [NavList] Re: Celestial Navigation in the Movies
Frank:
Slide rules have long fascinated me, though back prior to retirement, when employed as a draftsman-designer, we used Smokey's Tables. This was in pre calculator days, the couple of places obtainable with a slide rule weren't
sufficient for the calculations pipe fabrication required. One could run a quick check with a slide rule, and if the answer was out in left field somewhere, another look was indicated.
in any case, I have a small collection of slide rules, both stick and circular, the last seemingly never really popular, who knows why. Your occasional comments remain interesting.
Alan
and circular
