Greetings:

I'm about a third through Sylvia Nasar's biography of mathematician
John Nash, Jr. Found one reference to a slide rule so far (which kind
of makes me think that she does not totally understand who used SR's
during that period...):

"Nash went to Pittsburgh to become a chemical engineer, but his
growing interest was in mathematics. It was not long before he
abandoned the laboratory and slide rule for Mobius knots and
Diophantine equations."

(Chapter 2, "Carnegie Institute of Technology: June 1945-June 1948,
page 40).

I'll post any other references that I find. There seems to be a
general disdain that Nasar relates of "pure" math nuts vs. "applied"
math nuts. I assume that the "applied" folks are the only ones that
actually use SR's for anything other than stirring coffee.

Fred Kiesche