In the Golden Gate Bridge TV documentary, the Thatcher was sitting on the engineer's desk during the first computation reenactment while he used the circular slide rule.

What the narrator called "an adding machine" was actually a four function mechanical calculator that was hand cranked. It could do addition and subtraction, plus multiplication and division to greater precision than a slide rule. My understanding is that it was often used by engineers to compute numbers taken from ten place tables of common logs and logs of trig functions, which gave a high degree of precision. This was a great help in solving differential equations.

Wouldn't it have been nice to see a reenactment of the engineer using the Thatcher?

Ed Seeley


Fran�ois_Boucher <Francois.Boucher@...> wrote:

--- In sliderule@yahoogroups.com, myklmyklmykl@a... wrote:
> On an American Experience documentary on the building of the Golden Gate
> Bridge (Monday 9PM Pacific), during a segment on Charles Ellis, there was a
> shot of a desk with a hand crank adding machine and what looks like a Binary
> Circular rule.

That was an excellent documentary. I had not known of Strauss' nervous breakdown
during the building of the bridge, nor of Ellis' major contribution. Did I understand well
that Charles Ellis' name is NOT on the plaque adorning the GG Bridge?

One could also see the hands of an actor working (wrongly...) what looked like a long K&E
straight slide rule. I could not identify the model.

(I also missed the Thacher & the circular slide rules that Michael & Fred observed... I guess
I'll have my eyes examined).






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