--- In
sliderule@yahoogroups.com, "David G.D. Hecht" <Barzai@e...>
wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "rslag" <rslag@y...>
> To: <sliderule@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 8:51 PM
> Subject: SR Re: Slide rule sighting
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > I believe quite a few rules in the '30s and earlier had the fancy
> > scales. I have a Sun Hemmi manual printed in Japan (in pretty good
> > English) 1936 which describes how to use the trig, log-log, folded
> > and inverted scales - I'd love to have the SR described, it seems
to
> > be a knockoff of the K&E 4081, or something similar.
> >
>
> Not suggesting they weren't, just suggesting they weren't as common
as the
> simpler Mannheim types.
>
> Heck, in the movie "Apollo 13" one of the engineers is shown with a
slide
> rule that looks suspiciously like an old Sun-Hemmi/Post 1447
Mannheim.
>
> BTW I've found the best resource for figuring our which old Sun-
Hemmi you
> have is the online /catalogue raisonne/ that Paul Ross has at his
webiste:
>
> http://home.att.net/~ross3/HemmiCat.htm
What a great site, thanks!
Actually, the Apollo 13 sighting (sorry, I don't remember it) may be
another movie anachronism, as well.
My father was a NASA engineer in the early sixties, and I have the
impression that there was a strong tendency among his colleagues in
those days to flaunt the fanciest SR they could afford on their
desks. It was, of course, a status thing.
So while in the movie Apollo 13, the movie actor engineer may have
had a relatively simple rule, in real life, the engineer the actor
played quite probably had something better. As far as the movie
makers are concerned, though, slide rule equals
engineer/brainiac/math geek, and the prop they used was close enough.
Anyway, my point about Sky Captain: the character Dex Dearborn is a
comicbook-loving genius scientist engineer who creates amazing things
like death-rays, and fighter planes that instantly convert into
submarines, etc. on a virtually weekly basis. What kind of SR would
Dex use? A simple Mannheim?
Nope. He'd definitely have some wizbang of a slipstick, with multiple
slides, and dozens of scales, reverse polish notation, andÂ… you get
the idea.
Rich.