Greetings,
Just saw an excellent Australian movie called 'The Dish' about a 210 ft
parabolic used during the Apollo 11 moon landing. Based on a true story
about technical problems but slide rule is used in about 3 scenes. Looked
like a Darmstadt 1/54 but not sure. The movie is well worth watching and has
had very good reviews and given 4 stars.
Regards ,
Pearu Terts
-----Original Message-----
From: horii@... <horii@...>
To: sliderule@egroups.com <sliderule@egroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 2 November 2000 13:12
Subject: [sliderule] Re: Slide Rules in movies

>--- In sliderule@egroups.com, horii@r... wrote:
>
>> Of course there was "Apollo 13" with the famous slide rule scene (if
>> anyone doesn't remember the type of slide rule carried on the Apollo
>> missions, my documentation says that it was a Pickett N600ES, but
>> instead of the leather case, NASA had a beta cloth case made for
>it).
>>
>> I believe, though my recollection may be wrong, that the film
>"October
>> Sky" had some scenes with slide rules in it.
>>
>> Steven Horii
>
>I've had a question about beta cloth and about the 600ES.
>
>Beta cloth is a fire-retardant fabric used as the outer, or cover,
>layer of the Apollo-era space suits. It is basically a glass cloth
>with a Teflon coating and will withstand high temperatures without
>burning. Unlike some polymers, it is also non-reactive with oxygen.
>This was important in the Apollo days because the cabin atmosphere was
>100% oxygen (the reason the Apollo I fire was so devastating).
>
>The source of my information on the Apollo slide rule is a NASA
>publication "Handbook of Pilot Operational Equipment for
>Spaceflight". That source describes the slide rule as an "unmodified
>model 600ES manufactured by Pickett and Eckel". What is interesting
>is that the photo (admittedly, my copy of this manual is a Xerox, so
>the photo is not original halftone quality) apparently shows a 600ES
>with a regular cursor. However, some years ago, I bought a
>new-in-the-box 600ES with the Pickett promotion on the outside. It
>shows a Lunar Module and notes "The slide rule carried aboard the
>Apollo missions". That slide rule is a 600ES with a magnifying
>cursor. So, I am not exactly sure which model flew. But, they flew
>with a beta cloth case (I collect space stuff and would LOVE to find
>one of those) instead of the normal leather one.
>
>Steven Horii
>
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