(Image: Oak Ridge Associated Universities)
鈥淲HAT type of people are fond of slide rules?鈥� asks Paul Frame, newly retired from Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Tennessee. 鈥淥ld folks. I didn鈥檛 have an electronic calculator until I was a graduate student.鈥�
Until the mid-1970s, Frame did most of his calculations with a slide rule. 鈥淓ngineering students on campus were easy to spot. They had a big leather case for their slide rule, hanging from their belt like a sword scabbard.鈥�
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Younger generations simply have no clue what slide rules were used for. 鈥淭he fact that many people don鈥檛 know what they are adds to their perceived value to us old folks,鈥� says Frame.
At Oak Ridge, Frame has put together a collection of circular slide rules designed for radiologists. Some were for calculating X-ray exposure times, shielding requirements and radioisotope decay; others for working out the explosive yield of nuclear weapons.
The ones that most fascinate people, says Frame, are those with cold war associations. 鈥淭hese are the slide rules that can help military personnel and civilians navigate the radioactive world that will exist after a nuclear detonation has occurred.鈥�
Nickamed cold war slide rules, they became famous when . 鈥淚 have seen the movie maybe 10 times,鈥� says Frame. 鈥淗e is calculating how long he and the other military bigwigs and politicians will have to reside underground after the Soviet Union鈥檚 doomsday device goes off.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪trange slide rule love鈥�
