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Some years ago I bought a printing desk calculator. The manufacturer apparently wanted to minimize their translation bill for the manual, so it almost completel

Some years ago I bought a printing desk calculator. The manufacturer apparently wanted to minimize their translation bill for the manual, so it almost completely avoided any textual explanation, instead illustrating how to use all of the functions by showing number lines with arrows and the corresponding calculator buttons. At first it was frustrating but after getting used to it I actually thought it was pretty neat, as it encouraged a more intuitive understanding of exactly what the calculator buttons did. Relatedly I learned a whole lot of algebra from reading a slide rule manual. I don't think I had a good intuitive understanding of logarithms until I saw them as pictures with arrows showing how they work on the slide rule. And then the manual was full of practical ways to reduce various common math problems to problems that are easy to solve with the slide rule, usually by figuring out how to express them as powers or logarithms.

ahmedfromtunis 5y ago
I'm really interested in reading these manuals. Do you recall what were they for?
- pjmorris 5y ago
  I had a similar experience with slide rule books I checked out from the public library in the 1970s. Looking on Amazon now, I see 'An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule' by none other than Issac Asimov. It's entirely possible that this is the book I used, and I think it might fit your bill.
- jcrawfordor 5y ago
  For the former I unfortunately cannot find a copy and I don't have the calculator any more... my hazy recollection is that it was a Panasonic printing desk calculator I bought at Staples but that could be wrong. Fwiw the newer desk calculators seem to all have pretty bad keypads so if you want a calculator that's really comfortable to use for fast totaling you might want to get a "vintage" one from when they were using mechanical key switches. Part of the reason I got rid of the one I had is because I was having issues with it not always registering keypresses when I thought it would have. As for the slide rule, I believe it was a Pickett booklet, likely one of the ones that have fortunately been archived here: https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Library_Pickett.htm https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Library_Pickett.htm The Asimov slide rule book is also very good and I have a copy. I believe I inherited it, along with several slide rules, from my grandfather who had been an EE at the NIST and also fastidiously kept a lot of things he had bought for grad school. One of the slide rules has "US Government Property" silkscreened on with the scales which is fairly neat, I assume DoD or someone had had a large number made on contract like they used to do with office supplies. I also have a US Government Property set of drafting tools that I use when hand-drafting sewing patterns.

ahmedfromtunis 5y ago

I'm really interested in reading these manuals. Do you recall what were they for?

pjmorris 5y ago
I had a similar experience with slide rule books I checked out from the public library in the 1970s. Looking on Amazon now, I see 'An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule' by none other than Issac Asimov. It's entirely possible that this is the book I used, and I think it might fit your bill.
jcrawfordor 5y ago
For the former I unfortunately cannot find a copy and I don't have the calculator any more... my hazy recollection is that it was a Panasonic printing desk calculator I bought at Staples but that could be wrong. Fwiw the newer desk calculators seem to all have pretty bad keypads so if you want a calculator that's really comfortable to use for fast totaling you might want to get a "vintage" one from when they were using mechanical key switches. Part of the reason I got rid of the one I had is because I was having issues with it not always registering keypresses when I thought it would have. As for the slide rule, I believe it was a Pickett booklet, likely one of the ones that have fortunately been archived here: https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Library_Pickett.htm https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Library_Pickett.htm The Asimov slide rule book is also very good and I have a copy. I believe I inherited it, along with several slide rules, from my grandfather who had been an EE at the NIST and also fastidiously kept a lot of things he had bought for grad school. One of the slide rules has "US Government Property" silkscreened on with the scales which is fairly neat, I assume DoD or someone had had a large number made on contract like they used to do with office supplies. I also have a US Government Property set of drafting tools that I use when hand-drafting sewing patterns.