Before the smartphone, the laptop and the pocket calculator, there was a powerful mechanical computer. Our new series, Tools of the Trade, begins... The Slide Rule: A Computing Device That Put A Man ...

Used by engineers for centuries, they were displaced by pocket calculators and all but forgotten until Mr. Shawlee created a subculture of obsessives and cornered the market. By Alex Traub For about ...

While some (math-phobics) still may relish the simple beauty and non-threatening functionality of the abacus, there are those who have made the transition to more challenging computing gadgets—many ...

I still use a slide rule. I find it very efficient, much more so than using a computer often times. But I find people at work constantly asking what that "funny looking ruler" is. <BR>A quick google ...

For about 350 years, humanity’s most innovative handheld computer was something called a slide rule. As typewriters once symbolized the writer, slide rules symbolized the engineer. These analog ...