Vintage measuring tool

Something I picked up today. Its a famous brand and looks really nice, but I am not sure if I know exactly what it measures.

 

Looks like a slide rule for math calculations,common in schools,etc. before hand calculators.

 

You are probably right, just that I havent seen one like this before. Than again I havent seen many.

 

There many of these around and some are even circular.
I just bought a 1955 manual for one.

 

My generation already used calculators and not so fancy rullers

 

@daveydempsey .Just applied the instructions from that page.
It is dated February 1932. It doesnt say where it was made. It says only
"system rietz"

 

On the back, also imprinted, but on the longer, upper side says "optik pavel plzen"

 

Maybe that was the retailer?

 

Another site lists this as the A.W. Faber model 375, from 1932, made in Bavaria; the company had by then adopted the name Faber-Castell, and sold their products through a great many retailers; I think MDS (England) would have been the retailer for this one.
See http://www.sliderule.ca/faber.htm and also http://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Faber.htm for some comments and additional photos of this model.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, a slide rule is a simple device which uses sliding scales to add numbers; and as discovered centuries ago, one can perform multiplication by adding logarithms.
Per Wikipedia, "Before the advent of the pocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering. The use of slide rules continued to grow through the 1950s and 1960s even as digital computers were being gradually introduced; but around 1974 the handheld electronic calculator made it largely obsolete and most suppliers left the business."
Kind of sad that nobody today is taught how to use these interesting devices. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule for an article on slide rules and how they were used.

 

It's getting harder and harder to find batteries for these vintage computers.

 

Great links an insight. Thanks!

 

I do NOT regret the passing of the slide rule! My inability to grasp the concept, let alone put into use said object, was well-known to my class. D--n thing could make me cry!

 

My Dad's is sitting right next to me.... a 4058 W , from

Keuffel & Esser Co. NY.

 

Picked this on my trip to DC.
~
!943
~

 

If you gave Mr Babitzke two four digit numbers to multiply, he could say the answer within three seconds of you finishing saying the second number. He did this in his head.

Yet he always had a six inch slide rule in his pocket protector.

 

This is a specialty slide rule made to calculate stack losses (energy losses) in boiler operations:








This very simple one was made to covert measurements (no logarithms here):






And this was a give-away here... a functioning slide rule tie clasp

 

Hi,
I remember the tie tack. I wanted it sooooo badly.
greg