Experiencing Technological Evolution [History]

I purchased my first mechanical analog computer in 1962, when I was an electrical engineering freshman at the University of Illinois. It was distributed by The Fredrick Post Company of Chicago, but manufactured by The Hemmi Bamboo Slide Rule Company Ltd. in Japan. The model I obtained was the Versalog 1460 slide rule (slipstick) with the cordovan color leather case (Figure 1). This was the essential basic engineering tool for all mathematical computations required by students in the electrical engineering program at the university. Using the slide rule effectively required applying the fundamental rules of use coupled with one's intuitive engineering skills. You had to figure out where the place value of the decimal point was in your answer since the slide rule didn't keep track of this. Your intuition helped to quickly solve this issue.