Abd_von_Mumit
10-11-10, 09:00 PM
I have 7 slide rules for sale: Faber-Castell model No 1/87 Rietz, manufactured in Germany between 1951 and 1953 ($20 each - which is the price I paid today when buying them in bulk, check "The story" below). They are in very good condition: no damage whatsoever, smooth slider movement, clear "glass" with only minor scratches, legible and clear scales. Photos in the next post [EDIT: they come in original box of course].
Why I post it here? Cause I use one myself when playing (and when not playing too). It helps when plotting (triangles!), it serves as nomograph, it's a tool I can't live/play without, like a pen&paper. It also feels good to hold an item 60 or more years old, that is still working as it was the first day after being manufactured. It adds a lot of immersion, so it should be a must have thing for the "100% realism and all manual" freaks (like me). If you're not interested, skip the rest of this post.
This model has a good description with photos on "International Slide Rules Museum (http://sliderulemuseum.com/)" site, as well as on many other slide rule fans sites, for example here: Michael Gährken's Home Page (http://www.gaehrken.de/sr/fc-187-1187-11187-e.html). Faber-Castell had been the world leading slide rules manufacturer for almost 100 years - from 1882 till 1976 (their model 2/83N was named "the finest and most beautiful slide rule ever made" by Scientific American (May 2006) (http://www.filefront.com/17378694/When-Slide-Rules-Ruled.pdf)). They had produced millions of slide rules in hundreds of models - no doubt countless of them 'served' on U-Boots too.
I sell them for what I bought them for: $20 each (+shipment, ranging from 6 to 14 dollars, depending on your location). Payment through PayPal. If you have any questions, write in this thread (though any personal data, like name/address should be rather PMd). My paypal is aorlowski .at. gmail dot com.
The slide rules are in very good condition (I guarantee that).
What is this thing?
Before electronic calculator era people used slide rules to: multiply, divide, power, root and such (a slide rule can multiply, raise Pi to power of 14.92, or it will tell you the sinus of your attack angle... but it can't add. Funny). Without this tool an engineer was helpless - as well as a navigator.
As a SubSimmer you already know some slide rules - the so popular "Attack Discs" (Angriffsscheiben) or "Solution calculators" are in fact slide rules, although in circular form.
Doing basic things on a slide rule is very easy: multiplying, dividing, checking trigonometrical values, and such. Of course it gets harder when you want to do more magic, but for submarine simulator purposes you won't need any magic. There are many manuals in the Internet. I can point you to some, I can send you some (I got quite many, as a slide rule freak). No worries - you can learn to use the thingy in no time.
The story
I collect slide rules. Today I was meeting a seller from an auction site, from whom I bought a slide rule. To my amazement, he brought not only the slide rule I bought from him, but also nine other rules I was unaware of: "I thought they might be of interest to you" - he said. Well... they were. I bought them all. I've just checked them for condition, and selected six that I rate "very good condition", 2 rated "good condition" and 2 "poor".
If I don't sell them to SubSimmers, I'll sell them on eBay (not so cheap though).
Today I also bought six Faber-Castell 2/82N (sic!). These are real computers, but they are plastic and not WW2 like at all, so no description follows. http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4344/crazy2.gif
Disclaimer
This thread is a shameless advertisement - I know. I will understand if it is subsequently treated as unwelcome/spam. Normally I wouldn't dare to post it... but I honestly feel many people can be interested in the slide rules. In fact I bought them cause I thought of SubSim in the first place. :) I offer them:
[much] cheaper than on eBay, and I don't profit from it,
with a guarantee that they are a fully functional, working tool in good condition,
with a guarantee that they are original German slide rules manufactured soon after WW2 ended, similar or identical to slide rules that had been used widely (also by army/navy) during WW2.
EDIT 2: Thread title should say "only for SubSim". Ehh...
Why I post it here? Cause I use one myself when playing (and when not playing too). It helps when plotting (triangles!), it serves as nomograph, it's a tool I can't live/play without, like a pen&paper. It also feels good to hold an item 60 or more years old, that is still working as it was the first day after being manufactured. It adds a lot of immersion, so it should be a must have thing for the "100% realism and all manual" freaks (like me). If you're not interested, skip the rest of this post.
This model has a good description with photos on "International Slide Rules Museum (http://sliderulemuseum.com/)" site, as well as on many other slide rule fans sites, for example here: Michael Gährken's Home Page (http://www.gaehrken.de/sr/fc-187-1187-11187-e.html). Faber-Castell had been the world leading slide rules manufacturer for almost 100 years - from 1882 till 1976 (their model 2/83N was named "the finest and most beautiful slide rule ever made" by Scientific American (May 2006) (http://www.filefront.com/17378694/When-Slide-Rules-Ruled.pdf)). They had produced millions of slide rules in hundreds of models - no doubt countless of them 'served' on U-Boots too.
I sell them for what I bought them for: $20 each (+shipment, ranging from 6 to 14 dollars, depending on your location). Payment through PayPal. If you have any questions, write in this thread (though any personal data, like name/address should be rather PMd). My paypal is aorlowski .at. gmail dot com.
The slide rules are in very good condition (I guarantee that).
What is this thing?
Before electronic calculator era people used slide rules to: multiply, divide, power, root and such (a slide rule can multiply, raise Pi to power of 14.92, or it will tell you the sinus of your attack angle... but it can't add. Funny). Without this tool an engineer was helpless - as well as a navigator.
As a SubSimmer you already know some slide rules - the so popular "Attack Discs" (Angriffsscheiben) or "Solution calculators" are in fact slide rules, although in circular form.
Doing basic things on a slide rule is very easy: multiplying, dividing, checking trigonometrical values, and such. Of course it gets harder when you want to do more magic, but for submarine simulator purposes you won't need any magic. There are many manuals in the Internet. I can point you to some, I can send you some (I got quite many, as a slide rule freak). No worries - you can learn to use the thingy in no time.
The story
I collect slide rules. Today I was meeting a seller from an auction site, from whom I bought a slide rule. To my amazement, he brought not only the slide rule I bought from him, but also nine other rules I was unaware of: "I thought they might be of interest to you" - he said. Well... they were. I bought them all. I've just checked them for condition, and selected six that I rate "very good condition", 2 rated "good condition" and 2 "poor".
If I don't sell them to SubSimmers, I'll sell them on eBay (not so cheap though).
Today I also bought six Faber-Castell 2/82N (sic!). These are real computers, but they are plastic and not WW2 like at all, so no description follows. http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4344/crazy2.gif
Disclaimer
This thread is a shameless advertisement - I know. I will understand if it is subsequently treated as unwelcome/spam. Normally I wouldn't dare to post it... but I honestly feel many people can be interested in the slide rules. In fact I bought them cause I thought of SubSim in the first place. :) I offer them:
[much] cheaper than on eBay, and I don't profit from it,
with a guarantee that they are a fully functional, working tool in good condition,
with a guarantee that they are original German slide rules manufactured soon after WW2 ended, similar or identical to slide rules that had been used widely (also by army/navy) during WW2.
EDIT 2: Thread title should say "only for SubSim". Ehh...