You just never know…

What you’re liable to find when you’re looking for something else…

One ‘old’ box of .45 ammo…

Old ammo

I think it was made around 1953… and it’s a full box! πŸ™‚

And another piece of personal history…

slide rule

 

I bought this thing back in 1973 or 74 to use on the airplane. Β It’s the ‘mini’ version and fit perfectly into the old blue flight manual books we carried. Β It was a lot quicker to do the math on this than to try to do it on a notebook in a bouncing airplane…

And no, I never did find what I was looking for… sigh…

Comments

You just never know… — 26 Comments

  1. While digging through misc. old “good stuff” I came across an old circular slide rule and asked my daughters if they knew what it was. They didn’t believe me when I told them that it was a pocket calculator.

    It got the astronauts to the moon – and back, but it’s lost to the merciless march of time.

  2. LL- I have one of those I STILL use! πŸ™‚ It’s STILL faster than using a calculator! LOL

  3. Have an engineer friend who retired from Boeing. Started on the B-47 and retired from the 777 program. Slide rule to CAD CAM. Carried a slide rule in a hip holster his entire career. Said it left the “young people” bemused.

  4. I had to learn to use them my freshman year of college then forced to buy a calculator for $100 (1973 dollars) the next semester.

    I have a friend who still wears a circular slide rule tie clasp. He’s a retired submariner so it out of character.

  5. I still have Two! ( a large & a compact). My son-in-law (a scientist)was in town a while back and somehow I mentioned slide rules. He didn’t know what I was talking about, so I dug them out. He was actually interested. I admit I have gone so long without using them I was pretty rusty! I guess the day is coming when young people won’t know about manual transmissions, or “recip” engines.

  6. Re: the thing you were searching for … not to worry. It’ll turn up, the next time you’re looking for the slide rule. πŸ™‚

  7. I had the same experience as Gerry. I also ran across my old drafting equipment (T-square triangle, etc.) the other day while looking for something else.

    Didn’t find it, either…

  8. WSF- You run what you know… πŸ˜‰

    Gerry- ONLY if he wasn’t a nuke, then it’s perfectly IN character… LOL

    Woody- Good point! Apparently now the best way to prevent a carjacking is to drive a stick! πŸ˜‰

    Rev- Probably… sigh…

    Tim- So it’s NOT just me! ;-D

  9. Wish I had held on to mine. Not that I would remember how to use it…

  10. What is this “slide rule” you speak of? Some sort of diving rod?

    I kid, I kid.

    Nice old ammo box, my future grand kids are gonna wonder what I was worried about when they get around to digging through my gun stuff.

  11. I keep my old map templates and goohor stick on a peg above my desk. You just never know when they’ll come in handy.

  12. Hey Old NFO;

    I remembered those old slide rules and circular calculators. We used them in JROTC and it was facinating. But I couldn’t remember how to use it now. It is fun finding “old” stuff then having “short and noisy” A.K.A. my son asking “Hey Dad..What is that…?”

  13. Okay, so I’m young enough that I missed slide rules in school.

    But….

    They don’t take batteries and I know that in competent hands they can be damned quick.

    So does anybody have a reference on how to run one for somebody that interested?

    BGM

  14. Proportion wheels – they’re pretty much obsolete now that we have computers – but I still use mine when I work! Old habits die hard I suppose.

  15. Cleaning out our desk again???? Ha Ha

    Senior found a “Weems wheel” and a pair of dividers the other day. All he needs now is a chart and the world is our oyster..lol

  16. That’s really good ammo. Bullseye shooters will be green with envy. At 50 yards in a tuned 1911 with a world champion shooter it should print inside a 1.5″ circle. Save it for a very special occasion. (It will be a stiff shoot!)

    Slide rulers? Yep, gotta circular one with a Motorola stamp, and a 10″ yellow Pickett. Both say 3×4 is about 12.