Those old cardboard sleeved slide-charts !! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2020, 01:09:30 pm
content: I love those old nostalgic slide-charts! I've found some like this one that is a "Shure Reactance Slide Rule". This is just a greatly reduced image of just the Outside-Front, (although I'm editing the precise alignment & graphics fixes for the back, & inside 'Slide' too!! ).I'm creating accurate .PDF files, so as to Laser Print your own, with quality Photo-Grade paper/cardboard. I will shortly make the full files available, with instructions, as these 'Slide-Cards' are becoming extremely hard to come by now!!There are some that I can't find that would be fun,anduseful !!!....The Allied Radio Coil Winding Calculator...The Ohmite Capacitor Calculator...The RCA 'Pindex' Valve pinout chart...Those are just small pics, but What I'm after, is SCANS of theINNER SLIDING SLEEVES!! if anyonehasthose 'Cards' !!I will gladly supply all completed detailed Documents for printing, with instructions, when I'm done...

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2020, 01:24:35 pm
content: Have you seen this guy's site?https://stevenjohnson.com/cardboard/slidecharts.htm

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2020, 11:28:58 am
content: Cool. I collect these sliding cardboard calculators too. Though it's a very modest collection so far.Like you Glenn, I want to make them functionally available to all for free.However I suggest your PDF printable versions are not the best way to do that.For one thing, PDF sucks for this. None of the internal image encoding schemes available in PDF are adequate. The choices are: BMP (vomit), JPG (lossy, horrible edge artifact noise), 'FAX mode' (appalling), JBIG2 (the people that came up with that scheme should be shot.) Hmm... I'm forgetting one? TIFF? Also, printing dimensionally accurate images on home printers? Hadehaha.Anyway there's NO equivalent of PNG in PDF. Surprisingly few people realize this. Most PDF creation utils can accept PNG images, so people just assume the resulting images in the PDF are still PNG. Nope. Try zooming on the result - you will see typical JPG edge noisy crap. It converted the PNG to JPG, because THERE IS NO PNG in PDF. Look up the PDF standards if you don't believe me.And given that the PDF standard is now controlled by the useless money-grubbing parasites of the ISO, there never will be.Hence everyone scanning historical technical documents into PDF is wasting their time, and producing mostly garbage. That will one day have to be scanned from scratch all over again once we have a decent document preservation file format. Minus the documents that no longer exist, because people destroyed the last copies while scanning to make those awful PDF insults to the original author's efforts.What I'd like to do with the few slide charts I've gathered, is scan in high res PNG (not a problem), then wrap the images in html & Javascript code to achieve a functioning virtual copy, that works in any web browser. Bundle as a downloadable zip, so anyone can have their own working slide charts, without having to mess around with printers, guillotines, etc. Also, rivets. Some of them use rivets to make slide guides, and those would be a pain to obtain and DIY up to the original standards.

author: Synthtech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2020, 01:29:36 pm
content: Pretty sure I have the entire Shure reactance slide rule kit including manual. I will take a look in the morning.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2020, 02:34:08 pm
content: Making them "virtual" is compelling. This has been done quite a bit with slide rules and I think the results are impressive.http://www.antiquark.com/sliderule/sim/n3t/virtual-n3-t.htmlhttp://solo.dc3.com/VirtRule/160es/virtual-160-es.htmlEven free software to assist with the chore (no idea if it works well).https://www.animatedsoftware.com/elearning/DigitalSlideRule/index.html

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2020, 04:54:33 pm
content: Many of these classics were manufactured by the Perry Graph Co. as advertisements for the well-known companies. The company still exists:https://www.americanslidechart.com/but most of the examples shown on their current website are just tabular: the interesting old ones included actual logarithmic slide rules for calculating reactance, etc., instead of just look-up tables. They seem only to print these for company orders, with no generic units in stock.

author: Synthtech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2020, 06:08:05 am
content: I dug this up this morning. The full kit.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2020, 12:26:24 pm
content: This is most of my collection.Partial list:Code:Pulsed RF Calculator. By HP (not in photo)Comes in pocket of HP App Note 150-2 - Spectrum analysis.... Pulsed RF. Nov 1971.Capacitance - inductance - Reactance calculator. By HPVector Impedance calculator. Suits HP 4815A Vector Impedance Meter. 1971Reflectometer calculator, and flip side: Mismatch error limits calculator. By HPI have 2 of these, slightly different. Older one is 1967. Newer one is 1976Boonton Electronics Slide Rule for Reactance + Q + Dissipation FactorARRL L/C/F Calculator Type A & Single-Layer Coil Winding CalculatorBell Telephone Laboratories Resonance Computer Designed by G. R. Frost

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2020, 12:48:15 pm
content: Thank you ALL for your replies!!!I'm re-processing your replies over the next few days..... Thank you!

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2020, 12:54:00 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on May 16, 2020, 11:28:58 amI will be following up shortly!.... but in the interim, I'm confused why a .PDF (with detailed enough scalable graphics) would not print 'perfectly' ??

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2020, 01:08:49 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on May 16, 2020, 11:28:58 amPDF supports RLE image compression. It also supports post-document compression, or you can zip the document yourself. Recall that PNG is LZ77 with an image predictor. Zipping a BMP, while not quite as good as PNG, is not too far off.And we live in a day with 1TB SSDs for under $150 USD. Storage is cheap, and so is bandwidth. Hardly the biggest pain.

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2020, 12:43:20 pm
content: Quote from: DrG on May 15, 2020, 01:24:35 pmThanks to all for your current responses. To 'DrG'...Yes!, and that's where i have got most of my 'Outer-Front' images from!!The problem is finding images of the 'Inner-Sleeves' themselves!One of my 'specialties' is graphics/artwork, and so I have no problem with totally editing the graphics, removing scan/photo imperfections, adjusting perspective/size, contrast/brightness/colour, and accurate scaling of the components. (A work of love! haha...)To 'TerraHertz'... You might be missing something? Of course the detailed results depend on the 'lossless' characteristics of the image data that I am using, and am recreating them with, before compiling the final '.PDF' files. I've been doing graphic design for many years, for the likes of Logos, product design packaging/printing, and ALL the printing companies want/use .PDF files sent to them. The only other requirement is whether images are either in RGB or CMYK depending on the printing process. This isn't a problem here, as what I'm producing is something that people at home can print on their Inkjet/Laser printer. Everything scaled, and includes instructions.It's actually simpler than might be imagined!! For instance, I'm deliberately NOT using double-sided printing, as for instance, the 2 sides of the inner slide are to be printed on the thickest paper your printer can handle, and then glued back-to-back, to make it more rigid and 'cardboard' like, as in the originals. And the 'Outer' front/back will have a small folded flap, before gluing/stapling, to account/allow for the inner sliding sleeve! WAIT until I supply that first one, and all will be clear!

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2020, 03:32:38 pm
content: I'll try to dig mine out and have them ready when I will go to the office again. I guess that placing them on the scanner/copier would be more interesting than fuzzy handheld shots with a digital camera.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2020, 05:30:13 pm
content: https://datasheet.datasheetarchive.com/originals/distributors/Datasheets-21/DSA-419096.pdfIt says designed by Jim Mears

author: bsfeechannel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2020, 08:15:50 pm
content: This is my modest contribution. I have it since donkey's years.TranslationIDENTIFICAÇÃO DINÂMICA DE TRANSISTORES = TRANSISTOR DYNAMIC IDENTIFICATIONX - NÃO EXISTE = X - NON EXISTENT (I.E. NO TERMINAL)1 - LIGADO À CARCAÇA = 1 - CONNECTED TO CASEUSO GERAL BF = GENERAL PURPOSE LFBAIXA POTÊNCIA RF = LOW POWER RFPOTÊNCIA = POWERCOMUTAÇÃO = SWITCHINGLETRA INICIAL = INITIAL LETTERA - GERMÂNIO = A - GERMANIUMB - SILÍCIO = B - SILICON

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2020, 03:55:32 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on May 21, 2020, 05:30:13 pmThanks for mentioning that. I hadn't heard of it. And... I found one on ebay immediately and cheap.As for the Nat. Semi. AN 905, hmm... I wonder if the PDF is as published by NS, or a product of scanning and OCR? It's fairly good, but I think a little off in the fonts.Nat Semi was bought by Texas Instruments in 2011. Is it still possible to buy paper copies of back-issue ANs from some part of TI? Or do I need to hunt an old copy online?Quote from: GlennSprigg on May 21, 2020, 12:43:20 pmDo you have something like a guideline from a printing company, specifying the structure of PDF files to send them for printing jobs? I'd be very interested to see that.I'm also looking forward to your first printable cardboard slide rule file.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2020, 02:09:01 pm
content: Quote from: Neomys Sapiens on May 21, 2020, 03:32:38 pmWell for my Rapidesigner I just scanned them in. Not as interesting as you think, now you have fuzzy high resolution scans with artifacts.https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XSHg6Vu-p49l1W5CH5dboN9JmgSXw73rIt's a zip that I call piz because Google always complains about zip files IME.Quote from: TerraHertz on May 22, 2020, 03:55:32 amDon't know, but I'm pretty sure I had the Nat Semi databook CD set back in the day, and I copied them somewhere. In any case, doesn't PDF render with your system's fonts?

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 22, 2020, 02:27:54 pm
content: I just found this on my desk. Yes it's a messy desk...

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2020, 12:15:46 pm
content: I am thrilled with everyone's responses !!EVERYTHING all have posted has been saved, and I'm working on the 'project' as we speak!!Thank you all !! Within a few days, I'll have the 1st result. Hopefully we will all take it from there!!

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2020, 12:21:14 pm
content: Quote from: bsfeechannel on May 21, 2020, 08:15:50 pmThis is a pretty good example of what I want. (Scans, not just photos??)I can graphically correct every aspect of those images, and re-create the whole thing.I love the nostalgia of such things, and have the ability to re-create it!

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2020, 12:30:06 am
content: This Measurement Error Calculator from Hewlett Packard oscilloscopes can be used to perform many useful calculations. It includes a basic slide rule. For instance, I can now easily calculate that 10 / 2 = 4.97.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2020, 09:04:20 pm
content: First, one specimen which is completely in accordance with the title of the thread: A Rotring (manufacturer of drawing supplies) slider intended as a general aid for maths and geometric calculations:Then two circular application-specific slide rules.A BBC (Brown Boverie & Cie.) electrical calculation slide rule, of which one side is dedicated to squirrel cage three-phase motors and their Power, voltage, current, and pole count/speed relationships. The other side is for power factor calculations, i.e. to determine the size of compensation capacitors.And a Trilux lighting calculator which helps the user to determine the number of lamps which are needed to achieve a certain illumination over an area taking into account their efficiency. (Rear is for room factor, which is a auxiliary quantity which goes into the beforementioned calculation).The latter two exhibits are not cardboard and I would not call them slide-charts bur rather circular slide rules, but the might be of interest to the readers here.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2020, 09:56:28 pm
content: I have a couple that might be of interest. But when I went to where I thought they were stored I found no joy. I'll keep looking and post when I find them.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2020, 02:38:19 am
content: Quote from: Tomorokoshi on June 12, 2020, 12:30:06 amI love ebay!

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2020, 07:23:38 pm
content: Quote from: bsfeechannel on May 21, 2020, 08:15:50 pmI used it a lot when I was a kid. I think I still have this one with me somewhere.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 01:02:34 am
content: At long last I found my cache of these things. File size limitations keep me from posting full resolution scans, but these are good enough for rough work. I'll add a couple more in the not distant future.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 03:48:11 am
content: Higher resolution attachments. This is as good as I can fit in the file size limits. Not even close with PNG or TIFF, zipping made little difference. In two installments. This is one.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 03:49:17 am
content: And installment two.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 04:23:50 am
content: And one more addendum. A link to a history of these rules.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256089590_A_history_of_slide_rules_for_blackbody_radiation_computations/link/00b495219ef40e436d000000/downloadThose reading the note will be happy to note that the images above are for the accurate GEN C version of the slide chart.

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 11:08:29 am
content: ToCatalinaWOW... Thank you! The quality of those images are perfectly fine!After I edit my images, they look like new. I've not forgotten this topic/project, but have been dealing withmajor medical issues, as well as other commitments for a while... Will try to upload my 1st one soon !!I haven't even had time to work on all my new OLD Radios for repair/restoration.Also have to keep up with the domestic chores/work for the 'missus' first, too !!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 04:30:30 pm
content: Thanks for the good words Glenn. Hope your medical issues are under control. And remember, this is a hobby for many of us, regardless of what we did professionally. There are similar reasons why it took a year for me to locate my slide charts. And they didn't come to light because I was looking for them, another project resulted in their unearthing.Anyway here is another useful slide. Those with a statistical background will notice that it plays a little loose with assumptions. Most importantly much of what is presented is true only for a normal distribution exactly centered between tolerance limits. This isn't exactly hidden, but a novice will overlook it.Three installments. First one here

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 04:35:07 pm
content: Second installment. This actually covers it. Once I got the back down under 4.0000 MByte (4.08 wasn't quite there) both remaining images fit in the forum limits.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2021, 03:31:36 am
content: Glenn, these are not the slide charts but simpler guide sheets. If you feel off topic I can delete them.

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2021, 11:31:15 am
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on February 22, 2021, 03:31:36 amThank you my friend! NO, you are far from off topic !! Thanks for your valued contribution!My main emphasis in this regard is having the basics to re-work/improve, for others...

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2021, 02:28:04 pm
content: Quote from: GlennSprigg on February 26, 2021, 11:31:15 amThank you, Glenn! If you prefer, I can try to upload higher res images.(off-topic) did you finish restoring your BX-462A?

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2021, 10:53:11 am
content: My lucky day! A box of HP Application Notes arrived from the USA, and it turns out one of them had a HP slide calculator I hadn't seen before, clipped to it. From 1965, still in the original envelope and in perfect condition. Just camera shots below, not scans as I'm short of desk space atm.Btw, about scanning and PNG file size... a few hints.1. Preprocess the images (in full hi-res RGB mode), to remove blemishes. If the paper is supposed to be a uniform color (white or whatever), make sure that the 'blank' areas in the image are actually all that exact color. The RLL compression used in PNG is useless if the background is a noisy mess. Ditto for inks - the only shading should be on the edges of inked areas. And anything 'screen printed' (an array of tiny dots) has to be converted to the actual solid color (or shading) that was the printer's intent for your eye to see. When adjusting color ranges, don't overdo it, as you'll make line & font edges look jaggy. Preserve enough luminance scale!2. Once you've got the image looking like it was supposed to look (before print screening, dirt, paper aging, etc) messed it up, then you can optimize the final image resolution and file encoding. Scale it to the smallest size that fully preserves the finest visual detail.Then convert it to a decent format like PNG, using a utility that allows you to adjust parameters like how many bits per pixel. If the image is B&W text, then grayscale 4 bits/pixel is adequate, since font edge shading with 16 gray levels works fine. Posterized color images with few colors can also sometimes work with 4 bits/px. Or go to 8 bits, for 256 colors. For ful color images, full palette.One of the main strengths of PNG is its flexibility. But this advantage is lost if you don't know how to use it, or your software tools don't allow it.In Irfanview, the 'export for web' facility lets you adjust compression factors like that and see the anticipated final file size on the fly, before actually outputting the file.With both image background 'noise' cleanup, and final image compression mode optimization, you'll be amazed at what small filesizes can still contain hi-res clean images.Meanwhile, three crummy JPG images below...

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2021, 02:58:14 pm
content: I am always surprised when reminded how long round CRTs lasted in high end gear.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 13, 2021, 08:04:00 am
content: Speaking of round CRTs... a random auction I came across today. (In Albury NSW)https://www.pickles.com.au/trucks/item/-/details/AFM0011---Various-Assorted-G-C-Cathode-Ray-Tubes/1090038551https://www.pickles.com.au/trucks/item/-/details/AFM0012---Various-Assorted-G-C-Cathode-Ray-Tubes/1090038552

author: granzeier
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2021, 02:30:38 am
content: This was part of my post to the thread: What was the very first computer you owned or used ? (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/what-was-the-very-first-computer-you-owned/msg3857438/#msg3857438.) [Neomys Sapiens] let me know about this thread, and suggested that I post this here:The first "computer" I owned (other than that tic-tac-toe computer) was a Bell Lab's CardIAC (Cardboard Illustrative Aid to Computation -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illustrative_Aid_to_Computation. If you would like to build your own clone, check out:https://www.kylem.net/hardware/hardware.html).This photo is linked from Drexel's page.Miss McGuigan, one of our math teachers, and the sponsor of the computer club gave the CardIAC to me. While still in high school, I wrote an emulator for the CardIAC on the HP 2000, in BASIC. I actually still own a CardIAC, and am working on building an electronic hardware emulator.[Dr. G] actually found, and posted, a page from Drexel University (https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html.) I had known about that page, but had neglected to mention it in my post, but there is a lot of really good info there, including how to implement a stack, and subroutines. They even have a simulator (I haven't tried it out, yet, but it looks pretty good.)The Kyle Miller page (where I mention building a clone) includes a scan of the assembly instructions and the manual. I actually have made a clone of the CardIAC using these PDFs, so the scans are not too bad. I used 110 Lb card stock (US Letter Size-8.5"x11",) as did Kyle, and with using an X-Acto knife it turned out nice.The CardIAC was (and is) a lot of fun - although tedious.I blame Bell Labs, and their CardIAC, for my firm grasp of assembly language. It really made the computer understandable.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2025, 12:48:24 am
content: Crypto thread, but better to keep these references in a single place rather than starting a new thread.Came across an interesting one recently. Just goes to show that there isn't much off limits for these "computers". The link is to a website with a variety of related and somewhat disturbing calculators.https://calculating.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/rand-bomb-damage-computer/