[Elecraft] 6" slide rule

Thu Feb 20 16:11:09 2003

Bob and All,

Here's another cute slide rule story.  In 1962 I was in the Navy, and I was 
the Engineering Officer of the Watch in a new construction nuclear powered 
submarine undergoing sea trials.  Admiral Richover was aboard as he always 
was on the first sea trial of each new submarine.  He came back to my watch 
station to see how things were going.  After chewing on me for awhile, he 
got tired of that and rummaged around in the watch station desk drawer.  He 
found my cheap 6" plastic slide rule and started playing with it.  He 
remarked to his aide that they should get one for everyone at the 
Prototype, then he put it in his pocket.  Richover was famous for 
"acquiring" small objects of little value and taking them back to his 
office where he gave them away to visitors, like Congressmen, which a 
comment like "Here's a souvenir from the USS XYZ"  So I lost my slide rule 
to the cause, so to speak, but I had another one at home and thought 
nothing of it.

The sequel to the story is that I did relate my experience and it got 
around the ship yard what had happened.  Then, at commissioning when the 
ship was about to leave and amid all the ceremonies, I was presented with a 
small package tied in a purple ribbon from the management of Electric Boat 
Division.  I opened it, and found a brand new, 6" slide rule.  Seems that 
EB had a fund for replacing Richover "acquired" objects, which they charged 
back to the government, no doubt.

Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 02:15:26 -0800
From: Bob Nielsen <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] (OT) slide rules

In the spring of 1958, I took a chemistry course at Caltech taught by
Linus Pauling.  When working out a problem, he would always pick up his
six-inch slide rule, fiddle with it a bit, and read off answers to six
or more decimal places.  We all knew he had the answers written down on
a piece of paper, but no mere freshman had the nerve to challenge a
Nobel Laureate.

Bob, N7XY

73, Chas, W1CG
K2 #462