Dennis,
I brought my slide rule from University of Manitoba, but found it in operable within a couple of days of arrival at Tech. The bamboo swelled & the slide wouldn’t. I ended up buying a new acclimatized one at the Book Store. My original rule finally became useable my Fall Term ’63. One of my many slide rule adventures.

Regards,
Bill Gobert

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Hi Dennis,
Kerry Irons’ comment reminded me of that first class in ChE in ’69 (what are you doing now, Kerry?) Saturday morning at 8:30, Intro to Chemical Engineering, began with how to use a slide rule. For a short while I thought the whole place would be torture like that first class. But Ed Williams was great and we were all pretty much in the same place.

My old Post lasted for quite a while. My Dad bought me a HP45 for graduation. Still have it and it works fine. And still have a collection of slide rules, although that old Post has met its demise.

Paul Gilmore
’73 ChE

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Hi Dennis,
I only attended MTU for 2+ years in the late 60′s but remember the slide rule and still have mine, a Post Versalog. Our math teacher at Calumet High , Harold Erkkila, taught us to use it and it was a great advantage entering Tech.

One thing that sticks in my mind is those general chemistry department tests. On some of the questions involving calculations, possible answer choices were the correct answer and three slide rule errors. That didn’t bother me but I knew fellow students who didn’t learn the slide rule in high school and it hurt their scores.

My admiration for Mr. Erkkila was my inspiration to ultimately become a math teacher and I retired after teaching 37 years in suburban Chicago.

Thanks for a great newsletter. I had some good times there and have great respect for MTU.

Jules Chopp