Pickett N1010-ES Trig Duplex Demonstration Slide Rule (USA)

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from National Museum of American History as part of Tools: Extending Our Reach.

This Demonstration Slide Rule was used in the physics class of an Ohio high school. Fully 2.13 m (7 ft.) long, it’s a scaled-up replica of the Pickett N1010-ES Trig, ubiquitous among high-school and college students for use in math and science. Slide rules were used for multiplication and division as well as roots, logarithms and trigonometry. The Pickett Company provided these instruments to any school that ordered at least twenty-four standard-size rules, allowing teachers to show how the real device functioned. Slide rules came into wide use around 1950, when new machinable aluminum alloys made it possible to manufacture high-precision devices that were compact, lightweight, and durable. But by the mid- 1970s, the powerful, low-cost electronic calculator took direct aim at the slide-rule industry, and by 1980 most slide rule suppliers had left the business.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.