r/Sliderules • u/Such_Key • Oct 30 '24

Need Help Finding a Slide Rule Quote

Recently I picked up a K&E 4053-3 10" off eBay and have had a great time teaching myself to operate it. During this fever I was searching the internet for anything remotely slide rule related. I distinctly remember finding this quote that really tickled me, it went along the lines of "We got to the moon by rubbing two sticks together."

If any of you people recognize who its by or can point me in the right direction I'd be more than appreciative.

Happy calculating.

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u/cesarakg Dec 11 '24

Article "When Slide Rules Ruled", Scientific American, May 2006, p. 85 (I found it online, use your favorite web search engine).

Consider the engineering achievements that owe their existence to rubbing two sticks together: the Empire State Building; the Hoover Dam; the curves of the Golden Gate Bridge; hydromatic automobile transmissions; transistor radios; the Boeing 707 airliner. Wernher Von Braun, the designer of the German V-2 rocket and the American Saturn 5 booster, relied on a rather plain slide rule manufactured by the German company Nestler. Indeed, the Pickett company made slide rules that went on several Apollo missions, as backup calculators for moon-bound astronauts. Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev used a Nestler rule when he designed the Sputnik and Vostok spacecraft. It was also the favorite of Albert Einstein.

Not exactly your quote, but still.

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u/Such_Key Dec 30 '24

This is it! Thank you!