Shaun Merrigan

When astronauts journeyed to the Moon for the first time in 1969, engineers still carried slide rules in their desk drawers. Long before pocket calculators and computers transformed everyday engineering, the slide rule served as the primary calculating instrument for generations of scientists, designers, and technicians. Combining elegant mathematical principles with precision craftsmanship, it allowed complex calculations to be performed in seconds using logarithmic scales. For more than 300 years, the slide rule was an essential tool in science, industry, aviation, and space exploration, helping shape many of the technological achievements of the modern world.