Math & Science Bookplate

I was never a math and science whiz, but I like this bookplate, which appears to have belonged to a math and science whiz.


I like it for the design and a particular memory it evokes from my high school days. Sometime around 1974, I had to take a Chemistry class and we had to learn how to make computations on a slide rule. In the bookplate, you'll find a slide rule in the middle of the design, laying across part of the book. Does anyone still use these things? Don't know, but further down you'll find a link about how to use them if you want to.

At that time, Texas Instrument calculators were popular and some of kids had them. I remember wanting one so bad--the TI SR-50--but it was too expensive.


The SR-50 was high tech and very cool for then. It had all these functions on it, which I had no idea about, but I liked knowing that I could have them. And I could have had them for $170, according to the Wikipedia page on the TI SR-50. I remembered it being too expensive and out of my reach, but I was remembering about $100 short. Man, $170 for a calculator? It blew my mind then and still does today because of how unbelievably cheap these things are now.

Today, you can find vintage calculators at where else? The Vintage Calculator Web Museum.

Slide rules? You knew there had to be a place... Go to sliderulemuseum.com (again, where else?). There's even a page on this site that will teach you how to use them.

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