Slide Rules a MUST HAVE for Serious Preppers

In the event of an EMP attack or a Solar Flare event that destroys electronics anyone needing to do much beyond simple arithmetic is going to have a problem. Calculators will be destroyed along with most other consumer electronics. Even if you have one or two tucked away in a Faraday cage they will eventually break and batteries are going to become more and more difficult to get.

Even in a long term emergency where electronics do survive you would still have to contend with breakage and battery supplies.

Few people are taught and even fewer are proficient in long hand division/multiplication. Even fewer are proficient in pencil and paper calculation of more advanced mathematics.

Which leads us to a very old and simple mechanical device that can be easily constructed by most average builders yet which is powerful enough that NASA used them to calculate how to get to the moon and back.

That of course is the Side Rule which was once the quintessential symbol of the “Nerd” and the Engineer before calculators became ubiquitous.

A slide rule, in it’s simplest form, is a set of logarithmic scale printed on two pieces of paper, plastic or wood which can slide beside one another. It allows almost instantaneous multiplication and division to several significant digits, enough accuracy that it got us to the moon and back.

Many additional scales have been incorporated into slide rules over the decades to make them more and more powerful but even as simple multiplication/division devices they are a God send to anyone doing calculations without a calculator.

Few people except the older generation remember them or how to use them but they can be learned easily and constructed quickly. Alternately various types can be purchased online through Ebay or other sites for around $15-$25 for one in good condition.

Here’s a link to several Free books on using Slide Rules as well as images you can print and use to construct everything from a simple Slide Rule to some of the more complex and powerful ones.

It isn’t even necessary to construct a Slide Rule immediately. Just printing several copies of the various scale patterns and putting them away in a folder with your other preps is a great way to safely store away what would be needed to construct one in the event it was ever needed.

Anyone considering the necessities for Long Term Survival should ABSOLUTELY have either a Slide Rule or the makings of one in their Prepping Supplies.

The Librarian

Lighthouse Survival