A cheater’s slide rule

Here is a Keuffel & Esser N4058W beginner’s slide rule, a model released in 1944. This was a cheap entry level slide rule, the kind a high school student might use; and it was quite good enough for that target population.

And clearly this one was owned by a high school student who wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, nor the most honest one. The next photo shows the back of the rule, and the inside of the well under the slide.

As we see, the owner of this rule used every available surface to create a “cheat sheet” recording useful formulas of trigonometry and algebra. The ones in the well are cut from some printed source, and were well preserved; the ones on the back are handwritten on assorted bits of medical adhesive tape, and have become blurred by years of exposure to abuse. Interestingly, the conversion tables and formulas that were originally on the back of the rule are completely obscured by the tape stickers.

I tried to imagine a legitimate scenario for all this, but in any legitimate situation the user would have referred to a reference card or pocket reference booklet. This use of hidden formulas can only mean it was used to cheat in exams.

And amazingly, this practice was recorded in an unusual bit of science lore. The Web has preserved “The Slide Rule Song“, written in 1951 by Tom Lehrer, where it is stated:

Don’t bring the answers in on bits of paper,
And don’t be crude and write them on your cuff:
The proctors would catch on to such a caper,
And you can bet they’d get you soon enough.

[here come many other cheats that will fail you]

Against such things they have a justified rule,
They’d expel you without benefit of doubt.
But if you hide the answers in your slide rule,
It’s eight-to-five that no one will find out.

What can I say – it pains me to see a beautiful instrument intended to help the student in their studies converted into a device of dishonesty. Oh well… at least it makes for an unusual collectible!

Exhibit provenance:

Obviously some flea market or another… but I don’t remember where it was.