[rollei_list] Re: VERY OT; Nevil Shute

  • From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:47:32 -0500

At 04:46 PM 11/19/2013, Laurence Cuffe wrote:

I loved all of those. I also liked requium for a wren all though its very sentimental. His autobiographical work, slide rule is also a worthy addition to the cannon of flight related autobiography.
My 2c.
Laurence Cuffe


This leads to two different threads. Those wishing to speak of slide rules are asked to change the SUBJ: line to, well, 'OT: SLIDE RULES' or the like.

Other than Jerry Lehrer and Richard Knoppow, who on this list recall slide rules? I have a number -- Dad's K&E Log-Log Decitrig is about four feet from me as I write this, and, yes, it got me through high school and I was smart enough to avoid any course involving a slipstick once I was in college. (That changed later when I was in the US Army as a logistician, and so I used to haul that one around with me.) I have others, perhaps being the King Cylindrical Calculator which can produce four-figure accuracy. Me? I've always wanted a Curta but when one comes my way, somebody else is wagging a grand deal on a Rolleiflex my way, so what can a fellow do? <he grins> Still, that cylindrical slide rule is neat, and accurate.

Now, back to Nevil Shute Norway. His autobiography, SLIDE RULE, has left us with the only living narrative of the birth and career of His Majesty's Airship R.100, and I happen to have an interest in rigid airships. To make a long story short, there was a meeting in 1944 at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London to determine Postwar British aviation policy. (HINT: the US left this one up to private enterprise and made out like a wolf amidst a pack of rather slow-witted sheep, tore the heart out of the state-sponsored companies of Europe and Japan. Them was the days, as they say.) Shute was sent as the rigid airship expert by the Admiralty -- he was then a 'wavy navy' Commander or so. This meeting has only been recorded in detail once, by the late Sir Peter Townsend, in his work on HM A/S R.101. Townsend was at that meeting and we have no reason not to trust his recollection that it was Nevil Shute who vetoed any concept of the British returning to rigid airships. One can imagine the conversation.

"Lord almighty, Nevil, you were there from the beginning."

"Not quite, Bernard. I came in late, gave it my best and now I know that we need to have a jet-powered cargo and passenger aircraft. I disagree with His Lordship over there about the Brabazon. I would concentrate on the jet plane. We are worlds ahead of these Yankees on this, so let us exploit that lead in postwar aviation."

And so the monkey runs round the flagpole.

Slide Rules are a serious subject worthy  of study.

Nevil Shute was a serious author worth serious thought. To my knowledge, limited as it is, no one has ever done that. Don't you Rolleifolk be urging me to write "How Did We End Up In the Alice? The tale of Nevil Shute Norway'. I am in a very distant touch with his surviving daughter but, at the same time, I need to do an article on the adaptive lenses for the Rolleiflex TLR's, the Magnar and the Duonar and the Mutars. It is grand to be retired.

Be well, Rollei People!

Marc


msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

---
Rollei List

- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org

- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org

- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list

Other related posts: