Back in 1986 (or so), Jack Crenshaw wrote a piece on the really early days of computing for Micro Cornucopia magazine:
The editor had asked us to offer stories of how things were in “the early days of computing.” I expect he meant, “the early days of microcomputing,” but I elected to delve back even further in time.
Thus, he describes logs and solving problems with a slide rule or by graphing:
My first technical class in college was a course in how to use the slide rule. The slide rule never left our collective sides, housed as it was in a scabbard hanging from our belts like prehistoric light sabers.The one operation the slide rule couldn’t do was to add/subtract. For that we still had to do things by hand, although in graduate school I finally got a neat little pocket adding machine (based on a design by Pascal), that helped immensely. As a sidelight, I entered a sports car rally as a navigator (the “sports car” was a custom ’41 Chevy). We won, thanks to the invincible computing power of my slide rule and adding machine.
As the years progressed, so did our proficiency with the slide rule. Our performances and grades in our classes depended upon it, and we studied it earnestly. Before a quiz, we would carefully adjust it like a soldier cleans his rifle before a big battle. Those three strips of bamboo had to be spaced just right, to slide freely but still stay where they were put. We actually lubricated them with talcum powder for maximum speed without overheating (!). You could always tell the guys who were serious about their grades, by the talcum powder stains on their shirts.
Our skills in graphics were sharpened, too. In those days, the worth of an engineer depended just as much on his ability to draw a straight line or to plot a graph, as on his “book-larnin.” Many problems that we now do by computer were solved in those days with graphs and nomograms. One of my favorite courses was Descriptive Geometry. There, we learned to do all kinds of magical things with a pencil and T-square.
I’m told that not all engineers carried a prehistoric light saber at all times. Although unarmed, such engineers could occasionally be found talking to women.