So - JYL's threads on HP calculators and SwissMicro's DM42 is to blame for this one - I'm challenging everybody to post pics of their old engineering / math stuff.
I've often been called an anachronism; I finished my mechanical engineering degree in 1993 and got my first PE license ~5 years later, but have always been interested (and use) some very old tech and have found "the old ways" to be still very useful. Oddly enough, I've spent most of my career designing/building stuff for the semiconductor industry (usually projects that nobody else wants to touch).
Along the way, I've collected some old instruments, books, calculation tools, etc. Here's a smattering of stuff that is usually within arm's reach on my home office desk:
This first photo - My trusty HP-42s (best calculator ever made), a very old mechanical pencil with a "roller scale" on the end, and a Dietzgen log-log-decitrig slide rule (and it's plastic!).
The "roller scale" is one inch per revolution (it's graduated on the wheel) and it's attached to a screw mechanism for counting rotations - it's a yard stick in your shirt pocket.
Second photo - A couple old books and a Japanese laminated wood (aluminum stabilized) slide rule from the early '50's.
The copy of Audel's is listed as "reprinted 1940"; it belonged to my wife's grandfather.
I'll post some other stuff as I find it and get pictures. There are more slide rules and some 100+ year old drafting instruments somewhere.
What's on your desk? Anybody got an old Curta hand calculator?