Caltrops - Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego

Forum Overview :: Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego

by Tansin A. Darcos 08/14/2022, 9:54pm PDT

I am wondering, with the prevalence of cell phones with built-in digital clocks, will the capacity to read analog clocks become a nearly forgotten skill? Those that need an inexpensive stationary clock will use them, because you can buy a cheap bran-new analog clock in IKEA for US$3. A digital wall or bedside clock (or clock-radio) is about US$25.

About 40 years ago, you could go into a stationery store or low-cost store like Woolworth's and purchase a device either made of wood or plastic, with a piece in the middle that moved up and down along the length of the device. There are marks on both the top and botton of the non-moving side, as well as the center moving piece. This was called a slide rule, and by moving the inner slide you could use it to do calculations. These sold for about $2 then, not a lot of money. Portable calculators killed off the slide rule, and the computer killed off the calculator. Today there are people with engineering degrees who have never heard of a slide rule, let alone seen or used one. The art of reading slide rules will mostly be lost. Which is probably okay; the only place you'd need one now is where electrical power is difficult to obtain and batteries are unavailable. And you'd only buy a slide rule if you really needed one, because while you can still buy one, they cost about US$900.00.

I'm wondering if the need for cheap wall clocks mean the skill of being able to read one will still remain, or if it will (mostly) go away, the way the ability to read slide rules has all but evaporated.