My curiosity has always been  piqued about this device. I was born a
generation after  sliderules  were  seriously used. Calculators were
small and cheap when I  was  a  child entering school at the dawn of
the 1980s.

My grandfather was an early computer guy. Among other things, he was
a database engineer for GTE.  Amongst  the items that made their way
into my parent's home after my grandfather died in 1990 was a slide-
rule tie-tack, and  two  books  of  logrhythmic tables. While he was
alive, he was a  tremendous  benefactor  of my computing. From him I
recieved my first two computers. An IBM XT, and a MacIntosh SE. 
 
It was gopherspace that inspired me to actually purchase a sliderule
-- a Pickett & Eckel  1948 model no. 500 Litho-Phase Log-Log. I also
have a hardback book from the 1930s to aid my learning.