Shell & Honeywell Nomographs Review / HowTo

A Shell "Nomograph" Mileage Calculator, and a Honeywell Galvanometer Circuit Nomograph.
Scan of the Honeywell nomograph: cstaecker.fairfield.edu/~cstae...
Scan of the Shell nomograph: cstaecker.fairfield.edu/~cstae...
This is episode 24 of my video series about calculating devices.
End song inspired by "Hotter Than a Molotov" by The Coup.
Chris Staecker webarea: cstaecker.fairfield.edu/~cstae...

[@CristiNeagu]

Nomographs are still widely used in aviation, as performance charts in aircraft manuals use them extensively. Granted, most of those manuals were made in the '60s and '70s, but manuals for new planes also use them. They are that useful and reliable.

[@Inkling777]

I thought of that too. Chris might want to do a video explaining how they work.

[@nashvillain171]

Look up his video on the E6B Flight Computer

[@klave8511]

I’ve been looking for this video, well the part 2 that tells me how to take a (simple) arbitrary function to create a nomogram. I have a big workbook with many sheets of calculators that I have made over the years. No rocket science but all handy little calculations that save me time and have been checked to be correct. A spreadsheet looks a lot more complicated than that Honeywell galvanometer nomogram if you didn’t make it yourself. I imagine a Christmas where I hand out nomogram as gifts, each personalized for the recipient. My teenage nephew gets one to calculate how to calculate calories for his weightlifting program. My sister in law gets one to regulate her kids screen time. My wife gets one to work out her vacation hours depending on her work shifts. I imagine a circular or other fancy shaped nomogram. I have a 3D printer and a CNC that can engrave on glass and plastic so my mind keeps running ahead of itself with ideas. I think I was born 50 years late.

[@ChrisStaecker]

This is a fantastic idea. Actually I have spent the past couple of weeks creating a nomogram to be given as a gift! (not joking) Expect a video soon about my creation. The mathematics of taking an arbitrary function and making a nomogram out of it is super-complicated. It is related to "Hilbert's thirteenth problem", which was regarded as one of the most important unsolved math problems at the turn of the 20th century. There is a python package called "pynomo" specifically designed to draw nomograms- I've never tried to use it.

[@TheBetterGamer]

Thank you for cataloguing these amazing historical pieces. I love physical mediums, and especially intriguing calculators like this!

[@kemikao]

They're still used in organic chemistry to estimate a boiling point of a substance at a different pressure. It works really well and is very quick to use.

[@der.Schtefan]

I come from a country with many lakes and went to engineering school there. These waterproof nomnomnomograms were amazing for all our combined swimming AND electronics classes!

[@TheBlindfischLP]

I'd never have guessed that a youtube series about obscure old calculation devices could be so funny. I just looked at some slide rules in a museum last week and now I have to hold myself back from buying tons of nomographs and planimeters of ebay.

[@SimplyWalkToMordor]

This was such a well done video. Believe it or not, the U.S. Navy still uses nomographs today.

[@jeffreycrawley1216]

I have a pipe flow nomo somewhere (retired civil engineer) as well as a 100 year old volume of pipe flow/velocity/gradient charts given to me by an old boss when HE retired. You know the best thing about them? The power goes out, the batteries fail but these things. like a Timex wrist watch, keep on ticking. I shall now move on to the next video in your playlist.

[@someonespadre]

We had a circular slide rule that was a Manning’s solver for pipes flowing full. Made by the pipe company.

[@dell177]

I bought a copy of The Radiomans Handbook (4th edition by ITT) at the Ft Monmouth book store For $5.65 while doing my training in Microwave Radio Repair in I967. That book had a section of electronics and physics nomagraphs at the back of the 700 page book and the included a plastic rule that you used to solve the answers. I used that book all through my career and it still sits on my desk 55 years later.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Nice- I gotta check that out.

[@jake-mv5oi]

I've used those to calculate adjusted insulation resistance readings for different temperatures when doing meggers on electrical components.

[@nicolasramirez3944]

Sweet video dude

[@someonestolemyname]

A galvanometer is a component of or a boarder definition of an analog multimeter or an ammeter. It really is just Ohm's Law.

[@TomCarlson]

We used to keep a cheap slide rule in the car for calculating MPG. Quick and easy while impervious to hot and cold.

[@IladRodavlas]

I remember seeing somewhere that you can use a parabola (y=x^2) as a nomograph for multiplication

[@DanielDaniel-xz2yp]

lol, his revieve review is great "I have know idea what this does but it's pretty cool, oh and waterproof too!"

[@AT-zr9tv]

Very interesting and funny video

[@TizedesCsaba]

Haha, this is the funniest explanation I found ever. Thanks. BTW: dont you want to show something about the slide charts? There are looks more complicated than nomographs.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Thanks! I have a box full of those too. I'll get to them some day-

[@faheemrasheed9967]

You made it interesting :*

[@ChrisStaecker]

Great- thanks for watching!

[@SAnne-pc8hc]

They're used to a certain extent in medicine. I saw one recently that would find body surface area by imputing age, and weight. Related is the Broselow tape, and combined dosage charts that do the math for you in code situations.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Never heard of Broselow tape- very interesting thanks!

[@radnukespeoplesminds]

Yeah just read a new paper about my tumor prognosis and there was this really confusing nomograph

[@ClausB252]

Isn't the ruler or string a moving part?

[@Daniel-os9tb]

Guess I'm old. I still have mine.

[@DaimlerSleeveValve]

You can tell the Shell one is from the USA. Absolute best miles per gallon is only 36, and the worst is 8 mpg!

[@petros_adamopoulos]

The moving part here is the ruler/string, though ;).

[@aminzar446]

Can we use nomograms to optimize algorithms? thanks

[@ChrisStaecker]

A nomograph on paper is analog rather than digital, so would be hard to use inside a typical computer algorithm. But if you have a nomogram, then this can suggest new ways to design algorithms. Like a slide rule is basically a moving nomogram, and the theoretical design of the slide rule is based on multiplication by adding logarithms. And this idea can be translated into a computer algorithm for multiplication which may be useful in certain situations.

[@fox0ps22]

@@ChrisStaecker Elliptic curve cryptography comes to mind, same model, but that has nothing to do with optimization. Unless you're doing it on some yet to be invented silicon, you can't beat the calculating performance of a precomputed lookup table - a 2d matrix that would be functionally identical to a nomograph. Obviously that performance doesn't come for free, there is a time/space/accuracy tradeoff - with those log functions demanding a lot of space. Suddenly we are back to where we started... the first computers were created to churn out books of nothing but printed lookup tables. I've got an engineering book from the 30s - something like half of it is dedicated to lookup tables for all kinds of crazy things: wire-gauge/turn-count for dynamos, etc.

[@incamath4440]

👍🏻

[@ufoengines]

Oh Ya! Slide Rules are Nomographs . Anybody out there had to use them like I did ? FLODAC , patent 3190554 , a digital computer the computes with compressed air .

[@der.Schtefan]

Shell used to be a Dutch company. Royal Dutch Shell. It is British now and not called that way anymore.

[@jeffreycrawley1216]

I think it's a multinational company with its HQ based in Britain?

[@bur1t0]

Close, Shell was the British company, Royal Dutch Petrolium was the Dutch company, they merged in 1907 into Royal Dutch Shell. The Wikipedia article is an interesting read. The Shell name comes from when the company imported and sold Sea Shells. I'm not making that up.

[@jeffreycrawley1216]

@@bur1t0 Shell sold sea shells? By the sea shore ? (Sorry Dan, too good to pass up).

[@dalydegagne1839]

Interesting video. Unfortunately background music was too loud and distracting.

[@waiwirir]

Now I can see where the aviation flight computer comes from.

[@spot1401]

Anybody interested in making your own, check out projectrho and of course PyNomo (python module), which also has great documentation www.projectrho.com/nomogram/

[@ufoengines]

Love Nomographs ! If you Google Nomographs and click image you see some nomographs that a super cool ! I'm old enough that as a tech guy I was expected to make my own nomographs but I never did. Patent 3190554 , 672256 .

[@paulhorn2665]

I work with nomograph and I hate it.

[@ChrisStaecker]

what do you do with nomographs? Why do you hate it?

[@paulhorn2665]

I am planning factorys and I need a nomogram if I have to draw something in " third dimension" on 2 dimensional paper sketches. And this nomogram I use its inconvienent for use...

[@mikhaeelogunsanya1553]

@@ChrisStaecker Hello. I need your help with a Nomogram equation

[@kingreinhold9905]

@@mikhaeelogunsanya1553 What do you need help with?

[@boejiden4940]

Shell an American gas station? It's actually Dutch.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Royal Dutch Shell! Thanks for the correction. Het spijt me!

[@danyt3670]

Next time do Homographs

[@ChrisStaecker]

Maybe this guy should do one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKiZhYymlKqafZI

[@spot1401]

Anybody interested in making your own, check out projectrho and of course PyNomo (python module), which also has great documentation www.projectrho.com/nomogram/