The Midget Calculator Review / HowTo

The Midget Calculator, copyright 1916. Created by LeRoy James Leishman.
Mine is a fake. To download and print out your own, check out: cstaecker.fairfield.edu/~cstae...
This is episode 18 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...
Midget Adding Machine (troncet) photo from rechnerlexikon.de
Leroy Jenkins picture from Upper Deck Entertainment
Arcascope photo from americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_904244
Brunsviga midget photo from www.earlyofficemuseum.com/calc...

[@8_Bit]

Okay, I'm nearly 50 years old, a computer nerd my whole life, and I finally understand how slide rules work thanks to your video. And you didn't even (really much) show a slide rule.

[@the8ctagon]

OK, I think I've just realised why KZbin just started recommending Chris Staecker's channel to me. A tip of the hat to you, Robin! This is an example of the algorithm working well: I'm bingeing everything here.

[@RVM451]

Okay. Le't's end the discussion n good terms-as much as can be. It just itrritates me that 3% of the people can force the other 97% to change their Terminology-and the vast Majority of that 3% have no horse in the race-they are just agitating. Apparently, sheer obstinance has disappeared from the world. I remember going to school in the 60's and the teachers told me not to use "Ain't" and I told them, "Who died and left you the boss of what words that I can use?" When PC Says, "This term is no longer acceptable"…see my responce to my elementary school teachers.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@RVM451 It hurts me *way* less to avoid using a word that someone doesn't want to be called than it hurts them to hear it all the time every day. We're so far from a slippery slope where this becomes some kind of tyranny--it's really just basic politeness. It just takes a little getting used to when the rules change.

[@PatrickPease]

this channel has done more to give me a good intuition of these maths than a lifetime of bookwork

[@samisiddiqi5411]

Lol it was this video that made me understand slide rules. You explained the damn thing in not even ten seconds!!

[@t0k4m4k7]

Fizzy humor, short simple yet entertaining videos... The algorithm will soon make this channel blow up, mark my words

[@samuelwaller4924]

I never knew a video about slide rules and log scales could have so many jokes packed in lol. That marmite bit is genius

[@birdy369]

Just found your channel, immediately looked for a slide rule video lol. I never used one but hope to own one soon. I can't wait to watch all of your different kinds of calculator videos and hope to see more soon! Subscribed!

[@waynerogers8333]

Very interesting video. Still have my slide rule from college (graduated in 1970) and hope to interest my grandson in math and engineering at an early age. This would be an good followup to the Napiers Bones calculator that I'm making for him. Tried to download the Midget Calculator but nothing downloaded. Is the image still available?

[@ChrisStaecker]

Thanks for telling me! There was a problem on my server but I think I just fixed it. Try again-

[@waynerogers8333]

Worked perfectly. Thanks

[@johncartwright4041]

In 1966,when I was in year 11, I took my father's sliderule to school and got into trouble for using high tech in maths. I had to go back to using log tables!

[@RustyCarnahan]

I had something like this in gradeschool. There were two pieces of card stock pinned together, with a window slot cut in both sides, with a fixed scale on them. One side was for smaller numbers, the other side for larger. Between the two pieces of card stock was another piece, slightly longer, that slid back and forth. The principle of operation was the exact same as where you had the two "marmites" side by side. I wonder if I still have it?

[@MattMcIrvin]

When I was a kid my father gave me a metric-conversion slide chart he'd gotten as a premium from Computerworld magazine--it was a cardboard slider in a frame like that and it had two sides. One side was a big sliding table with windows exposing the numbers on it, but the other side was the one that fascinated me: it had a logarithmic scale with various marks on the frame labeled with different units. Basically just a multiplying slide rule with the marks calling out fixed ratios.

[@1zaj34]

I just recently found your videos and now I'm enjoying them one by one. Love your presentation! 😀 Just one little quirk with this one: 01:45 Karloff did not play Frankenstein. He played the monster.

[@rogerrabbit80]

So many people don't realize that the name was "Frankenstein's Monster", and that "Frankenstein" was the Baron.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@rogerrabbit80 Well, Frankenstein had more claim to be the monster's parent than anyone else (in fact that was the whole root of the trouble in the novel, that he was about the worst dad imaginable--if he'd given the creature some love and support everything might have been fine). So there's a good argument that the monster's last name is Frankenstein.

[@txikitofandango]

Impressive how you explained this machine without the words slide rule or logarithm... oh darn, so close

[@stuffoflardohfortheloveof]

Well, well…..that was fascinating and, now you’ve explained it, it makes complete sense, especially now you’ve shown me the basis of the slide rule as this was always something I meant to look up but, up to now, kept forgetting to do. Ta for posting. 👍🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@someonestolemyname]

3:35 It took a while for me to realize what happened here. 2 minuses make a plus log(39) - (log(100) - log(52)) = log(39) + log(52) - log(100) = log(20.28)

[@KeithOlson]

"Wait, *We're* the calculator?" "Always were."

[@RAkers-tu1ey]

The great thing about this device is that one can place it inside a book. I have several "field guides" filled with various facts and formulas to be used in "backpacking" types of scenarios where there may be no power, cell service, etc., and the resulting estimate is close enough.

[@chrisbell1878]

I love your tags, Chris: "The calculator is YOU!"

[@RossMarsden]

About your last reveal, I am reminded of "if a service is free, you are the product".

[@nateums]

Such a cool way to look at multiplication

[@yoursexualizedgrandparents6929]

Sucks I'm seeing these videos now. Great content, interesting and entertaining.

[@ricsanders69]

This is just a one-sided slide-rule...used the law of logs as in: Log(xy) = Log(x)+Log(y) I have several slide-rules...I'm gonna have to print out one of these!

[@NoNameAtAll2]

so it's a slide rule?

[@hatednyc]

It’s called the Vegamite Calculator in Australia. (If you’re trying to be PC about it, anyway 🤣)

[@manuelgolindanob.5381]

Hey does exist a slide rule or a do-it-yourself ruler to make additions and divisions?

[@ChrisStaecker]

An ordinary slide rule can do division, but not really addition. There was a slide rule by Faber-Castell with an addiator on the back side. The addiator is great for addition.

[@LuciferTJ]

He played Frankenstein's Monster. Frankenstein was the doctor. Not the monster.

[@whiskeyvictor5703]

If you take 11 times a number ending in 5 (we'll call that n5), all you have to do is add n plus 5 and insert the answer between n and 5. E.g. 11*25=275, 11*35=385, etc.

[@redpepper74]

That’s not actually exclusive to 5, it’ll work with any digit. Just remember to carry the 1 for sums larger than 9. (This happens because n*11 is the same as n*10 + n*1)

[@joewoodchuck3824]

The "wierd" scales are logarithmic, and logarithms are the basis for any normal slide rule. I actually collect them.

[@ChrisStaecker]

4:00

[@tiberiu_nicolae]

Imagine trying to teach maths to this guy. I bet you felt smart

[@manuelgolindanob.5381]

Is it possible to use this device to divide two numbers?

[@ChrisStaecker]

Yes- you basically do things backwards. To do like 8/4=2, I would put markings on the paper at 8 and 4, then slide the ruler so that 1 is at your leftmost marking (where the 4 was). Now the other mark should sit at the answer of 2.

[@RalphReagan]

Have you seen a round slide rule? Loved mine

[@ChrisStaecker]

I have some- future video!

[@johncartwright4041]

I assume you're talking about a spiral / cylinderical sliderule. I had to use one in my first job in 1969.

[@RalphReagan]

@@ChrisStaecker cool

[@RalphReagan]

@@johncartwright4041 mine was a disk

[@lotgc]

Woah, this was made in Ogden, Utah? I basically live there!

[@ChrisStaecker]

Nice- keep your eyes open at the Goodwill!

[@lotgc]

@@ChrisStaecker we don't really have goodwills here, but we do have the DI!

[@rogerrabbit80]

@@lotgc And for those not familiar, I believe he's referring to "Deseret Industries", similar to Goodwill, but run by the LDS Church, aka Mormons, if that's not offensive to someone. I live in Las Vegas, where we have both.

[@beebs4283]

oh god why did they name it after a **slur**? what is wrong with them?

[@stephanberger3476]

I thought Boris played Frankenstein's monster, though.

[@pablorepetto7804]

I guess the true calculator was inside us all along.

[@MirlitronOne]

So it's half a slide rule.

[@jaytc3218]

It’s basically the C or D scale from a slide rule (yep, I’m one of the few people on the planet with a slide rule). Rather than make marks on paper, Leischman would have been better off leaving the slide rule intact so the user could move the hair line over the other number. But hey, whatever got the job done!

[@ChrisStaecker]

This is far easier and cheaper to make than a slide rule- that’s the point really.

[@MattMcIrvin]

The immediate ancestor of the slide rule was a non-sliding rule with a logarithmic scale called Gunter's line, which you were supposed to use with dividers to transfer the intervals from one place to another. This thing is a revival of Gunter's line. Various museum sites have others though, which suggests to me that "Gunter rules" were fairly common in the 19th century as cheaper alternatives to a slide rule.

[@jaytc3218]

@@MattMcIrvin interesting! It’s fascinating to see how the log scale developed over time - each successive person building a “better mousetrap” so to speak.

[@RatRatRattyRatRat]

This is magic. Can't convince me otherwise.

[@RatRatRattyRatRat]

Wonder if they got longer ones. Like, 10 to 1000.

[@ChrisStaecker]

As far as I know this was the only version of this thing. Anyone who’s really serious about using a device like this should just get a real slide rule, so there’s not much point in making a “deluxe” version.

[@snixal]

I laughed out loud when leishmans pic came up

[@bob-ny6kn]

This could be adhered to wall, for public use.

[@mikeadler434]

👍👍

[@steveb2274]

Looks like a different kind of Sliderule (which was used long before computers) to me!

[@ChrisStaecker]

5:10

[@rodume5390]

I was hoping this device actually calculated little people. Oh, well.

[@stephenperretti8847]

Have you ever investigated how to do arithmetic in Roman Numerals? Very easy. Try it.

[@ChrisStaecker]

I tried it once here at 2:38 : kzbin.info/www/bejne/labFc3R3nLGcpc0

[@user-hi7to3bp1p]

対数目盛りの 計算尺 a logarithmic slide rule

[@gustavgnoettgen]

I guess "Marmite" is the name of some mathematician or something? Or is it really just "hey look it's hideously small"?

[@MarcFresko]

NO!!! Marmite is a very salty (actually, even saltier than very) sandwich spread. Made from a yeast extract. Incredibly strong and distinctive taste. Some people love it, some hate it.

[@gustavgnoettgen]

@@MarcFresko I heard about it and I'm curious, but it's hard to get in Germany for a responsible amount of money. And when I find some then Vegimite wich, as I understand, isn't the same.

[@naajohnnorthcott8267]

Actually, it's French for "stew pot" and is being used as a replacement for the dreaded "m" word. How silly can you get? Am I allowed to use "silly" or will that upset silly people?

[@gustavgnoettgen]

@@naajohnnorthcott8267 I don't speak French, but I also don't know what you mean by the rest.

[@naajohnnorthcott8267]

@@gustavgnoettgen It's actually a "midget" calculator but the video maker was afraid of upsetting small people so he substituted "marmite". I was commenting on the substitution.

[@meatykyun5981]

me thinking this was one april fools joke frome the thumnail...nope was not. i am very amzed this exists.

[@christopherellis2663]

Marmite is a cooking pot.

[@johneygd]

Yes indeed, the medget calculator is not a calculator, you, your brain is a calculator, the medget meter only could give approximation about what the ansure could,ve be, considerthis more as a clue meter.

[@starga-fr7qx]

Midgets were way smaller in the 1916 days

[@christopherellis2663]

Astronomical Calculator used to be a profession.

[@mander9175]

Well, this isn't what I expected.......

[@jack002tuber]

You can't go into the origins of the sliderule without mentioning Napier's bones.

[@ChrisStaecker]

Napier's bones has nothing to do with the origins of the sliderule.

[@jack002tuber]

@@ChrisStaecker LOL. Sure

[@ChrisStaecker]

@@jack002tuber Here is the entire connection as far as I'm aware: Napier invented Napier's bones (which have nothing to do with logarithms). Napier also invented the logarithm (which has nothing to do with Napier's bones), and the logarithm eventually led to somebody else inventing the slide rule. There is no mathematical relationship between the two devices- the only possible relation is an accidental historic one because they are both associated with Napier. Am I missing something?

[@Maazin5]

The text that says "The Midget/Marmite Calculator" is actually the vocative case, not nominative 🤯

[@ChrisStaecker]

I don't get it... are you reading auto-translated subtitles into a cased language?

[@Maazin5]

@@ChrisStaecker No I'm just making a joke that the ruler is calling you "The Marmite Calculator" and not the other way around.

[@farpointgamingdirect]

Feelings do not compute; we cant go changing every little thing that may piss someone off; history is history: leave it alone

[@ChrisStaecker]

Leave what alone?

[@EmotionalParaquat714]

@@ChrisStaeckerhe means leave the name alone

[@EmotionalParaquat714]

Also to you it does compute

[@edpaleosapien7832]

I had the midget pocket calculator.

[@mikusoxlongius]

Some women were calculators during WW2.

[@RVM451]

You lost me when you went PC!

[@ChrisStaecker]

I teach respect

[@RVM451]

@@ChrisStaecker Accepting the Modern Wave of PC SJW Terminology is disrespecting all the people who went before and used the Earlier Terminology. When you use terms Like: "Little People" and "Native American" you SPIT in the Face of many Generations of people who said, "Midget"; "Dwarf" and "Indian" -and none of those people were ill-intentioned people who meant harm. The American Language has become HOSTAGE to any group of Activists who can foment dissatisfaction-and almost always, it is a very small and highly vocal minority that is offended.I am opposed to altering terminology FOR ANY REASON. It is LESS OFFENSIVE to use OFFENSIVE TERMINOLOGY (IF it is indeed Offensive) than it is to ALTER TERMINOLOGY. THAT is the ULTIMATE OFFENCE so far as I'm concerned. And People who are willing to meekly change their terminology are WICKED AND EVIL. The only way to fight the rot of the American Language is to be mule-stuborn, dig in both heels and refuse to be budged. Change MAY be inevitable, but that doesn't absolve anyone of the responsibility to RESIST CHANGE.

[@scorp10fl53]

You didn't have a great idea. It already existed....as a slide rule.

[@davidpalmer7175]

Really now, "MIDGET" just means "SMALL"... Get over yourself for Christ sake!

[@ChrisStaecker]

Ask a little person how they feel about it- No skin off my back to be respectful.

[@SharpObserver1A]

Disgusting voice sustainment, goes from clear to mumbling a lot.