Walt Casson, the boy in the center of the picture below, recently discovered this photo from 1950 or 1951 taken in a math classroom at Gulf High School. He and Bobby McAlpine, now deceased, on the left, and Vic Schuck, on the right, are holding the slide rule. Slide rules were used to perform calculations before the electronic calculator was invented. They were normally much smaller and carried on the student’s belt; this large device was made by Gulf students in Mr. Marchman’s trigonometry class for demonstration purposes. It was found during renovations at the old Elfers school. Mr. Casson hasn’t seen it in 60 years, but plans to come by GHS for a look.
