Meeting Point

The small collection of [very] analogue objects above - imperial micrometer, fountain pen and journal, slide rule; represent that nexus between the then and the now. My working journal is open at a couple of pages detailing census data for my great-great aunt and uncle and their immediate family: the Clun [White Horse] connection mentioned previously, blog posts passim.

The fountain pen and the micrometer are both Mac's, part of the rescue of his stuff during the clearance of Lou's house - still ongoing. The pen is in regular use now, the micrometer yet to be wielded in anger, and the slide rule is a recent eBay acquisition: a Faber Castell Electro 1/98 from 50-60 years ago; a specialist calculator for electrical engineers and a mighty fine objet d'Art in its own right.

The nexus between this tiny analogue enclave and, shall we say, the modern world, is in our manner of gathering data about the present and the past alike. Like most people, I rely on the ease of use of the digital world for most of day-to-day life: the information written on the journal pages is garnered from the census years shown via the internet and this laptop: all the numerical calculations I routinely make - aside from basic mental arithmetic - are done not with a slide rule, but with a calculator, either standalone or on my phone.

Physical measurement is probably the one area where I daily use analogue to the exclusion of most else, although I've got a really neat digital level, and I've just bought my first digital caliper to supplement the vernier one I already have, although I'll probably still use the analogue version to confirm the readings on the digital one.

But that's the truth of it: we need benchmarks from which to check the veracity of the data facing us, in all areas of our lives: education and the experience of actually doing and interacting with the real world. The digital, virtual one is useful only if you know intimately the analogue one on which it is modelled.