Chris Staecker explains the sector, an analog calculator that predated the slide rule.
A commenter on the short version of this video asked an interesting question: why did these coexist alongside slide rules for centuries? Staecker mentions that by the 1800s, they were mostly used by navigators. I think that's a clue. If you just want numbers, a slide rule is more convenient than a sector: you don't need to use it with dividers, and it takes up less table space in action. But the sector will give you lengths in direct proportion to the numbers, like you're Euclid working through The Elements. And that's better if you're working with scaled distances on a navigational chart.
It's interesting that this one also has a logarithmic scale, so you can use it as a Gunter scale to do slide-rule-type calculations with the dividers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmmRuh_xEiM
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...Of course, if the answer to your calculation falls outside of the same decade of size as your input, you'll have to move the decimal point just as with a slide rule, and that might alter the scale of length from whatever your chart is using. That's a limitation here.
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