A four-slide, also known as a multislide, multi-slide, or four-way, is a metalworking machine tool used in the high-volume manufacture of small stamped components from bar or wire stock. The press is most simply described as a horizontal stamping press that uses cams to control tools. The machine is used for progressive or transfer stamping operations.

The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, shortly after John Napier's publication of the concept of the logarithm. Edmund Gunter of Oxford developed a calculating device with a single logarithmic scale, which, with additional measuring tools, could be used to multiply and divide. The first description of this scale was published in Paris in 1624 by Edmund Wingate (c. 1593 …