During the 70's there was another statement piece, much like the Walkman, a dedicated electronic unit for performing mathmatical equations. While kind of mundane today, this was a game changer in it's own right. Teachers used to cringe when they initially saw them, how would kids learn to do math? Young engineers in training embraced them, finally a tool to speed through hours of hand-written calculations. The first units started arriving in the early 70's, some Japanese, some USA and, just like the Walkman, clones from Hong Kong. These early units were not cheap, I remember when I thought under $75.00 USD was impressive. Just like personal cassette players, manufacturers made several different models with different functions, price points, and styling. When I used to hit the thrifts up I'd also look for calculators, most could be had for change and I was finding really neat pieces of history, some were powerhouse miniature computers, some had games, some had gadgets like solar cells, all state of the art but now just looking for a little more life. Post anything you have, it's all cool, the ads down below are getting a lot of love and I just pulled a box out of storage so I'll have some material for a while.
My favorite calculator when I was a kid was the Casio ML-81, I think I got one at a garage sale for a dollar but I really loved it. Not only was it kind of cool looking because it was flat and horizontal instead of vertical, giving it more of a small computer feel. The ML-81 was fun because it could play notes, this was pretty impressive back in 1982 for something this small. Even home computers were still just beeping at this point without expensive sound cards. This one is made in Japan, I think there was still a few American Manufacturers with Hewlett Packard and Texas Instruments being the king of the hill with their engineering calculators.
I'm a fan of vintage calculators, specially CASIO and HP. I've didn't had other than the one my father let me which was an old HP 33C. I started using it when I was 12, and learnt to program it. I made a program to solve 2-variables equations in the school so I became the fastest guy in solving such equations. The professor didn't know that the 33C, which already looked old (my father used in the university in the middle 60s) was capable of such programming, and he was impressed by me After that I've had a Casio FX7000G that I have somewhere but not sure where, that was much modern but didn't had the ability to be programmed, although it can display grafical functions. Lately when I was finishing my studies at the high school I used (only at home) an incredible HP-28C that my father let me: But I guess the most impressive is the CASIO PB-700 with micro cassette recorder that I got a few years ago for my collection: I also have several calculator watches from CASIO. I love them: This one is the most advanced in my collection:
Great units walkman-archive! When the first wave of programmable calculators came around most of my teachers also had no idea how powerful they were, the other guys would work on their entry-level units and I had my scientific model. It also helped checking homework, there was no way to know if you had the right answer before on complicated problems.
The Kings Point (8413?), Kings Point imported calculators to the US, this one is made in Japan and would have been part of the first wave of inexpensive calculators.. Very basic but this was still very useful in 1974 when it came out. I just pulled it out, unfortunately the battery contacts are corroded so I couldn't get it to power up. This is a pretty robust build, metal sides and front panel but energy hogging four battery electronics.
Forget your gold plated Calculators and Walkmans Another executive toy in a velvet case to show off to other members of the board. Having a solid silver case it is rather heavy. Hiding inside is a Sharp EL 8039 75mm (3") square for those who are interested in sizes. I suspect that the case was an addition by a Jeweller, or similar as the back un-clips to reveal the rather decorative Sharp Case and allow you to change the batteries. Another Ebay purchase when someone was selling off a large collection a couple of years ago. I think I paid about £30 in the hope that the silver might be worth close to that.
1979 according to this. http://www.calcuseum.com/SCRAPBOOK/BONUS/15036/1.htm There are about three separate internet databases which attempt to list every calculator ever made. The end of the 1970s might have been"peak calculator" in terms of the number of new models introduced.
I have a handful of old calculators, early ones with LED screens. I remember my dad bringing one of the first widely available ones home and was amazed at the technology lol. Always pick them up if I see one
From Executive Toys to a real engineering powerhouse, the Texas Instruments TI92. You would have needed big pockets for this though. A VHS cassette would have been more appropriate to show the size. There again it does have the same processor as the original Apple Mac and can be programmed to play Doom. If anyone is desperate for one of these PM me as it doesn't really fit into my collection (literally), and I think you would have to invest many hours to learn how to use it. Great to see that advert for the Casio FX451 above. The very similar FX450 is the calculator I use most days at work. With all the extra keys on the right hand side it is nice to use. I never fold it as it has to last me another eight years.
I'll have to research that TI-92, it looks pretty cool, I have never seen one before. I know most phones today are much more powerfull but I miss all of the cool buttons!
The wayback machine has old issues of the Hewlett-Packard Journal, I've found some cool information on vintage calculators down there. https://archive.org/details/hpjournal November 1975 https://archive.org/details/hp_journal_1975-11/page/n9
I have a few old calculators in my drawer at home, couple of LED Commodores, sure I have a Hewlett Packard one as well that had a special battery pack, and a Casio graphics calculator as well. I used to have the Casio Databank watches when I was at school, wish I knew where they all went too! I'll post some pictures up when I can
I was looking in drawer for something else and found: The only one I remember buying was the FX850P which I bought new in Argos when they discontinued from in the catalogue and reduced the price. £90; I'll think about it. £60: Where's my credit card The little Sinclair was a gift from a friend who knew I collected such things
By the end of the 1970s Sinclair had given up on calculators, leaving the marketto the likes of Casio and TI. You did get some of the next Sinclair products - Computers, but they were badged as Timex in the USA who by then were Sinclairs manufacturing partner. In the UK the Spectrum computer was very popular, being the best selling computer in the first half of the 1980s with the Commodore 64 No.2 in the sales charts.
I had the 2nd generation Sinclair, like a ton of people, I learned how to program BASIC on it before upgrading to an Apple II+. We had some BBC Computer Shows on TV but they weren't selling in our market, the Sinclairs always looked really high-tech with their nice designs. Do you remember these books? Half the fun was fixing the computer specific BASIC errors so they would run. http://laurencescotford.co.uk/?p=509
I probably saw an earlier version of the book or a similar one. Back in 1981 I was working in a department that was using a Nascom 2 computer http://www.jaharrison.me.uk/Misc/Nascom/index.html for a serious purpose, controlling the test equipment for testing part of a satellite. However, someone had programmed it with the famous Star Trek game that appeared in one of these books. If you have played it and I say 10x10 universe and 10x10 space sectors you will know the one. As the apprentice I spent hours soak testing the computer by playing that game . By 1984 most people were buying games on tape. The reason the Sinclair Spectrum was so popular here and stayed so for years wasn't because it was particularly good (although what you got for the price was) but because buying a Top 20 Spectrum game was as easy as buying a Top 20 Single. WH Smith whose Sharp Calculator advert you posted above and who had/have branches in most UK towns sold the Spectrum and a good selection of games. If you didn't have a Spectrum, Commodore 64, or BBC Micro, you would find it harder to get games for your computer. Regarding the BBC computer I think they spent the first few years concentrating on the UK as it was the computer nearly all schools bought. By the time they thought of trying to sell it in the USA they realised they had left it too late. You may have an Acorn product in your pocket though as the ARM processor was originally designed for the computer they designed to replace the BBC Micro. Obviously it has been enhanced a few times since. The Apple II was an absolute rarity here because of the price which was significantly more than even the BBC. Out of the trio of 1977 the Commodore Pet and TRS80 were far more popular here.
