Early manual calculator

Photo Credit: Casio. A Brief History: While the world of mobile devices quickly moved to full-color screens in the early s, it took a while for graphing calculators to catch up. Students could finally bid good-bye to the monochrome, low-pixel displays of years past. MENU Log in. Trending Now. Home » Classroom. Listen Pause. More On Hardware Gadgets.

Related Articles. Dorothy Tate's Ownd. Early manual calculator. From to , the Arithmometer was the only type of mechanical calculator in production. Early Calculators. These pages exhibit some non-HP calculators that were introduced anywhere from centuries ago to the late 's. However, I cut through the plastic on the connector and held the battery up to the back side of the connections. The calculator works fine doing that. See photo Installing a new 9 volt snap connector should therefore allow it to function like new.

Briley, Univ. Purchsed in the same lot as the and In good cosmetic and working conditon. The same comment praises the for its solid construction, excellent battery life, and "really good" keys. Sharp Electronic Organizer , an electronic organizer with calculator, schedule, telephone contacts, memo, to do list, expense record, and clock. This is model YO with 32 KB. In good working condition. It takes three CR three volt lithium batteries.

I had to replace the original batteries. Unlike a calculator, at least one of these batteries draws some power all the time to keep the memory alive. That battery has a seal over it which says "Memory backup battery - Do not throw this seal away.

Put back the seal after battery replacement. There are five more Sharp organizers and others from Rolodex apparently made by Franklin , Royal, and Protege. Sharp still makes this type of organizer now with more memory. I'm guessing these are from the late s. It, like the above, is unique because it takes a 9 volt battery, a very large power source for an LCD calculator.

Single memory key. In good cosmetic and working condition with the original manual in very good condition and original box in battered condition. Sharp LCD Calculators indicates a date consistent with the higher numbered being The Instruction manual has a date code of , however, indicating that perhaps the calculator was sold for a long time.

Also, Vintage Calculators lists it as having a yellow screen, while mine does not have the yellow filter indicating the calculator may have changed slightly over time. Sharp EL , scientific flourescent 8 digit calculator. Long and narrow 6. No AC option. I could not find any information on it. I removed the back, but could not view the front of the circuit board. I assume the EL was around this time. I assume it wasn't much beyond this time, however, since my EL LCD scientific calculator, with statistical and other features not present in the EL, came out in The EL is in good working and cosmetic condition.

There is a name scratched lightly on the front. It comes with the original, although tattered, box. Sharp EL , credit card sized calculator. Has tone when keys are depressed. This can be shut off. Metal case. Two "G8" silver oxide batteries. Power 0. Date is from this Japanese site which indicates it has 48 functions.

Includes hexadecimal conversions and statistics. In excellent cosmetic and operating condition. Sharp EL Large Image small, vertical oriented, credit card sized calculator. Memory, square root and a musical tone which you can turn on or off. Takes two G8 silver oxide batteries each 1.

I tried it with two LR 1. Consumes 0. Expansion RAM card with own battery available. Takes two CR batteries. Basic programming built in. The price was therefore similar to a netbook computer today.

An emulator is available at Pocket Computer Museum. It came with the printer. I bought several other electronic items including two laptop computers and a Toshiba Libertto CT and 50CT which are very small general purpose computers and hence will be in the computer museum.

The items belonged to the seller's father who was a nuclear engineer for the Navy. The computer and printer are in good cosmetic condition. I still need to dig up some batteries to try them out. Floating and fixed 0, 2 or 4 decimal.

Constant switch. Battery level gauge. Zero displays half height. Calculations slow. Dimensions: about 22cm x 14cm x 6cm Funky Goods , in Japanese, has excellent external and internal photographs.

Google has a literal translation, Funky Goods English. Purchased on eBay in about Battery contacts have corrossion, but after sanding the calculator works. Cosmetic conditon is good. Keys and logic in good working condition. Power works sometimes with the AC adapter but the wire at the adapter is loose. The adapter can't be opened.

The calculator takes two AA batteries. It works intermittently by placing aluminum foil at the contact and the two silver areas above it. See lower left of board in interior view 1 revealed when you remove back plastic cover.

Folding that board up reveals interior view 2 , showing the main circuit board connected by 12 wires to the board with the keys. Interior view 3 shows the main circuit board. Find comprehensive information at Vintage Technology. Casio Personal I, Japan 8 digit flourcent display. In good working condition with either included AC adapter or two AA batteries.

More at Vintage Technology. Folding gives compact size, but large display. Casio fxv "Super-FX", scientific calculator purchased at Costco in the late '80s or early '90s for my wife.

See Casio History for history of Casio. Casio fxG, October Japan the world's first graphing calculator. Excellent information at datamath.

Comes with page owner's manual and page Computing with the Scientific Calculator. In fair cosmetic condition with some scratches on the screen and dents on the back.

In good operating condition after replacing the three 3V batteries. Replaced thinner CR with CR specified in the manual. From mid to late s. Made in Malaysia. Manufactured by Stokes Publishing Company. Emulates Casio Copyright Made in China. Not working correctly. At first the "one" key would not work. Now there are multiple problems including problems with the display photo is suppose to have all 8s and multiple keys which do not work. The seller refunded all the money, however.

It makes a nice display piece and a mystery! Casio fx ms, purchased new in Casio Mini CM, part of the series of Casio Mini calculators with a horizontal design, the first introduced in Flourescent 6 digit display, although another six digits can be viewed by holding down the arrow key.

The six digit display was a cost saving mechanism in the early days of pocket calculators. Half height zero as in the AS-8D. Uses 4 AA batteries. An interesting essay about the importance of the rapid rise of calculators, including a discussion of the CM as the author's first calculator, is at a new site, calculator. It is in very good cosmetic and working condition.

Another in the series of Casio Mini calculators with a horizontal design, the first introduced in Uses 2 AA batteries. Uses adapter AD-2S. Vintage Technology notes some interesting quirks. First, the information panel on the back is upside down compared to the front.

Second, if you divide by zero the display shows , but if you press the arrow key to see the other digits the calculator keeps calculating away! Hewlett Packard 35, this historic model was the first scientific pocket calculator and signaled HP as an innovator in calculator design.

With RPN you first enter the number and then tell the calculator what to do with it. According to an HP article on RPN , RPN has several advantages over typical algebraic entry including showing intermediate answers and using fewer keystrokes. HP says it's easy, and now even has a virtual RPN calculator at the above link to try it out. Made in USA. Mine appears to be the third of four versions of the HP Over , were sold, vastly exceeding expectations.

The HP 35 signaled the death of the slide rule. The TI 50 eventually competed with it with a significantly lower price but without the RPN preferred by many. That's expensive, but HP calcualtors, both used and new, tend to be expensive.

The description said it works, but it did not come with batteries or a charger to test it. After some experimenting I got it to work with three 1. This closely approximates the 3. I did not do this for long and I don't know if this can cause injury or damage, so don't necessarily do what I did! With this arrangement you, of course, must charge the batteries outside the calculator in an appropriate battery charger.

Hewlett Packard 17b, financial calculator that belonged to my father-in-law. HP 95LX, not only has financial, scientific and graphing calculator capabilities, but also has built in text editing, a Lotus spreadsheet and appointment calendar. You can write or load your own programs. It was HP's first palmtop personal computer.

Since it is really a general purpose computer, it is discussed further in the computer museum. Large photo. First introduced in , the HP 12c is still sold today! According to ajc.

The new on-line price at hp. This takes getting use to. See also Museum of HP Calculators. Good cosmetic and excellent working condition. No case or manual. USA stamped on the back with serial number A The 12c has been made in other countries but apparently the USA ones are the most valued. See Museum of HP Calculators. If anyone knows the approximate date of manufacture of my calculator, please e-mail me. HP 20s, solidly made non-RPN scientific calculator programmable by entering the key strokes.

It has customary-metric conversions, base conversions, and a program library of frequently used functions. The hp. It is in good working condition. The cosmetic condition is good except for a dent in the metal around the display. HP 6c, basic non-RPN scientifc calculator introduced in It is compact and well constructed with a metal case, although some complain that the keyboard is spongy.

It shares a similar design with the HP 12C financial calculator above. HP 10C Series - Wikipedia. The HP 15C was made from to While the HP 15C hasn't been made for over 20 years, it still has a following.

Curiously, that's an average of 5. That site states the HP 15C is the best scientific calculator ever made by anyone for everyday use. Reasons: It uses Reverse Polish Notation RPN which is more efficient and natural, it was the smallest RPN calculator made by HP, the keyboard feel is very close to perfect, the landscape keyboard layout where you press keys with your two thumbs is better than a portrait layout where you press keys with one index finger, it has great battery life, the owner's manual is top notch, and it is the coolest looking calculator ever made!

It is in good working and cosmetic condition. It was pretty dusty with some yellowing of the covering over the screen. It works fine, however. It did not come with the cover or manual. As explained at hpmuseum. It uses three 1. It's the same as the old one but up to X faster. Pretty cool - an electronic product being reintroduced after 22 years!

The petition referred to above apparently worked! Canon Pocketronic, truly historic, the Pocketronic was the first pocket calculator.

For big pockets or hands - it's about 8" x 4" x 2". It is a direct product of Texas Instrument's "Cal-Tech" project. The Cal-Tech i. The project was completed in with several working prototypes. Texas Instruments sought out a manufacturer and Canon, noted for its cameras, was interested to increase it business machine business.

The result was the Canon Pocketronic released in Japan in April I was in 7th grade. It is very similar to the Texas Instruments prototypes including having a horizontal paper printout. It is powered by 13 rechargeable Ni-Cad batteries.

The Cal-Tech program is discussed at the datamath site. On the left menu, click "History" and then "Datamath story".

The datamath site also has a good article on the Canon Pocketronic which it describes as "the most important calculator in the history of Texas Instruments. Vintage Calculators also has an excellent article on the Pocketronic and the Cal Tech project. See also Old Calculator Museum. It is in good cosmetic condition, but does not have the charger and therefore I do not know if it works. I assume the Ni-Cad batteries no longer function.

It has an "Export Inspected by Canon, Tokyo" tag on the front. Canon Canola L circa large image www. According to Wikipedia an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit etched onto a semiconductor material such as silicon. A large scale integrated circuit has tens of thousands transistors per chip.

See also webopedia. Describing the L as a breakthrough in technology, www. The L's display used Nixie tubes which are sort of like vacuum tubes with 10 layers inside, each representing one of the numerals See Wikipedia. Each used progressively less power allowing more pocket sized devices. The Old Calculator Web Museum has a detailed discussion of the L including how the calculator sparked the interest of that Web site's author as a youngster in an eventual career in computer science.

I myself acquired an L because it reminded me of the electronic desktop calculator that was demonstrated by a speaker in my 8th grade math class. As indicated before, I was amazed at what the machine could do.

I have no recollection of what brand or model of calculator it was, but it would have been the same vintage as an L John Wolf's Web Museum has an excellent display of early Canon desktop calculators including the L Be Calc has some excellent close-up photos the L components.

It lists a date of , a year earlier than other sites. Classroom Tech shows a somewhat similar Monroe made by Canon. It is in good working and operating condition with a cover and power cord. It is a very solid machine with a very clear LED screen and ten digits.

It runs on either a NiCad battery pack or four AA batteries which fit into a removable holder. It has an analog battery meter. To charge the NiCad Battery pack you fit the calculator on a cradle apparently attaching it with a screw that fits in a screw mount on the calculator. The screw mount happens to be the same size as a tripod mount; hence, it's the only calculator I know that mounts to a tripod!

It is in near new cosmetic condition and operates perfectly. It includes the original box , manual and cover, all in excellent condition. It also comes with a battery holder for AA batteries as well as a NiCad battery pack. Both the holder and the separate NiCad pack look new with absolutely no corrosion.

It did not include the cradle for charging and AC operation, however. While made in Japan, the calculator uses Texas Instruments chips and display modules. Datamath says it uses a unique design with a "flexible foil pressed against a heavy metal sheet" avoiding solder joints. See datamath internal photos. In good cosmetic and operating condition although it does not have the paper tape to determine the quality of the print.

It is apparently a current model selling through amazon. Simple four functions. Top front slides open for the four AA batteries. Datamath also has an internal view. It has an Export sticker on the side. Includes case. Seller was nice enough to include 4 new batteries. In near new cosmetic and working condition although front label is bubbled. Canon Palmtronic 8s, a very thin and stylish fluorescent display calculator. By this time LCD calculators were generally taking over.

Excellent description and internal view at Vintage Technology and Datamath. In excellent cosmetic and working condition with case and instructions.

Uses two AAA batteries. Uses 0. Commodore, a U. By the late s Commodore got out of the unprofitable calculator market to concentrate on computers, a market which itself became unprofitable for Commodore and others.

As indicated previously, my first scientific calculator was a Commodore, I believe Model No. SRR discussed at Vintage Technology. Commodore adding machine , made in Japan. Commodore originally sold typewriters then adding machines. They began importing their adding machines from Japan by By the early s they concentrated on electronic calculators instead. This machine therefore dates from about to Compared to a pocket calculator it is huge - about 5.

It really only adds and subtracts, although it has a X key for repeat addition. It appears to be in good working condition although I have not tried it out with a tape and new ribbon. The cover comes off by moving two tabs at the bottom. See Internal View. It is a mechanical calculator utilizing the same basic technology as the Dalton adding machine below from the s or before. The mechanics are powered by electricity.

This was among the earliest pocket calculators with the Canon Pocketronic being introduced in Japan in April and the Bomar B and similar Commodore C being introduced in September History of Calculators - Timeline.

Pascal's machine used geared wheels and could add and subtract two numbers directly and multiply and divide by repetition. Gottfried Leibniz then spent the best part of his life designing a four-operation mechanical calculator, based on his ingenious slotted 'Leibniz wheel,' but ultimately failing to produce a fully operational machine.

That had to wait until and the patenting in France of Thomas de Colmar's four function Arithmometer. This first commercially viable counting machine was manufactured from to and copied by around 20 companies across Europe. By then, the main tide of innovation had moved across the Atlantic, with the development of hand cranked adding machines like the Grant Mechanical Calculating Machine of and, more famously the P Burroughs Adding Machine developed by William Seward Burroughs in This was the first in a line of office calculating machines that made the Burroughs family fortune and enabled the son, William S.

Burroughs, to pursue a career consuming hallucinogenic drugs and writing subversive novels like 'The Naked Lunch'.

A further step forward occurred in when Dorr. Felt's US-patented key driven ' Comptometer ' took calculating into the push button age. This machine, too, spurred a host of imitators. The Curta calculator , which first appeared in , was perhaps the ultimate expression of the mechanical calculator, so compact that it could, somewhat lumpily, fit into a pocket and was capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Machines like this ensured that mechanical calculators dominated 20th century office life all the way through to the late s. By then, electronics were beginning to take over, as we shall see in the next part of this series. The story of the electronic calculator really begins in the late s as the world began to prepare for renewed war.

To calculate the trigonometry required to drop bombs 'into a pickle barrel' from 30, feet, to hit a knot Japanese warship with a torpedo or to bring down a diving Stuka with an anti aircraft gun required constantly updated automated solutions. All were basically mechanical devices using geared wheels and rotating cylinders, but producing electrical outputs that could be linked to weapon systems.

During the Second World War, the challenges of code-breaking produced the first all-electronic computer, Colossus.