The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 19

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identify old calculator?
Message #1 Posted by randy bozarth on 8 Mar 2010, 11:29 a.m.

I am trying to identify a calculator I used in the late 60's or very early 70's. Definitely before hand-held calculators. ....Hewlett-Packard? Approximately 14" x 14" x 24" high and rolled on casters. Keypad and digital readout was on top. Add, subtract, multiply, divide only. Stack memory. RPN?

      
Re: identify old calculator?
Message #2 Posted by Jean-Michel on 8 Mar 2010, 12:41 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by randy bozarth

Hi Randy

Give a try to this site :
http://www.calculatormuseum.nl/calc/start.htm
Perhaps is the calc you're looking for there...

      
Re: identify old calculator?
Message #3 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 8 Mar 2010, 4:05 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by randy bozarth

Most of the early electronic "monsters" had 2 casters on the back side - too heavy to carry around, you just had to lift the front a bit and were able to move the calculator somewhat back on your desk. Your description limits the number of possible calculators to around 100 or so... So a little drawing (position of keyboard, display, maybe outer casing, as these were often quite "strange") might help to narrow down to a handful of possibilities.

            
Re: identify old calculator?
Message #4 Posted by randy bozarth on 8 Mar 2010, 10:52 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Frank Boehm (Germany)

Here is an image of what I remember. It didn't roll around on the desk but rolled on the floor. I apologize for the lack of details.

Edited: 8 Mar 2010, 10:54 p.m.

                  
I'm clueless...
Message #5 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 9 Mar 2010, 4:22 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by randy bozarth

I haven't seen a floor-standing model yet. Are you sure it wasn't just mounted on a cabinet? The first electronic calculators (Anita, IME, Canola, Sharp) were "desktop-sized".
One exception were WANG-calculators, those used a floor-standing electronics unit and several remote displays/keyboards (which is different from your image).
All larger calculators did use a vertical display, only about 1969, a somewhat more "horizontal" (like 45o angle) type was introduced for "portable" desktop calculators.
Example:Walther ETR 1

                  
Re: identify old calculator?
Message #6 Posted by Bart (UK) on 9 Mar 2010, 4:31 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by randy bozarth

There was a prototype Friden that was similar, but the production model was "desktop" sized (Friden 130).

See here, the black & white sketches show the cabinet size prototype.

      
Re: identify old calculator?
Message #7 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 8 Mar 2010, 4:24 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by randy bozarth

Quote:
...Hewlett-Packard? ... Add, subtract, multiply, divide only.
Definitely not HP. From this site:

The HP 9100A was Hewlett-Packard's first calculator. In the mid to late 1960's electronic four function fixed point calculators were brand new and typically cost $1000-$2500. In 1968 HP introduced the HP 9100A featuring:

* Floating point math with a range of 10^-98 to 10^99 * Log (natural and base 10) * Antilog (natural) * Square root * Trigonometric (including hyperbolic) functions and inverses * Vector addition/subtraction * Polar/rectangular conversion * Misc. features like 1/x, PI etc. * A logic system that could handle complex expressions (RPN) * Programmability * A magnetic card reader/writer * Options such as a printer and a plotter


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