The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 21

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Vintage calculators
Message #1 Posted by Kiyoshi Akima on 2 Oct 2012, 2:37 p.m.

Some old stuff. And I don't mean the red-dot 35.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2012/09/awesome-vintage-calculators.html

      
Re: Vintage calculators
Message #2 Posted by Ángel Martin on 2 Oct 2012, 3:16 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Kiyoshi Akima

Lovely! - I actually remember seeing some of those Monroe units when I was a child and visited grandpa´s office :'=

            
Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #3 Posted by gene wright on 2 Oct 2012, 3:48 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Ángel Martin

Here's the video from my 2012 HHC talk on non-HP and non-TI calculators...

These are a few of my favorite things

                  
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #4 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 2 Oct 2012, 5:01 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by gene wright

Thanks for sharing :)

                  
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #5 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 2 Oct 2012, 5:06 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by gene wright

Hello!

Quote:
Here's the video from my 2012 HHC talk on non-HP and non-TI calculators...

Thanks for that speech, I watched it yesterday already. You got some pretty little treasures there! But you should re-consider your "no four bangers"-rule, as there are some really cute ones out there. Just to mention a few ones: Aristo M27, Sinclair Sovereign, HP-01 and the CalcuPen also featured on the website above! And yes, finally someone who has the courage to call eBay eBay and Texas Instruments Texas Instruments in front of Hp afficionados ;-)

I only wish the next HHC conference would be held near one of the European HP or Agilent headquarters.

Regards Max

Edited: 2 Oct 2012, 5:08 p.m.

                        
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #6 Posted by gene wright on 2 Oct 2012, 5:48 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Maximilian Hohmann

There are pretty 4 bangers, but the "at least Trig" rule keeps me from being evicted for having too many things in the house.

I did make an exception for the HP 01 however.

                              
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #7 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 3 Oct 2012, 5:03 a.m.,
in response to message #6 by gene wright

Good morning!

Quote:
There are pretty 4 bangers, but the "at least Trig" rule keeps me from being evicted for having too many things in the house.

Can ist be that your wife and my wife know eachother? But I feel that I'll have to introduce a similar rule soon, if I want to continue to live in peace. But I will rather keep the simple calculators and kick out everything that does not glow in the dark instead. With two or three or four or five exceptions...

Quote:
I did make an exception for the HP 01 however.

And what about the HP 10?

Max

                              
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #8 Posted by Katie Wasserman on 3 Oct 2012, 9:57 a.m.,
in response to message #6 by gene wright

Quote:
"at least Trig" rule

I suspect that your rule is more like "at least Trig or TVM functions".

I understand the need for such a rule, mine's:

"pre-LCD era and has to have something interesting about it" with the exception of anything from HP, naturally.

                                    
Re: Speaking of Vintage calculators...
Message #9 Posted by gene wright on 3 Oct 2012, 11:11 a.m.,
in response to message #8 by Katie Wasserman

True, but I tend to collect very few TVM machines from back then.

I have a handheld Royal that does TVM calculations with a nice green display (the 94F?) and the lovely Canon Financial Manager LCD model, but the others are few and far between. Just don't grab that many. :-)

                  
Datamath Dot Org
Message #10 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 2 Oct 2012, 8:48 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by gene wright

Gene,

Sorry that I missed your nice talk - and THANK YOU again for the PLT Prototype! Yes, it triggered indeed a flood of interesting prototypes, this evening I was playing with the "TI-nspire Color" prototype...before I screened the HP Museum ;-))

You mentioned the Aristo M75, not sure if you noticed the M75E on that website (110958501721) - it sports "E"nhanced algorithm with 10 digits precision instead of the 8 digits in your M75.

What I really missed in your wonderful presentation was a Faber-Castell calculator, they manufactured only 5 models (TR1,2,3,4, and X. And they are rarer (180985216237) than your Commodore N-55 ;-))

Hope to see you at HHC2013!

Have a great day.

Cheers,

Joerg

Edited: 2 Oct 2012, 9:27 p.m.

      
Re: Vintage calculators
Message #11 Posted by BruceH on 2 Oct 2012, 5:12 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Kiyoshi Akima

I love the Burroughs half way down - it looks for all the world as though they prototyped it using a telephone shell and decided to keep the design!

      
Re: Vintage calculators
Message #12 Posted by Namir on 3 Oct 2012, 2:52 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Kiyoshi Akima

My father used to sell the Monroe calculating machines. When he left the company that sold them he bought the top of the line electromechanical calculator.

Namir

            
Re: Vintage calculators
Message #13 Posted by Charles C(UK) on 3 Oct 2012, 6:36 a.m.,
in response to message #12 by Namir

I have just acquired a Sumlock Anita 810, built around 1973. Though a simple 4 function device, this British calculator has idiosyncratic input logic, neat percentage calculation handling and top notch build quality. It is a pleasant thing to pick up and use. The soundness of its solid design makes you forget its near 40 year obsolescence.

The company didn't have the advanced products that allowed HP to hang in and survive the calculator price meltdown of the mid seventies. I found a telling advertisement in a 1973 copy of New Scientist in which a distributor was trying to shift the similar Anita 811 model for 75 GBP (plus VAT)- which was two weeks wages then. Shortly after that, Sinclair started to turn out cheap (and rather nasty) scientifics for less than half the price.

Later, Sumlock Anita did do a nice little scientific calculator in the same form factor as the 811 but the game was up for them and this large manufacturer was wound up with indecent haste by the Rockwell parent company.


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