The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 21

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they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #1 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 22 Oct 2012, 2:42 p.m.

...with lots of parts and glue. Has anyone seen this first generation scientific calculator?
It's the missing link in the calculator chain of evolution. How does Joerg FIND these things?

      
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #2 Posted by Walter B on 22 Oct 2012, 3:25 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.)

I remember having seen this type in a shop window when I took my first physics classes at university. It was (and is) a unique combination of what that manufacturer thought to be the best of two worlds at that time. A true Taschenrechenschieberrechner (to return to your subject). Remember you can't add on a slide rule ;-)

            
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #3 Posted by Hal Bitton in Boise on 22 Oct 2012, 4:57 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Walter B

Quote:
A true Taschenrechenschieberrechner (to return to your subject). Remember you can't add on a slide rule ;-)

Why not? : Taschenrechenschieberrechnerdersliderule

                  
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #4 Posted by Walter B on 23 Oct 2012, 9:57 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Hal Bitton in Boise

Quote:

Why not? : Taschenrechenschieberrechnerdersliderule


Lack of understanding the target language really helps in opening opportunities ... ;->
                        
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #5 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 23 Oct 2012, 10:29 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Walter B

I've always loved composite German words like calling an airplane a fly thing or perhaps a thing that flys (flugzeug). Some German words are so long that you have to take more than one breath to speak them.

                              
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #6 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 23 Oct 2012, 2:45 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Michael de Estrada

The longest word that is not a composite word in German is "Unkameradschaftlichkeit" (the opposite of "comradship"). But you can chain almost any word with any other word to build a worm like "Donaudampfschifffartsgesellschaft" or even worse "Donaudampfschifffartsgesellschaftskapitänsmütze". Not that anybody really ever uses such a monstrous expression. The main difference between English and German is that we drop the spaces between the components of a composite word.

                              
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #7 Posted by George Litauszky on 23 Oct 2012, 2:56 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Michael de Estrada

Quote:
I've always loved composite German words like calling an airplane a fly thing or perhaps a thing that flys (flugzeug). Some German words are so long that you have to take more than one breath to speak them.

Yes. For example: Obersturmmannsturzkampfflugzeugführer.
Note: Of course it's an (old military) humor only.


Edit: "And it's lacking an 'n'. ;-)" Thanks. :-)

Edited: 24 Oct 2012, 12:48 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

                                    
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #8 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 24 Oct 2012, 2:16 a.m.,
in response to message #7 by George Litauszky

A very old one, indeed. And it's lacking an 'n'. ;-)

My first copy of K&R's "Programming in C" was a German translation. The translator made it an unpleasant read for me by keeping the word separating space where the proper German word would be contracted, such as in "Programm Start" instead of "Programmstart". (This is just an example and may not exist in the book literally.)

For very long words, or if the parts come from different languages, the proper way is to place a hyphen between the parts such as in "While-Schleife" instead of "Whileschleife" or (see above) "While Schleife".

      
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #9 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 22 Oct 2012, 4:57 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.)

Hello!

It's a pity that this company stopped making calculators after only four or five models, but who knows what they will come up with in the next 250 years (this is how long they have been in the business of making drawing equpiment!). Today they are the largest manufacturer of pencils in the world.

The slide-rule calculators are really special and IMO no collection can be complete without at least one of them (very, very difficult to find them all). Unfortunately the power supply is very special and consists of custom NC battery packs made from spot-welded coin-shaped cells that are almost impossible to find. But you can still use the slide-rule :-)

Regards Max

            
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #10 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 22 Oct 2012, 8:35 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Maximilian Hohmann

Max,

It's a total of five: TR 1,2,3,4, and X.

Joerg

                  
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #11 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 23 Oct 2012, 3:24 a.m.,
in response to message #10 by Joerg Woerner



I assume they built about a dozen different models, including TR1N and Johann Faber '76 (these came in different colors).
The TR2 was available with or without sliderule.
Please note the slide-out battery box (front right) and three (slightly different) models of the required "TR-L" charger.
[Sorry for the very bad picture, but you get the idea...]

            
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #12 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 23 Oct 2012, 3:32 a.m.,
in response to message #9 by Maximilian Hohmann

They are not spot welded, however the contacts are held together by plastic posts with melted tips. When careful, one could disassemble the pack and reassemble it again. I have one with replacement cells plus some filling to hold them in place. Finding matching NiCd-cells might be impossible nowadays, but just using AG13 e.g. migh be an idea (have not tried).

      
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #13 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 22 Oct 2012, 8:33 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.)

Dennis,

Living now for six years in the US I sill have a lot of calculator collector friends back in Germany. They are looking for nice stuff from the New World and I'm always looking for nice stuff from the Old World. Just acquired a bunch of Aristo's - stay tuned ;-))

Have a great evening and don't miss the TK-1024 and Jefferson 676. They are "real" RPN's.

Cheers, Joerg

            
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #14 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 28 Oct 2012, 2:28 a.m.,
in response to message #13 by Joerg Woerner

Joerg; You caught me "sittin plush with a royal flush", so i made a crazy bid on the PTK 1023 and the Jefferson. However it turns out, Stephan & Jenna will have money in their college funds ;-)

Is there an RPN Aristo?

                  
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #15 Posted by Walter B on 28 Oct 2012, 9:40 a.m.,
in response to message #14 by db (martinez, ca.)

Quote:
Is there an RPN Aristo?
No, there is definitively none.
                        
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #16 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 28 Oct 2012, 11:21 a.m.,
in response to message #15 by Walter B

Just novelty items then.

                              
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #17 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 28 Oct 2012, 12:51 p.m.,
in response to message #16 by db (martinez, ca.)

Quote:
Just novelty items then.

Certainly not. Firstly, the manufacturer of these calculators (Dennert&Pape) has a long history of manufacturing scientific and surveying tools and secondly, Aristo calculators have been the educational tools/calculators for half a generation of school and univerity students in Germany (as Ti in the rest of the world to this date). The Aristo M27 was introduced in 1972, the same year as the HP-35. I know, the 27 is non RPN and non schientific, but that dosen't make it a "novelty" either.

                                    
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #18 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 28 Oct 2012, 5:18 p.m.,
in response to message #17 by Maximilian Hohmann

Not all surveying tools are precision instruments. David White transits, and that East German 5 minute gun i used in Ecuador for example.

Comparing Aristo to TI does nothing to prove your point.

bad example I rest my case.


Still, i see your point. Early American calculator companies like Summit and JCE are dear to our hearts too. It's just that they were so wrong.

      
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #19 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 22 Oct 2012, 11:31 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by db (martinez, ca.)

In his paper "The Demise of the Slide Rule (and the Advent of its Successors" in the Fall 2003 issue of The Journal of the Oughtred Society Otto von Poelje wrote

Quote:
In that same year [1972 - the same year the HP-35 was introduced]Faber-Castell tried to prolong the life of the slide rule by releasing a combination product consisting of a slide rule with an electronic calculator in verso (Type TR1 and successors)
Much earlier Faber-Castell had combined a fairly wide variety of slide rules with an Addiator on the back to yield a device that could do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

The serious deficiency of both the TR1 and successors and the Addiator combinations was the inability to concatenate addition/subtraction with multiplicaion/division. The need to read an intermediate answer from one side and enter it on the other side was an easy way to introduce errors. Of course the HP-35 solved that.

Edited: 22 Oct 2012, 11:46 p.m.

            
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #20 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 28 Oct 2012, 5:25 p.m.,
in response to message #19 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.

What is error depends on the precision you expect. Blunders can be prevented by eliminating that loose nut in front of the keyboard - as long as the programmer wasn't an even looser nut.

edited to eliminate a miss-spelling by the loose nut in front of this keyboard.

Edited: 30 Oct 2012, 1:02 a.m. after one or more responses were posted

                  
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #21 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 29 Oct 2012, 11:06 p.m.,
in response to message #20 by db (martinez, ca.)

Maybe someday I will meet an error-free individual. Until then I will contiinue to advocate methodologies which tend to avoid errors.

The development of the slide rule involved a long series of missteps. The missteps began with the inmplementation of the two logarithmic cycle A and B scales when it is a routine exercise to take the square and square root using single cycle C and D scales.

Another misstep occurred when the S and T scales were added to the Mannheim configuration such that the S scale worked with the A and B scales while the T scale worked with the C and D scales. That meant that multiplication of a tangent function by a sine function involved reading one function from one scale and reentering it on another scale, or as we did in the olden days, do the work with the A, B and S scales by entering the tangent function as a division of the sine by the cosine. Using the A and B scales meant that it was difficult to maintain three digit accuracy at the high end.

That misstep was remedied when the ST scale was introduced so that all three trigonometric scales were on the slide and worked with the C and D scales.

Then the so-called Darmstadt configuration was introduced and the S, ST and T scales were moved from the slide to the frame and, once again, if the user needed to multiply trigonometric functions of two different angles he had to read the second trigonometric function from the D scale and reenter it on the C scale. Truly, a dumb idea.

The combination of a slide rule and an Addiator which occurred as early as 1952 had the problem of concatenation but I suspect that was the best that could be done with a handheld device at that time. The combination of a slide rule with a non-scientific calculator as in the TR1 and its successors can only be understood as an inept mechanization which failed to anticipate the inevitable advent of a machine the HP-35. i

                        
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #22 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 30 Oct 2012, 1:11 a.m.,
in response to message #21 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.

"......which failed to anticipate the inevitable advent of a machine the HP-35" Yes, exactly.

And the 35 failed to anticipate the 45, the 42 failed to anticipate the 34s, TI didn't expect the 41, and nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

                        
Re: they build their calculators like they build their words
Message #23 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 30 Oct 2012, 5:57 a.m.,
in response to message #21 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.

According to my data, the 35 has been released long before the TR1.
So it's more likely a move into a market niche to sell for a higher margin.
Faber-Castell tells us the same - they stopped producing slide rules in 1973 and introduced the TR1 in 1974.
Very funny note from their site: There are still some slide rules in stock - please inquire. Only 40 years after their manufacturing stoppe :)


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