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30 years of HP calculators

Posted by Tom Mathews on 12 Nov 2002, 1:04 p.m.

I too remember the excitement in the early 70's when a couple of my fraternity brothers who were also in engineering school bought the HP-35. I personally was never too found of the slide rules and used to hang out in the lab where there was a desktop calculator to avoid having to use a slide rule. If memory serves me correct, a short time later the price dropped to $325. At that time, I could not still not afford one, but I was sold. Several years later, I bought the HP-27s and used it in business school. One of my memories was that the HP-27s was the only calculator that could solve for internal rate of return. That was a great calculator. I actually went through 2 of them. I remember problems with the keys on the keyboard failing. The nicad batteries had limitations as well.

Later when my second HP-27s died of of keyboard failure, I moved on to a HP-33. Don't remember too much about that one.

I am now the satisfied owner of a HP-42s. Great calculator. Nice LCD screen. No battery problems.

After all these years, I still can not understand why anyone would not use RPN. When I see a HP calculator on someones desk, it adds to that persons credibility.

I would also like to add that your website is excellent!

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