HP Forums
Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - Printable Version

+- HP Forums (https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum)
+-- Forum: Not HP Calculators (/forum-7.html)
+--- Forum: Not remotely HP Calculators (/forum-9.html)
+--- Thread: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? (/thread-18010.html)



Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - ndzied1 - 02-08-2022 08:55 PM

I saw this image in a video where the user was looking through the November 1957 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine. Has anyone seen such a thing?

[attachment=10356]


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - Ren - 02-08-2022 09:08 PM

No, but now I want one!
B^)


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - trojdor - 02-08-2022 09:55 PM

Here's the patent for it...
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2777636A/en

You can read his description of the invention, and if you click on the image a couple of times and enlarge it, it's a pretty good resolution .png file...

mike


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - bbergman - 02-09-2022 04:27 PM

I had something like this in the 80's (or was it 90's)? Thick pen with buttons down the length, and a tiny LCD screen that only showed 4-5 digits. Wasn't too useful, but it was unique. It lasted maybe two months and became junk...


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - Dave Britten - 02-09-2022 05:39 PM

Back in the mid '90s, I had a (very thick) pen that would flip open to reveal a little LCD inside the door, and a keyboard integrated into the pen body. It was a calculator and simple databank type of device, and the keys were so tiny that you were advised to use the end of the pocket clip on the cap as a stylus to push them! It was more of a novelty than anything genuinely practical.


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - bbergman - 02-09-2022 05:41 PM

(02-09-2022 05:39 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  Back in the mid '90s, I had a (very thick) pen that would flip open to reveal a little LCD inside the door, and a keyboard integrated into the pen body. [...]

Dave, I think we had the same pen!! Smile


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - Dave Britten - 02-09-2022 05:45 PM

(02-09-2022 05:41 PM)bbergman Wrote:  
(02-09-2022 05:39 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  Back in the mid '90s, I had a (very thick) pen that would flip open to reveal a little LCD inside the door, and a keyboard integrated into the pen body. [...]

Dave, I think we had the same pen!! Smile

Could be! I only faintly recall the details, but I think mine was some sort of garish magenta color - the sort of design sensibility that you'd expect from electronics marketed toward adolescents in the mid-'90s.


RE: Mechanical Pencil Calculator? - KeithB - 02-14-2022 03:22 PM

While I am sure that your electronic-calculator-in-a-pen is cool, note that the pen in the OP is a mechanical calculator!