Why did so many early / cheap calculators use 9V batteries?

[Dieter]

(03-29-2018 07:34 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  In my recollection of the 1970ies and 1980ies AAA cells were almost nonexistent. You needed to go to a camera store and buy them at 3 or 4 German Mark a piece (or 2000 Italian Lire as I lived in Italy then).

These are remarkable memories. As a matter of fact, I really used to buy all my batteries in camera stores (and I still do). ;-) First, because I needed most of them for cameras, motor drives and flashguns, and finally you could be sure to get fresh and high quality batteries there.

I remember that around 1980 the usual price for a high quality AA cell over here was about 2 DEM. One store in town had a "permanent special offer" and sold regular Duracell AAs for 1 DEM. I don't remember the price for AAAs, but now I got curious. So I had a look at the 1979/80 catalog of a German mail order photo store. Surprise: a pack of four Alkaline (Duracell) AA or AAAs was 5,95 DEM, and one 9V battery had the same price.

So indeed this seems to be a topic where "your mileage may vary".

Dieter