Your First Handheld?

[Dale Reed]

N1010-ES Picket slide rule to start. Bought at the local community college (a new concept then) bookstore. I was the only one still using a slide rule for the first test in senior year high school physics. I was also the only one who finished the test -- yes, I was that fast, using folded scales, etc.

First family calculator: TI SR-10. Still have it, in original box, still works, had to replace the NiCd batteries in it. The charger got dropped a lot and is held together with a large wrap of electrical tape, still works.

My first calculator: HP-25, $195 in December 1975 S/N 1512A23310. I HAD to have an HP after my brother showed me an HP-45 in the green hard case that he borrowed. I still have my 25. It is the standard by which all others shall be judged. I had to replace some internals after I tried to power it with the batteries backwards once, but it works again. (I picked up two non-working units on eBuy, and with the three I had enough good parts to make two functional.) Still have the books, accessories sheet, etc., but the user coding pages from the Programming manual (and the page on how to calculate days between two dates) are long gone!

Dad had a TI SR-50 for work -- that was a sweet looking machine, and I never did like the black-and-gold style of the later TI calculators (SR-51A, TI-59) etc. as much as the blue/silver theme of the original SR-50. I recently got dad a used SR-50 in good shape on eBuy.

I was issued a TI-59 for work and used it a lot. A senior instrument engineer shared with me a whole slew of programs (which I put on cards and printed out) for control valve sizing, relief valve sizing, flow measurement orifice plate sizing, etc., etc. Very nice. Had to leave it behind when they let us go in the big RIF. Bummer.

After that? Radio Shack Color Computer with OS-9, 386 laptop, etc.
Dale