Earliest 71B?

[ElectroDuende]

(03-03-2015 03:52 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  Cool. Definitely the most interesting looking 41 machine I've seen. Even the battery holder is transparent. Where did this come from Matthias? Employee obviously, originally, but from there?

Several years ago I worked in an electric appliances manufacturing company, more specifically in the plastic injection department. Many of the mould tests were done without adding dyes to the transparent plastic pellets, or adding little dye drops (this allows to se how the plastic flows within the mold; computer simulation was not affordable for us at the time).

Also, if the parts are manufactured in different colors, nice patterns are formed when you change the dye or base pellets, until the new color becomes "stable"; just like the HP41 picture above.

As these "psychedelic colours" parts were discarded, many workers took them to build custom appliances. I'ts a pity that lamp holders, wall sockets and switches are not as collectible as HP calculators...