OK, the news that Sir Clive Sinclair died today (RIP, Sir Clive!) caused me to remember that I have another Sinclair calculator in my collection, apart from the two I’ve already talked about (the Sinclair Cambridge Scientific and the Sinclair Scientific). It’s the Sinclair Cambridge Programmable. Yes, it can be programmed! And, just like the Casio fx-98 I talked about last time, it was licensed in the US to produce the Radio Shack EC-4001 (more on that in a moment). […]
READ MOREOK, time for another quick delve into my calculator collection: it’s the Casio fx-98. This particular one is interesting for a few reasons: first is it’s a scientific calculator, albeit not RPN; second, it’s the size of a credit card, even though it’s thicker; third, it’s solar powered – no batteries to worry about; and finally, Casio licensed it out to Radio Shack who produced the equivalent under their own name. […]
READ MOREWhat with all the news about a possible recession due to an inverted yield curve (now, there’s a possible post, given my work for a Swaps trading group a while back), and given that someone commented on one of my old posts about a calculator in my collection, I thought it was about time to show off another one. This time we’re going to talk Business. […]
READ MOREBack in the day, the second calculator I owned was a Commodore SR 4190R, a fun little beast. Once I’d found a replacement for the one I had (it’d got lost at some point) and I’d found an example of its more “experienced” brother, the SR 9190R, I decided to try and get copies of all the similarly-bodied calculators that Commodore had made back in the 70s, maybe half a dozen or so. It didn’t take too long, but there was one of that type that just eluded me, the SR4921. Until earlier this month, that is… […]
READ MOREYes, it’s another rave from the grave: a retro calculator from Julian’s past calculator history. This one is from 1976, so I bought mine after I’d finished school and before I started university. It’s the Commodore SR 4190R, made in England (take that, oriental factories!), and a more fabulous button-oriented jabberwock of a calculator is hard to imagine. And, unlike graphics calculators of the present day with their menus and pixel displays, this is “just” a calculator. […]
READ MOREWhile I was away last week in Vegas for the DevExpress Summit, my newest calculator was delivered: the Sinclair Cambridge Scientific. It was with a little bit of apprehension that I opened up the padded envelope on Friday afternoon to see what it looked like and whether it worked properly (sometimes sellers on eBay are a little, er, shall we say, enthusiastic about how good the calculator they’re selling is and somehow neglect to mention various obvious problems). This one was doubly worrying: the seller admitted that he made it from the kit – yes, for some reason, you could buy it as a kit and assemble it yourself: it was slightly cheaper than buying it pre-assembled. […]
READ MOREIt’s about time I introduced the first Hewlett-Packard calculator I ever bought. Unlike the previous calculators I’ve shown (Litton Royal 5T, Casio SL-800, Casio ML-81) which were replacements obtained long after the originals had been lost or thrown away, this is the actual calculator I purchased and used back in 1988. I can’t remember the cost, but it must have been enough that I also splashed out on the deluxe leather case to protect it. These days they go for about $150 on eBay for one in good condition with manual and standard case. […]
READ MOREFor your jaunt down memory lane today, I present another calculator from my collection: the Casio ML-81. […]
READ MOREOK, kids, gather round old Gramps as he shows off the first calculator he ever owned. He got it as a present for passing his O-levels. (Actually, even if I’d had the calculator prior to taking my O-levels, I wouldn’t have been allowed to use it for the exams. Unlike math tests today, It was slide rules only in those days.) Are you gathered round? Here it is, the Litton Royal Digital 5-T from 1973. […]
READ MOREAs it says in my bio for this site, I’m a calculator collector. Mostly Hewlett-Packard LCD calculators it must be said, but every now and then I pick up something from another manufacturer. […]
READ MOREI admit it, I am a helpless geek: I love collecting old calculators and computing devices. My wife thinks I'm bananas, and she may be right, but there's just something about holding something from the dawn of calculating electronics. […]
READ MORE...And mine arrived this afternoon. Just stunningly beautiful, and the picture does it no justice whatsoever. You have to hold one in your hands, weigh its heft, feel the clicks as you wind the handle, peer at the little digits. […]
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