The first HP-41C?

[Gianmaria (Italy)]

I bought on eBay a very nice HP-41C with the earliest S/N I ever seen... 1926A00278! The display was becoming black so I replaced it with another (from another early 41C, S/N 1932...) and now the calculator works perfectly with all its original bugs and a perfect case and keyboard.

On the Collector's Corner the earliest S/N for the 41C is 1930, but mine is 1926 and moreover the final number is extremely low so if the total production raised the million my 41C might be produced the first day of production (assuming 300 units produced each days, the grand total is 1.095.000 for 10 years of production)?

Thanks!
Gian

[Steve (Australia)]

Wlodek lists 1926 as the earliest date code for the HP41C, so I suspect the collectors page is in error.

[r. d. bärtschiger.]

If there were only three hundred units produced per day then there would be only 1,500 or 2,100 per week, depending on whether they ran the line five days a week or seven. I think this number is low. My 41cx serial number is 2646s217xx, indicating that the daily output must have been about 3,100 per day. Hope this information helps answer your question. Take care.

rdb.