HP-46 find

[GanjaTron]

Today I did a good deed: I rescued an HP-46 from the dumpster. No kidding, the lab was actually gonna toss it out!

I fired it up and it's perfect -- even the ribbon still prints. This thing is weird; apart from its hefty weight and size, it has the peculiarity of running a loud motor when you turn on the printer, almost giving the impression there's a hard disk lurking within! And man, is that printer clunky; reminds me of a telex machine!

Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you guys. Wonder what's gonna turn up next in the dumpster... ;^)

--Roland

[bill platt]

I think I speak for many of us who spend time here when I say congratulations!

[Michael de Estrada]

Does it have the optional LED display? I remember lusting over one of these in the display case of a store in 1974.

[George Bailey (Bedford Falls)]

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Does it have the optional LED display?

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I just read about this machine on
this museum page. How was it operated without the LED option? Was every single keystroke directly printed?

[GanjaTron]

Yep, it does have the LED option. The dinky display looks pretty out of place on such a large machine. The printer doesn't echo every keystroke, only when you enter operands or operators, so I suspect the absent display is no fun. Amusingly, hitting CLEAR literally prints the same. Anyone know why it uses a black and *red* ribbon?

Regards,

--Roland

[Katie Wasserman]

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Anyone know why it uses a black and *red* ribbon?

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Negative numbers print in red.

[bill platt]

I think that red ribbon will see a lot of use these days.

[GanjaTron]

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Negative numbers print in red.

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Thanks Katie, you're right. Wasn't in a "negative" mood to try it out until now. ;^)

The red's kinda faded tho. That grinding printer noise really freaks me out.

And yep, these calcs with their red negs might just come into fashion again these days...

Have a great weekend,

--Roland

[Katie Wasserman]

New black/red ribbons are very easy to come by as this seems to be a standard size still in use in modern accountant's calculators. (I think I bought some of these: Porelon 483-B/R).

I might start selling red-only ribbons, there must be some money in that these days. They say that many law firms have switched from doing real estate deals to doing bankruptcies.

[Walter B]

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They say that many law firms have switched from doing real estate deals to doing bankruptcies.

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If you meant what you wrote then that was a real good joke. But I guess you did mean something different ;-)