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First calculators...



#4

Since Michael Beaulieu started the "first calculators" thread I'll put my two bits in as well...

I was in thrd grade in Dec. 1973. (Maybe this calc was acquired in a post-Christmas sale in Jan 74) and my dad acquired "for us" a Sears LED four-banger calculator after a summer of me continually wandering by the Bowmar Brain and HP demo calcs at Macys, Sears, etc while we were on shopping outings. IIRC, we paid $129.95 which wasn't bad at the time. This calc was quite well made, had built-in NiCd rechargeables, etc. However, it had the "+=" and "-=" adding machine logic keys. The keys were of a square design, rounded corners, with a raised circle keytop on it.
I was cautioned to wash my hands before using the calc by Dad, so "my greasy fingerprints" wouldn't wear the "logos" off the key. [Perhaps he'd already had experience w/non-double-injected keytops on other devices ;-)] IIRC, at least some of the key legends were "in negative": round keytop all black, w/white symbol legend. Very good click keyboard.

I believe this Sears calc was really an older TI design under the hood. The calc was fairly thick and had 2 PC boards, IIRC - we had it open once (checking innards after a coffee spill) and I recall it being far from a one-chip design: lotsa discretes, driver transistors, etc. The style and appearance *may* have been indicative of a Melcor design as those were private-labelled by Sears but the Melcor may've been a tad later.

My dad just used it for adding tax stuff, receipts, etc.
But as I grew a tad older we argued in circles about "MDAS" order of operations and what 6+4x5 really equalled - I said 26, he said 50, and we each had half my math teachers backing us up ;-)

In late 75 we also got a Casio "Pocket mini" calc which became "Mom's calc". Had flourescent display, used two AA batteries, was a little bigger than a pack of Marlboros, easier to use than Sears calc, better on batteries.
It had ordinary +,-,X,/ keys but IIRC not MDAS algebraic logic. After a year of moderate use there was some keybouce. In 1979 it went haywire - terrible bounce on many keys. We took it apart to clean keypad but did no good. The KB internals were a sheet of springy stainless with punched springy tabs; these contacted wire 'jumpers' on PCB when keys depressed. IIRC, calc used Hitachi IC and I think one NEC IC as well (display driver?).

In summer of '76 I was just outta sixth grade; we were both taking some classes for to get ham radio licenses, and a sci calc was nice for some log & trig operations. Plus I was picking up a bit of trig for some triangle problems my dad would pose to me (summers were not just layabout affairs). Again Sears had a calc on sale for us: an APF Mark 50 (?) sci calc for $29.95. I wanna say this used a GI (Gen'l Instrument) chip (but can't remember rightl now.) Most of the sci functions were shifted functions of the basic number + four-banger keys. It did NOT have base-10 logs/10^x - only ln(x) and e^x. And I don't think it had a y^x or xth-root-of-y key either - hadda use log/antilog. But at least you could do SOMETHING. I soon became aware
that log/trig functions were approximations - esp on this calc! (I'd trot over to Macy's with a sheet of APF results and compare them to HP's.) Was quite power hungry and ate 9V batteries.

In summer of 1977 while on vacation in Oregon we saw a TI30 "Student Math Kit" on sale for $25 (+/- a few bucks). My dad liked the book, thought it'd be good for me (though I knew much of the ground anyway) and liked the fact that it had direct log & trig functions without a lot of shifted keys. Plus my dad figured it'd be easier on 9V batteries.

For Christmas 1977 (8th grade) my folks got me a Commodore PR100 - dad's friend had one, liked it, and I'd been jumping for a programmable. (Folks had NO idea why ANYONE needed to do a 'program'.) We got it from Mr. Calculator in Town & Country Village shopping ctr in Palo Alto. But after a few days' use the keyboard was real bouncy, the instruction manual had missing pages, etc. so pops took it back for credit toward a TI58. I really REALLY wanted an HP25C (maybe 29Cs were out then; 55s/67s were way out there pricewise) because I *knew* RPN was better. But pops thought RPN was some kinda fad/marketing thing, and besides, "...the Air Force Academy math program recommends TI and AOS...", which of course hooked my dad, the one controlling the purse strings for such items.

Getting an unexpected upgrade to a "big boys' programmable" was better than I ever expected so I kept my mouth shut about HPs and RPN. I did like the TI system concept - there was a multipage spread in the Aug. 1977 Scientific American (kinda a famous issue about semiconductor trends) on the TI58 and TI59 and I was impressed.

For the next couple of years I did quite a bit of programming on the 58, got wondering about the innards and why a calc did what it does. For some reason I got interested in gamma function and factorials of big numbers, etc. and wrote lotsa programs in that vein. A buddy with a 58 and I were gonna do a joint purchase of a PR100 printer but we couldn't get the bux together. We already knew we wanted permanent storage and print facilities :) We did get a copy of the TI Notes (?) newsletter (Maurice Swinnen of Maryland, I believe) where we heard of intersting functions like HIR and speed-up functions - dunno why we didn't subscribe.

All hell broke loose when the HP41 system came out in 1980 (?). That was *THE* thing. I craved it like nothing else.
By my senior year in HS, and being pretty good in math, I think I convinced my folks that I really knew that RPN was better, and they could vaguely understand that continuous memory was nice. I got a 41C for Xmas 1981 (they got it from ElekTek in Chicago), and 41C Math and Memory modules for my birthday that April from the local HP emporium, Kennedy Business Machines on El Camino in San Mateo (dept stores had cut back on HP stocks at the time.)

Another buddy and I shared Wickes' SP book on HP41 that summer - and that's where I learned of byte grabbers, SP, and doing things you shouldn't on calcs - like NOT disturbing Register C! Was very interested in how calcs calculated log & trig functions: I knew that the power series stuff in calculus class wasn't all there was too it, and already had a bit of insight to know there must be shortcuts to be effective and not have lotsa divisions, etc.
Knew some people with VASM listings of HP41 code but my assembly code interests were veering over to 6502 world... really wanted a KIM1/SIM1 SBC.

Bill Wiese
San Jose, CA


#5

I remember my first calculator...My fingers!
I remember sitting on our porch steps before I
started the first grade (didn't go to kindergarten)
doing rudimentary multiplication ( 3 threes is 9, 3 twos is 6, 2 fours is 8, 4 twos is 8, and so forth). Then I started school the next year and Math ("Numbers" as it was called) lost all of its fun for me. Something I've never fully recovered.

#6

Consider posting your comments on the Memories Forum...


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