Your First Calculator? (It may not have been digital!)

[Frantone]

I recall getting a cheap calculator when I was younger, but this is the first one I recall owning/using:

Does that calc have a blue lens over red LEDs?   I once had some mid-70's green lens T1-3/4 case LEDS with red GaAsP diodes in them.  It just didn't work!

[warp_foo]

Fran,

I'm sure it had a blue lens as the most memorable item for that calculator were the cool 'purple' LEDs.

Since non-electronic calculators are also in scope, I used variations of this for years:



The ones I used were for KC-130F and R models, but the overall devices were more similar than different.

m

[Frantone]

Hey - that'll work just fine!  A little fudging for a pound here and there...

[amspire]

Fran,

Thanks for posting the photo of the Kingson calculator. I had one of those and I had almost forgotten about it.

This is the first calculator I remember seeing around the house.

My father was an accountant, and this Walther WSR-160 from the 1950s was the first calculator I ever used. I just used it to divide 2.0 by 1.41421356 to get 1.414213 with a remainder of 0.00000079867172. This 16 digit accumulator calculator was an upgrade model to the 13 digit Walther Model RMKZ from 1924. The release of new models was a bit slow back then! I never actually saw my father use this calculator - he started as an accountant in 1938 and was trained to add up columns of numbers by just running his finger down the column and add in his head. It probably took him about 10 seconds to add a column of 40 numbers and get the correct total.

The slide rule I used in the first year at university (1974) is in front. In 1974, every engineering student had to have a slide rule and a book of log and trig tables, as decent scientific calculators were unaffordable. By 1975 TI and HP released some great affordable calculators and slide rules were totally obsolete - no student used one.

My first calculator was a Sinclair Cambridge Scientific kit I got in 1974, and it still works. It was pretty dodgy trying to use it.

By the way if the name Walther or the logo is familiar, yes, it is the same company.

[Frantone]

Oh Yea!  A new movie franchise is born!  Here is the scene as I see it:

 Barry Pindleton: MI5 Accountant

(a dark room and somber dramatic music - a villain stands over a man in a modest business suit)

      Guard - "We found him sir!  All he had on him was this..."  (guard drops huge metal calculator on table)

Villain - " Ah.... a Walther WSR-160.  Only one man I know uses such a calculator...."

     BP - (slowly looking up to make eye contact with villain) "It's Pindleton.  Barry Pindleton.  British Secret Service.....  Accounts Receivable. "

 (dramatic theme music - and scene!)

[Slothie]

I used slide rules in school because calculators where not allowed. But I did save up and get a Commodore 789M in 1978 before going into 6th form:

[GK]

I can't remember what my first calculator was any longer, but I do remember it was a birthday present and it did have a unique feature - auto power off. The auto power-off was in fact so effective, if you actually let it auto power-off, it would not actually turn back on again, ever. Took it back to K-mart for an exchange but the replacement did the same thing. Turned out to be a dud model and I didn't get a replacement after that. Can't remember what I must have then been given as an alternative birthday present. Probably lego.

[digsys]

Back in the 70's, I contracted for a Business Equipment company to repair their Monroe Nixie Tube calculators (similar to link).
Average repair cost $800.00-$1,200.00 (back then) - double layer gull wing hybrid PLCC body ICs were a bugger to remove.
HEAVEN was when the slide-rule appeared, log-tables were a drag.

[Rufus]

This was my first electronic calculator

A VFD display and one of those new fangled LEDS for power on indication. 

That photo and one of the insides here http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/tealtronic.html

My first scientific calculator was a side rule followed by



I threw away the Tealtronic, should have kept it. I still have the side rule and SR-51A - both working

[vlf3]

First was this Otis King, round slide rule, then the Sinclair Scientific, and now a Texas Instruments TI-68 advanced scientific.

[firewalker]

Mine was an Abacus. If I remember correctly we were using it to kindergarten to learn how to count, and simple math operations. Every child had one.



Alexander.

[ResR]

I had a lot of noname chinese garbage when I was in school that always had malfunction in carbon ribbon cable between board and lcd and eventually was taken apart. Currently I have a vintage "W" brand led bubble display calculator that I did a teardown and put back together carefully and it still works.
Edit: It does look like Novus 850 but it has only 6 digits.

[SeanB]

Casio FX 602P, still have it. Also a few others, HP and TI as well, and an old Olympus calculator.

[Tepe]

Texas Instruments SR-50. I still have it, but have lost the battery pack.

[warp_foo]

Villain - " Ah.... a Walther WSR-160.  Only one man I know uses such a calculator...."

     BP - (slowly looking up to make eye contact with villain) "It's Pindleton.  Barry Pindleton.  British Secret Service.....  Accounts Receivable. "

 (dramatic theme music - and scene!)

Reminded me of this: http://www.theonion.com/articles/it-wuz-always-bout-tha-numbahs,16650/

(If you get offended easily, don't follow the link...) 

m

[Frantone]

Hey!  Their cousins!  Identical cousins and you'll find.....  well you know the song if your in the USA. 

   

[robrenz]

My first calculator was a Sharp with only + - x / and 1 memory. I thought that was all that was needed for anything. Then I got a HP 25 and I was hooked. RPN, programming, scientific funtions. I bought EVERY HP calculator from that to the 48GX that I still use every day. Sorry but I cant stand the HP models that came after the 48GX.

[kfitch42]

Villain - " Ah.... a Walther WSR-160.  Only one man I know uses such a calculator...."

     BP - (slowly looking up to make eye contact with villain) "It's Pindleton.  Barry Pindleton.  British Secret Service.....  Accounts Receivable. "

 (dramatic theme music - and scene!)

Reminded me of this: http://archer.wikia.com/wiki/El_Contador

[c4757p]

Sorry but I cant stand the HP models that came after the 48GX.

I love my 35s, but the rest of the recent models have been total crap. Just pathetic, considering how good they used to be.

[Frantone]

I found this really cool website on off-brand pocket calculator manuals with tons of models to choose from.  They have the manual for my Novus Calc.....  Very fascinating!

http://www.wass.net/manuals/

[JoannaK]

My first one was Sinclair Cambridge Programmable (broke real soon), then TI 58C (with battery backed memory for programs) 

But best of them all.. HP 48SX .. it still works, and it's on my reach even today.. And yes, I do have 48-emulator at my android phone.

[Rick Law]

Sorry but I cant stand the HP models that came after the 48GX.

I love my 35s, but the rest of the recent models have been total crap. Just pathetic, considering how good they used to be.

I think the best was the HP25.  Best as in price/performance of the time.  I had both HP35 and HP45 then, so I never got the HP25.

By the way, I saw a few HP35 photos here; anyone have an HP45 picture to post?  I like to remember how it looks.

[robrenz]

HP 45

[iloveelectronics]

Does an abacus count? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

We had to learn to use one of these in primary school here back in the days. Calculators were only allowed in high school then.

[Frantone]

Yet another of my calculators - This one is my office desk calc, it is a Sears 8D made in Japan in early'70's with AC power and a single tube blue vacuum fluorescent display.  Super cool with real clicky keys.