My dad bought his first electronic calculator in the early 1970s for about $45 (a Rapidman 800). It had the 4 basic arithmetic functions, red LED, and ran from a 9 volt battery. An AC adapter sold separately. Like most calculators of that era, it was about 5-6 inches long by 3-4 inches wide and was stored in a "leather" padded case when not in use. I still have it but it is finicky; it goes to zero if the result overflows its 8-digit capacity; it has no correction key (CE) and no ability to continue adding/multiplying when the equal key is repeatedly pressed like all calculators do today. A few years later calculators were about half the price and those functions were common including square root, negation and memory (M+ M- MR MC); the display was changing to green LED and ran off 2-3 AA batteries. By the early 80's LCD displays were getting more common running off 2 button batteries. Solar power was not far behind
Cool! I have Texas Instruments TI-2550. It was made in 1972 (Wow! 53 years. 3 years before I was born) and is in phenomenal condition. It’s quite a bit smaller than the one in the video. In my opinion, the neat thing about it is it has an led display. Newer, cheaper calculators might be more capable, but they aren’t nearly as cool.
My Highschool Electeonics teacher brought in an old calculator to show us once, it was as big as our bench and only could only add, subtract, multiply and divide!
My dad bought his first electronic calculator in the early 1970s for about $45 (a Rapidman 800). It had the 4 basic arithmetic functions, red LED, and ran from a 9 volt battery. An AC adapter sold separately. Like most calculators of that era, it was about 5-6 inches long by 3-4 inches wide and was stored in a "leather" padded case when not in use.
I still have it but it is finicky; it goes to zero if the result overflows its 8-digit capacity; it has no correction key (CE) and no ability to continue adding/multiplying when the equal key is repeatedly pressed like all calculators do today.
A few years later calculators were about half the price and those functions were common including square root, negation and memory (M+ M- MR MC); the display was changing to green LED and ran off 2-3 AA batteries.
By the early 80's LCD displays were getting more common running off 2 button batteries. Solar power was not far behind
Cool! I have Texas Instruments TI-2550. It was made in 1972 (Wow! 53 years. 3 years before I was born) and is in phenomenal condition. It’s quite a bit smaller than the one in the video. In my opinion, the neat thing about it is it has an led display. Newer, cheaper calculators might be more capable, but they aren’t nearly as cool.
The display was not quite Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) but likely either Nixie tubes or LED.
My Highschool Electeonics teacher brought in an old calculator to show us once, it was as big as our bench and only could only add, subtract, multiply and divide!
Can’t make out the manufacturer label on the unit - who made it?
I use my HP12c (1981) every work day. RPN!!!