1960's electronic calculator

[HCHTech]

I love this guys stuff - kinda makes me want to go back to school for ee. Link

"Acoustic memory" I want to be in the room when the guy that thought of this first had his idea.

 

[Moltuae]

I'm not quite old enough to remember using mechanical calculators but I did own one of the first electronic calculators when I was kid, which had a vacuum fluorescent display, a bit like this one. It would dramatically flash on and off (displaying 'ERROR') when you did something wrong, like divide by zero. I have fond memories of that calculator, not only because I learned that I could spell stuff like 5318008 and 710.77345 on it ('boobies' and 'shell oil' upside down), but also because it was the first electronic device that I owned ... and ultimately took apart to learn how it worked.

That "acoustic memory" is interesting. I never knew there were mechanical calculators that used that 'technology'. It looks like it works similar to a spring reverberator, which I have played around with in the past when making electronic audio projects. Using a spring/coiled wire effectively allows the use of a longer wire in a more compact unit, giving longer delays. I think those may be more prone to mechanical/shock interference though, which may be why they went for a spiralled straight wire design in the calculator.

 

[Altster]

I wonder how much longer before "core" memory came along.

His comments at the end about "bringing it to life" - I can relate to this.

AND, because I got my start in the professional world as a typewriter mechanic, I can remember when Sharp Electronics released their electronic calculator and how big it was for the few functions it had.

Boy, times sure have changed a great deal since back in the 1970's!

 

[Larry Sabo]

I'm not quite old enough to remember using mechanical calculators

I am; we used to do differential equation calculations on those 16-digit(?) Monroe (I think) mechanical calculators in numerical analysis class at Waterloo in the early '60s. They would chug away, one digit at a time, grinding out the result -- until they locked up and you'd have to start over. I love this old stuff. Never heard of acoustic memory, although we studied different memory devices in college in the late '50s, like drum storage, CRT storage, etc. Magical times.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I remember my dad had one of the original Sinclair Cambridge calculators..this model here.. 1973.
http://kevinrye.net/index_files/sinclair_cambridge_vintage_calculator.php

 

[HCHTech]

Speaking of calculators, I've always wanted a Curta - such an engineering marvel - they are pricey though.

 

[alluseridsrejected]

I remember my dad had one of the original Sinclair Cambridge calculators..this model here.. 1973.
http://kevinrye.net/index_files/sinclair_cambridge_vintage_calculator.php

The first calculator I remember seeing my dad with was one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30

Growing up, he also owned the first computer I ever worked on, which was one of these with 32k of memory:

 

[alluseridsrejected]

My dad also owned one of these 1403 printers, which was the first printer I ever operated. This video doesn't do justice though, because it had a big metal and glass cover to raise and lower over it which was pretty neat to watch:

He also had a card reader/punch like the one at the beginning of this video: You can see the printer glass cover in down position also.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The first calculator I remember seeing my dad with was one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30]

I also remember my dad getting that one a bit later...mid 70's...yup. Used to love hearing the click of the buttons as I played with it.

 

[Markverhyden]

I remember those old hand cranked ones as well as the electronic ones. But the real thrill was seeing the first digital calculator. Caterpillar bought a bunch when they came out for all their executives so my Dad got one. The SR-10

 

[Larry Sabo]

Growing up, he also owned the first computer I ever worked on, which was one of these with 32k of memory

How old are you, and your dad? I used to work on one of those at IBM in '65 and for several years later. How many knew that that card reader/punch was capable of reading from the output hopper? I modified a card version of the OS to read from it and the input hopper, the tape drives and DASD drives while printing on that 1403 printer, one at a time or in combination, to demo the system and dazzle the prospective customers. LOL. The system (System/360-65) had to be booted by dialing in the boot code via the dials on the front console. Those were the days.

 

[Markverhyden]

The everyday calculator I use on my Android phone is a remarkably accurate photo-realistic emulation of the TI-58 I first owned back in 1978, and it makes me smile every time I use it.

I've got a HP 15C. It's not the 46CV that is my all time fav but it's close since I owned a 15C as well. I still have my 46CV and it still works when I have the batteries in it. But I'll admit I'm more than a bit rusty on the RPN stuff.

 

[HCHTech]

I've got a HP 15C. It's not the 46CV that is my all time fav but it's close since I owned a 15C as well. I still have my 46CV and it still works when I have the batteries in it. But I'll admit I'm more than a bit rusty on the RPN stuff.

Being from the financial world, I cut my teeth on a 12c. I just love the tactile experience of using it - great design. I heard a rumor that they were going to stop making them once back in the 90s, so I bought 3 - enough to last me until retirement, I thought. I'm still on the 2nd one. The first one bit the dust when it fell onto the pavement as I got into my car one day and I ran over it. It was a bit squashed, but it still worked for a few months after that - haha.

I was never quite sure whether using the nomenclature "Reverse Polish Notation" was racist or not. I guess "Lukasiewicz Notation" would never have caught on...

 

[alluseridsrejected]

How old are you, and your dad?

My Dad is 82, I am 59. He started working in computing in the mid 1950s. His company was how I got started working with mainframes in the 70s.

The avatar I use is an original IBM Ramac 5mb disk drive. He actually worked with them in the 1950s. I like to use it because IBM brought back the Ramac name in 94 with their 1st raid 5 device. Where I worked at the time, we got the very first Ramac raid 5 device and raid 5 arrays IBM ever shipped, before they were GA. Actually it was the 2nd device. The first one, IBM loaded the arrays at the top of the box, making it top heavy. The CEs were rolling it up our data center raised floor ramp and it toppled over on them, smashing into the floor. After we got the 2nd one in several days later and after I helped them work out some bugs in beta testing, IBM said I was the first to implement a IBM raid 5 Ramac device into production anywhere.

 

[TechPJC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq7noaMwLfg

 

[Altster]

Ok guys, how many of you "oldsters" remember the day when you had to "hand spin-up" some of those huge hard drives? I'm speaking of the ones with the holes in the bottom (or top) of the units to allow you put a finger thru and use some force to get it to spin.

 

[alluseridsrejected]

Here is a pretty neat video from IBM on the making of a 360 system.

 

[Larry Sabo]

My Dad is 82, I am 59

Ah, okay, thanks. Fascinating history. I wouldn't want to be one of the CEs that were responsible for that catastrophe. I can imaging what they cost back then. IBM was great to work for back then; not sure about today, as the competition is fierce today and it's a different world.

 

[Larry Sabo]

how many of you "oldsters" remember the day when you had to "hand spin-up" some of those huge hard drives?

I remember the cartridge drives (made by CDC, I think) but honestly don't remember having to spin them up. The bottoms were exposed until you put them in the drive assembly shown in the post above this one, or the carrier. Anybody program an IBM 407 accounting machine? (raises hand.) LOL. Geezers!

 

[alluseridsrejected]

I remember the cartridge drives (made by CDC, I think) but honestly don't remember having to spin them up. The bottoms were exposed until you put them in the drive assembly shown in the post above this one, or the carrier. Anybody program an IBM 407 accounting machine? (raises hand.) LOL. Geezers!

I remember first time I was shown how to recover data on a tape that wouldn't read because the tape had a crease. I was told to get the tape developer and dip the tape in it. I was like, what? Is this anything like the card stretcher? And they said no, there is can over there on that shelf. They said go get it and dip the creased section in it. I did and all these little spots appeared. They said those are the bits. These were 800bpi tape drives. You could literally see the data recorded on the tape media. We figured out what records they were, and used a ditto tape to tape process to recreate the damaged tape and load the missing records.