DrinkMan
Well-known member
I know most people tend to use the calculator function on their phones these days but most of us remember using calculators. Well, I still use this Sharp Scientific Calculator that I've had for about 40 years.
Can a Calculator be Vintage?
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cherokee
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Yup, the old TI calculators are looked for, and I know one place that "restores" them. Some of the early HP are the same way.
If you want your mind blown look up curta.
If you want your mind blown look up curta.
nadogail
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My Abacus makes your electronic calculator look like a Rookie.
Oldtuleguy
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Garcky
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I had a Curta back in the 1960s. Very useful, actually.
Jim greengo
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The calculator I use is in my head,it's more vintage than most anyway.
Oldtuleguy
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I keep meaning to fiddle with that slide rule but have not got around to it
Lassen Forge
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My uncle worked for HP back in the early 70's and had something to do with the development of the HP35... IDK what one would be worth now, I know you can get the modern version for $55... quite the drop from $399 in 1970 dollars... but it was cool enough I asked him to teach me RPN so I could use it.
There's something about the look and feel of the old HP stuff that somehow has a certain asthetic about it...
There's something about the look and feel of the old HP stuff that somehow has a certain asthetic about it...
Garcky
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Can they be vintage? Oh, yes. Can they be valuable? That too.
Search eBay for nixie tube calculator. Keep your eyes open at garage sales. At estate sales, early calculators are one of the hot items to buy. You'll often find them in a box somewhere with other small office things for a buck or two. You don't even have to know which ones to buy. If they look like they date back to the 60s or early 70s, just buy them. They all have value, the old ones, so you can peddle them on eBay after checking for price points for that specific model.
Search eBay for nixie tube calculator. Keep your eyes open at garage sales. At estate sales, early calculators are one of the hot items to buy. You'll often find them in a box somewhere with other small office things for a buck or two. You don't even have to know which ones to buy. If they look like they date back to the 60s or early 70s, just buy them. They all have value, the old ones, so you can peddle them on eBay after checking for price points for that specific model.
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I need to go find my slide rules. I have 3. One was a gift from my father's boss. When I was about 4 to 6 years old, our family went to the New England Museum of Science with my father's boss and his family. Apparently, I had a real good time and asked a million questions and played with everything they had for kids. The next day, my father's boss gave my father a slide rule and told him "Give it to your youngest son - he will be an Engineer someday". He was right.
tom coffey
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I have a collection of slide rules, my vintage calculators.
Oldtuleguy
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Some pics would be cool. I just have the one.
4xdog
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I sold my c1970 Sharp micro Compet calculator a few years ago. Definitely vintage and definitely valuable to an esoteric group of collectors.
The typeface on the display is unique, and interesting.
The typeface on the display is unique, and interesting.
Walkers
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Technically, the only thing that can be vintage is wine. Even then it is just, literally the age of the wine. One year old wine is vintage.
Oldtuleguy
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50 is vintage, 100 is antique
Oldtuleguy
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The curta calculators are pricey
My dad's old engineering stamp, slide rule and calculator
What was the stamp used for? As an official signature on papers?
Woah... that's pretty cool!
Add that to the list of things I don't need but want to have. Probably have to wait for these guys to get the repro's in production. No way I can justify buying an original unless I happen to stumble on one in a flea market or thrift shop.
nadogail
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Reverse Polish Notation, just the name sounds backwards.
65ranchero
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Lassen Forge
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When I got my first non-RPN (Probably a TI, tho don't quote me on that) it totally effed me up having to learn how to use it. I finally got over it, but man, it was a steep learning curve for me!
Garcky
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Collectibles. Sold mine a couple of years ago and paid my property taxes.
bwringer
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My Dad was among the first Engineers to adopt calculators -- he had some very expensive TI calculators, including some of the very first primitive programmables. He was not a fan of HP's RPN approach. He understood it, but he hated it and we were a TI-only household.
But he never wholly abandoned his slide rules, and could grab one and make a quick calculation faster than monkeying with electronics.
But he never wholly abandoned his slide rules, and could grab one and make a quick calculation faster than monkeying with electronics.
Mr. Wonderful
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is this one worth anything?
velocipede
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I'd be lost without my HP11C (1981-1989) and it's reverse Polish notation.
interesting enough. I have a couple here one is about 40 years old. Surprisingly enough, I found them right away. I havnt used them in decades. I haven't used a dictionary in decades either. Just look it up on the computer, tablet or phone.
RivennHewn
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Wrench97
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Private Lugnutz
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Me too. But it's a good'n!
This is a 10-inch Keuffel & Esser Log Log Decitrig Duplex Model 4081-3, S/N 867525, made of pure mahogany plated in white celluloid, with a glass indicator held together with plastic and metal screws, inside the classic sewn orange leather case. The Model 4081-3's were only made from 1938 to 1947. The patent on the metal clip on the flap loop on the case (2,000,337) is from 1935, the latest patent (2,170,144) on the rule itself is from 1939 and the 'PAT. PEND.' after that most likely refers to their next patent in sequence (2,285,722), granted June 9, 1942, leading me to believe mine is from 1940-1941.
A very handy K&E dating timeline can be found on the Slide Rule Museum site, also directly linked here.
Also good info posted on the McCoy's catalog collector's site here.
Attachments
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Oldtuleguy
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Yes
That Post 1444K slide rule was made by Hemmi in Japan. Their use of bamboo for the stock was an inspired choice because bamboo is naturally lubricated and is nearly immune to changes in humidity. (Japan has a generally humid climate and that may have led the company to choose bamboo.)
Except for during WW 2, Hemmi was the OEM for just about every slide rule badged as Post. (Hughes-Owens and Geotec were Canadian marques and Odelco in the Phillippines.)
On the reverse side, blind-stamped (no ink) into the stock, you can usually find a two-letter code showing the month and year that the rule was made. You may need a magnifier to see it.
Lots more here:
https://sliderulemuseum.com/SRM_Home.htm
Post: https://sliderulemuseum.com/Post.htm
Hemmi: https://sliderulemuseum.com/Hemmi.htm
Hemmi dates: https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Dates.htm#Hemmi
BTW, I still have my HP-35 bought in 1973 here on my desk and it still works just fine.
You gotta add some hexadecimal to your Jr. High humor!My EL-510S from Jr. High, along with my Jr. High sense of humor
Amazing the solar “panels” still work!
RivennHewn
Well-known member
Love it!You gotta add some hexadecimal to your Jr. High humor!
Shelloil was another inverted numerical sequence.
My Hp 35 stopped working after a recall had called in many duds. My enthusiasm for Hp waned after they told me I had missed the recall.
My school time slide rule was a Faber-Castell 2/82. It had lots of scales I never did use and I had to learn new industry tricks using it for power transformer design in my career.
Consider calculating efficiency when the answer might be 98.78%
This is impossible to see as the scale is short at the right hand end.
However the routine was to work out the inefficiency shown on the left hand end as 1.22 and deduct that from 100 QED
YMMV
My Hp 35 stopped working after a recall had called in many duds. My enthusiasm for Hp waned after they told me I had missed the recall.
My school time slide rule was a Faber-Castell 2/82. It had lots of scales I never did use and I had to learn new industry tricks using it for power transformer design in my career.
Consider calculating efficiency when the answer might be 98.78%
This is impossible to see as the scale is short at the right hand end.
However the routine was to work out the inefficiency shown on the left hand end as 1.22 and deduct that from 100 QED
YMMV
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cherokee
Well-known member
The "machine" part of it is amazing to me.
cvairwerks
Well-known member
Registered engineers used ether an embossing seal or an ink stamp that was identical. When you hear the need for stamped drawings or prints, it means they have been reviewed and approved by a registered engineer, and that’s official way it’s done.
Debcrow
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Calculators were available (But a bit pricey) when I went to engineering school. It was a requirement to use a slide rule on ALL tests for awhile. When asked WHY. The Professor said, "you need to know because your battery might go dead just when you need it."
Actually, it was a good thing. Using a slide rule makes you think what the answer needs to be. Something that seems to be lost on a lot of people today. Look at people using a cash register. Whatever it says is the truth to some people (even if you punched in the numbers wrong). No feel in their heads what should be the correct amount.
Actually, it was a good thing. Using a slide rule makes you think what the answer needs to be. Something that seems to be lost on a lot of people today. Look at people using a cash register. Whatever it says is the truth to some people (even if you punched in the numbers wrong). No feel in their heads what should be the correct amount.
Lassen Forge
Well-known member
In the 90's, I ran one of the food stands for a local flea market, and they ALWAYS had problems with cash drawers being wrong, sometimes in the dozens of dollars. I startd teaching my employees to count out, then count back change like we did when I was a kid, not relying on the readout on the till, and sure as shooting our drawers were within 10 cents of perfect (and most of the time dead on) every closing. If you couldn't do it, then you needed to learn or move on, sorry.
I saw the transition from mechanical to mechatronic to electronic happen right before my very eyes. Between engineering school years I did a year as a bank accountant trainee. We had mechanical adding machines that used keypunch stops to "stack" elements that would aggregate with the pull of a large lever. We also had a "posting machine" with similar HUGE keyboard (each position of a number had a column of 10 keys on a huge keyboard) that did the mechanical shuffling with an electric motor. These machines and the typewriter that evolved from that industry (the IBM Selectric and Correcting Selectric) were monuments to the art and science of toolmaking for punch and die guys. Many years ago I gave my Father-in-law a mechanical/electric calculator that would do multiplication and division...mechanically. When you punched in a problem, it would roll over many times and then stick it printer bars up and down as it re-stated your question and then printed the answer (including remainders). The thing nearly jumped around doing it functions.
While I was at the bank, an accountant friend bought the first electronic calculator in town. It was HUGE and it was a few thousand 1968 dollars, but it revolutionized productivity at his company. At school I still had nothing but a slide rule. BTW: at the bank were were expected to be able to add columns of numbers in the thousand of dollars range by sight. It was actually an extremely useful skill in days of slide rule (when you had to estimate your answer first to get the decimal in right place).
While I was at the bank, an accountant friend bought the first electronic calculator in town. It was HUGE and it was a few thousand 1968 dollars, but it revolutionized productivity at his company. At school I still had nothing but a slide rule. BTW: at the bank were were expected to be able to add columns of numbers in the thousand of dollars range by sight. It was actually an extremely useful skill in days of slide rule (when you had to estimate your answer first to get the decimal in right place).