Home > Collecting Calculators

A special section with articles of interest to collectors of calculators. Many of the articles originate from the International Association of Calculator Collectors (sadly no longer in operation), with new articles specially written for the Vintage Calculators site.

In this section:
1) Calculator Articles
2) Calculator Books.
3) Link to LED Calculator Watch Site

Most of the information in this section is provided courtesy of Guy Ball (mrcalc@usa.net).
The majority of the articles were originally published in "The International Calculator Collector", the newsletter of International Association of Calculator Collectors run by Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm, unfortunately now no longer in operation.
Guy and Bruce also produced the indispensible  "The Complete Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators", see the link lower down this page.

1) Calculator Articles

• A Timeline of Electronic Calculator History
• The Evolution of Today's Calculator
• The Birth of the Electronic Age
• Electronic Calculator History (1965-75)
• Friden EC-130 - One of the first transistorised electronic calculators in 1964.
• TI Cal-Tech - Late 1960's portable electronic calc prototype.
• Anita: the world's first electronic desktop calculator - A brief history of the complex Bell Punch company and its calculators.
• Busicom of Japan and Broughtons of Britstol - A pioneering calculator company and the company which carries on the name.
• Bowmar Calculators - A pocket calculator pioneer in the U.S.A.
• Commodore Hand-held Calculators 1971-1978
• Texas Instrument Calculators (1972-79) - How rare are they ?
• Clive Sinclair and the pocket calculator - the story of Clive Sinclair, the electronics genius, and the pocket calculator.
• Radio Shack Original Prices
• Calculator Display Technology - An Overview
• Pulsar calculator watches
• The story behind Summit calculators
• Sperry Remington Rand calculators
• The Early Klixon Keyboard - The "Premier" early keyboard.
• The HP-35 Calculator, an excerpt from "A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers"
• Wang 360SE desktop calculator
• TI Prototype and Preproduction Models Found!
• Pre-Altair MITS Calculators
• How They Work - (Some) Mechanical Calculators
• Notes on Monroe and Marchant Calculators
• The "Twin Marchant" and its place in history. New July 2010.
• The Amazing Curta (Bruce Flamm's Curta article)
• Greg Saville disassembles a Curta (with pictures!)
• US Patent from Curt Herzstark (Curta inventor)(Thanks to Andries de Man for posting it.)
• Curta Instruction Manual (Thanks again to Andries de Man for posting it on the web)
• Unusual Calculators -- The Calcu-pen
• Bruce's Olivetti electro-mechanical calculator article
• Larry Gilbert's article on Olivetti electronic calcs
• RCA Calculators (or are they space helmets?)
• Operating a mechanical pin-wheel calculator
• Operating a Comptometer
• Restoration of Calculators -- making them look "pretty" again.
• Trivia, Tips, Musings, and Requests from the Calculator Mailing List.
• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Calculators -- listing of early calculators with LCD displays.
• Non-HP RPN Calculators.
• Calculator Makers: Information on less-known or obscure calculator makers.
• Old Notes from www.oldcalcs.com, the original "Collecting Calculators" site.
• "One Hit Wonders" - Companies that manufactured just one or two models of calculators.
• The calculator that spawned the microprocessor - The Busicom 141-PF calculator and the Intel 4004 microprocessor.
• SCAT and its Specialist Calculators: How a start-up company formed by a group of friends developed a successful series of advanced specialist calculators. New August 2011.

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2) Calculator Books

3) Link to LED Calculator Watch Site

Uranus LED Calculator Watch

Guy Ball has a short article and pictures describing the very unique (and very rare) Uranus LED calculator watch on his LED watch website at http://www.ledwatches.net. Visit there and see a really cool calculator watch!

Also, at that site, you'll see articles, photos, ad reprints and more for LED watches. Take a look!

Vintage Calculators

© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout   2000-2011 except where noted otherwise.