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Phytron

Phytron Electronics Ltd., of 117 Charterhouse Street, London EC1, was a British calculator marketing company. Together with Fi-Cord it took on the distribution in Britain of Anita hand-held calculators, and also a couple of models under its own name which were made for it by Advance Electronics.

Known models:

• 32 - hand-held.
• Analysis 14 (also believed to be available labelled with the Advance name) - described as "a desk model which also incorporates a separate hand-held calculator and is primarily aimed at accountancy users." Reported to have 14 memories accessed by a grid of keys!

Phytron 32

Phytron 32, aka Advance 82R

Display is 8 digits, red LED.

5.5v (5x rechargeable AA batteries).

Four functions, %, 2 memories, square root. Can calculate to 16 digits.

Main integrated circuits: General Instrument Microelectronics GIM 3, and H52973 (made by an unknown manufacturer), here date coded to mid-1973. Both have the Advance Electronics "A" logo printed on them, so may be custom designs. This circuit board is similar to that used in the Advance 88 featured on this site.

87 x 181 x 45 mm (3.4" x 7.1" x 1.75").

This model was made by Advance Electronics.

The publication "Electronic Calculator Markets and Suppliers", 1974, gives the price at £136 Sterling [about US$550], which is very high, but this example was bought at the Advance Electronics factory shop on 24th October 1975 for £10-80 [about US$25]. The invoice describes it as an Advance 82R.

This chunky model is unusual for a non-scientific hand-held model of this time in that it calculates to 16-digits, has 2 memories, and requires 2 main integrated circuits. The published price is very high (two ceramic packaged integrated circuits would be expensive) and it may have been sold off cheapily in 1975, by which time the cost of calculators had plummetted.

Vintage Calculators

© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout  2000-2008 except where noted otherwise.