Wang
Wang Laboratories, Inc., Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Was founded in the 1950s by An Wang, a brilliant Chinese immigrant to the U.S.A.
Wang Labs produced a series of powerful desk calculators beginning with the LOCI in 1966. This employed the novel approach of performing
many calculations using logarithms which it generated electronically. Other models followed into the early 1970s when the company realised that the profit from calculators was likely to continue its decline, and they moved
into mini-computers and dedicated word-processors, with which they were very successful.
Like others in this line of business, Wang was caught out by the personal computer revolution of the mid 1980s and after making severe
losses merged into IBM in the early 1990s after the death of the founder, An Wang.
The fascinating history of Wang Laboratories can be read in the book 'Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories' by Charles C. Kenney, published in 1992 by Little, Brown and Company.
Wang 600
Programmable calculator with amber gas-discharge display, printer, and tape cassette for program storage.
Launched 1972.
Aimed towards business and engineering use.
Photographed at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, U.K.
Wang 10-DIGIT SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR
An unusual hand-held scientific calculator with LCD display uniquely carrying the Wang name. Manufactured in China, this is a rebadged Sharp EL-506P calculator and could be a promotional item for Wang desktop calculators.
There is a larger photograph of this calculator in the Calculator Photograph Library.
Calculator Companies
Vintage Calculators
Text & photographs copyright, except where stated otherwise, © Nigel Tout 2000-2024.