Old calculators

[Matti]

The Millionaire
Friden EC-132

Fascinating stuff I have to say.

[Tymers Realm]

Man...  those were interesting vids.
And seeing the electronic calc with all those discrete components... Makes me feel old.

[cray]

Oh, mechanical calculators. That's some interesting stuff. I got engrossed in mechanical computing a while back and wanted to buy a Curta calculator off eBay, but those calculators look a bit more available.

[mdauben]

I hit the transition from slide-rules to calculators when I was in high school.  My sophomore chemistry teacher taught us how to use a slide-rule, and by the time I was a senior they were letting us use calculators in class.  I still have the slide-rule my dad bought for me to use in school, and several more that he used at work before he retired.  Fascinating things.

[cray]

On the note of transitions...

In high school, my math classes required the use of a TI-81 calculator. You had the option of borrowing it from the school (most students borrowed it permanently after graduating) or paying it off installments, something like $77 total. It was a great tool - my pre-calc and calculus courses revolved around it, and I got to learn not just the value of graphing but also programming to solve math problems.

But at the same time, when we hit logarithms they broke out the slide rules and taught us those. Those were fun.

[ShinEva]

Oh man, those things are so amazing, especially the Millionaire Machine, it is just .... incredible! That thing weighs like a piano, however, it does not do anything more than just some calculations, ain't that incredible! I mean, what are we doing nowadays using a tiny plastic thing, or our mobile phones, back in the day you actually needed such a giant thing for that! Nowadays you even have various calculators and unit converters online which is also amazing, like that we actually see the development and progress that we have been going through.

[idea weenie]

In a similar vein, check out the Curta.  A mechanical calculator developed in the 1930s, that fit in the palm of your hand.  Very few were returned due to damage, most were returned in pieces due to the owners deciding to take them apart and put them back together.

[elf25s]

i remember seeing a mechanical hand calculator that looked like a pepper shaker/grinder
but most impressive thing i had seen was the babbage engine...
that reminds me there was a group that was supposed to build one and compete it...never found out if it was completed

[Simon Landmine]

i remember seeing a mechanical hand calculator that looked like a pepper shaker/grinder

That sounds like the Curta that idea weenie mentions.

but most impressive thing i had seen was the babbage engine...
that reminds me there was a group that was supposed to build one and compete it...never found out if it was completed

The London Science Museum has a recreation of Babbage's Difference Engine, the big calculator, and there's a second one in the US. (The Science Museum also has a recreation of the printer that Babbage designed to go with it!)

[Daryk]

That sounds like the Curta that idea weenie mentions.
*snip*

Concur!

And the Seattle Science Center at least used to have a very nice illustration of what a "normal" distribution looked like demonstrated with little balls falling through a huge array of pins.