page 7


Old Adding Machine do you remember when calculators had cranks?

Do you remember when they were called adding machines because that was all some of them could do?

Do you remember when it took a strong man to move one of them?

I seem to remember that some of them could subtract and multiply too, but none of them could divide.
 

 

 American Adding Machine c.1912
Monroe Adding Machine

 
 
do you remember when calculators lost their cranks and got motors instead?

Do you remember that they lost a lot of buttons as well?

I seem to remember that some of these machines could divide as well as add, subtract and multiply.

 Remington Rand c.1960

 
 
do you know what this is?

Do you know what this is?

(the answer is at the bottom of the page)

 
  
Sharpe Electronic Printing Calculator c.1970 do you remember when calculators went electronic?

I remember that they became smaller, quieter and a whole lot lighter than the old mechanical calculators.

 
 
Pocket Mechanical Calculator Do you remember when calculators becAme small enough to hold in your hand?

I remember the first electronic calculators did only four functions - add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Do you remember that they still made mechanical pocket calculators?  They were much cheaper than electronic calculators and so there was a market for them even though they could not divide.

 Sharpe Hand Held Calculator c.1970 Texas Instruments Hand Held Calculator c.1970

 
 
Do you remember when a 64k coco was serious computing power?

Do you remember hooking your computer up to your T.V.?

I remember our first computer.  It was just like this one.  It had almost as many buttons as a 1912 adding machine!

 

 Color Computer 1982

 
 
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K&E slide rule c.1960
do you know what this is?  -  answer

This is a slide rule.  It can add, subtract, multiply, divide, do squares, cubes, logarithms and trigonometric functions.  It is an analogue calculator because it uses distances on rulers to represent numbers.  All the other calculators on this page are digital because they use counts to represent numbers.
This page created 7 May 2000