vintage calculators

[Half-Saint]

Anyone else here collects vintage calculators?

[dirge]

I don't but I did love the last thread with them in.

[HzFaq]

Someone was posting those slide-rule calculators a while back, was that you? They looked kind of cool, wouldn't mind some more pics of those. I don't collect them myself, I only have room in my life for 1 expensive hobby at a time

[Soarer]

I try not to. But after buying an HP 16C, I somehow also ended up with an 11C, a 12C and a 15C If I ever spot a cheap 10C I might buy it as well - it would be pure 'collecting', since it is a pretty useless machine! Clearly the high prices on those are just down to people completing their collection of Voyagers. I've been using mine though, mostly the 15 and 16, but really I should use the 11 instead and keep the 15 safe, I guess (it's already worth almost twice what I paid ).

[Charlie_Brown_MX]

I use an HP-12C every day at work. I have one of the current ones, which is okay, and 1982 model which is much nicer to use. My memory could be playing tricks on me, but I *think* I read somewhere that the keys on the Made in USA models are doubleshots. They’re definitely of a much higher standard than the current ones, and have a better tactile feel.

I occasionally play with an HP-11C for engineering maths, but haven’t really sat down and learned it properly — algebraic input is a hard habit to break.

[Charlie_Brown_MX]

Forgot to add: I don’t think the Voyagers are very repairable. A bunch of posts I read at the HP Museum Forum made mention of heatstakes used in their assembly.

[Peter]

Someone was posting those slide-rule calculators a while back,

That was probably me, here's some more pics :

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Aristo Aviat 615
(Strictly speaking this is not a slide-rule, but a flight-computer !)

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Faber-Castell 8/10
Comes in a beautiful green leather-case with brass-zipper

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Iwamatic 1660 -
This slide-rule was designed after the electronic calculator killed most
of the slide-rule industry .

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Fearns-Mear 'Rotoscale'
English top-quality rule, nice colour-scheme IMO ..
This company is still in business and produce special-purpose rules :
http://www.mhmear.com/index.html

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2 English Fowler-calculators and a German Aristo 868 (the small version of the classic Aristo 968)

Also have a few HP-calculators, a 32S and 15/16 .
If I had the space I would collect old desktop-calculators just for the keycaps,
some of them are friggin' awesome !

It's not really that expensive to build a decent slide-rule collection if you stay away from the ivory-antiques
and the super-nerdy special-purpose rules .. And shipping-costs are A LOT less frightening !!

[HzFaq]

Love it, thanks for posting those! My dad has a couple that he used to use for some kind of graphic design or engineering or something. I used to play with them for hours trying to figure out how they worked, might as well have been magic to an 8 year old!

[metafour]

I want a Curta but they're SO expensive.

[Peter]

I want a Curta but they're SO expensive.

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Oh yes, that is pretty much the ultimate in any mechanical calculator collection

For those who don't know what a Curta is :
http://www.vcalc.net/curta_simulator_en.htm

There's a good reason for the price :
http://www.vcalc.net/disassy/
Imagine what it would cost today to make that !

Just the history behind Curt Herzstark's invention makes it highly collectible :
http://history-computer.com/MechanicalC ... Curta.html

[Half-Saint]

Well I started off with a few Commodores but now I have a bunch of other as well, mostly HP but also one TI, Triumph, Omron and MBO. No mechanical calculators in my collection.

[Peter]

I'm having a hard time not buying these, price is less than 10 Euro :

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I figure just the mechanical counters and the two keycaps are worth more .
Just need to decide on something to throw out to make room for more ancient tech ..

[Half-Saint]

Just need to decide on something to throw out to make room for more ancient tech ..

If you can sleep on the floor, you can get rid of the bed!

[Peter]

Just need to decide on something to throw out to make room for more ancient tech ..

If you can sleep on the floor, you can get rid of the bed!

Won't work, guess what's already under the bed ?
But there is some wasted space OVER the bed ..

[kint]

just gave the curta pages a quick glance, but my dad has something like this as a table machine. About the size of a cigar box. Should be a rather similar system, however you won't get that peter .

[sth]

I used to be into collecting uncommon TI calculators. Always wanted an HP 48GX though.

[nathanscribe]

I think I started a thread on this over at GH way back. I used to have a small collection of 12-20 items - a mixture of Sinclair and Casio mostly, with a few odds & sods like Commodore and Rockwell thrown in. I sold most of them but kept a couple of my favourites. The Prinztronic is about the same age as me...




There's a nice page here: vintage calculator brands