Here I will post pictures and short write-ups of notable hardware and software in my collection, covering games, consoles, computers and calculators.
A British electronic calculator from 1971 using Nixie tubes! I acquired this calculator in a presumed non working state without a plug and quite dirty. However, after a good clean with whiteboard cleaner and a small amount of Isopropyl alcohol the case came up excellently. With a new plug it also worked perfectly after I had to clean the brass contact under the large store key.
A 1975 calculator from Commodore
I bought it at a charity shop for 50p and after
fitting a new 9V battery connector it worked perfectly!
Another circa 1975 calculator this time from American company Victor.
Recently purchased as part of a lot of
non-functioning Victors but after a good clean of contacts is working. It does need a retrobrite on the battery cover however!
A Swedish mechanical calculator from 1956. This is a Facit NTK (New Ten Key) with the updated case design from the original TK from 1936. At 6.3kg this is a heavy machine capable of the operations addition, multiplication, subtraction and division through a combination of keypresses and crank turns. I purchased it non-functioning but was repaired by simply reattaching the main carriage to the large spring located in the base of the machine.
A 1975 calculator from Brother
This calculator came with the original manual and receipt, stating it was purchased
in November ’75 at the cost of £15.35, today that would be over £125! Work had to be done to get this one to work, both the battery terminals
had been corroded and all the glue in the membrane keyboard had perished so a lot of gluing was required!
From 1975, this calculator is a simple model running on a 9V battery by TI, using early red LED displays. Described in a TI catalogue as “lightweight and economical”.