electromechanical calculator

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
Date: Sat Jan 30 20:15:40 1999

On or about 05:23 PM 1/30/99 -0500, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) was caught in a
dark alley speaking these words:

>I had a '50s-ish Monroe electromechanical desk caluclator when I was in
>elementary school. I convinced my parents to buy it for me from a JC
>Penney firesale. I think it cost around $15. This would've been in the
>late 1980s.

I'm going to try to keep this on-topic (or at least close)... My parents
had a '60's Victor, which cost big $$$, but was no longer used, so they
kept it in the attic. Occasionally, they'd bring it down and let us kids
play on it, but I was the only one who had any interest in it whatsoever.

>I remember thinking it was pretty groovy, even if there were some things
>about it I didn't quite understand how to make work properly.
>
>My little brother pushed it off my desk on day and it stopped working, so
>I reluctantly threw it away.

When I was 11 or 12, I broke the Victor in a non-violent way, but had no
clue how until a few years later...

See, this Victor had the ability to divide, and at the time I broke it, I
had no idea that dividing by zero was a bad idea.....

Damn, the racket that thing made (and still makes today if you plug it in)
as it tries to keep dividing by zero whenever power is applied.

Can't do it on computers now, either. (Thank goodness for error trapping...
;-)

See ya,
"Merch"
=====
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- zmerch_at_30below.com
SysAdmin - Iceberg Computers
===== Merch's Wild Wisdom of the Moment: =====
Sometimes you know, you just don't know sometimes, you know?
Received on Sat Jan 30 1999 - 20:15:40 GMT