Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

From: Steve Thatcher <melamy_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue Jun 22 05:27:38 2004

Hi, this could have been a Monroe machine.

Here is a link to the 1655 (although I think the card reader was actually optical, it was punch-out chad based though)

http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/a-monroe1655.html

I used one of these in High school (1969-71) and I managed to snag one on eBay a few years ago with the card reader, manual, etc. The fun thing was that the nixie displays were direct outputs from the registers that did the calculating, so they would be flickering away whenever you did some calculations until it finally displayed the result.

I am not sure if Monroe had other models at the time.

best regards, Steve Thatcher


Well I can think of one programmable calculator that I used in the
early 1970s
that did multiplication/division etc using logarithms.

ISTR that it used nixie tubes for output and that this thing cost heaps
of money (like $10K in the days when the Aussie dollar was worth more
than
the US one!).

Programming was achieved using a single punched card with pre-punched
chads
removed using some fancy tool (in my case a paper clip). The card was
read
by placing it in the card reader (duh!) which had lots of pins and
contacts, where
the holes were lead to completing a circuit so you basically had a card
programmed ROM.

I keep wanting to write that this calculator was a Wang, but I'm not
really
sure (it's been a while). I'm wondering whether the Physics Department
still
has it - I should ask.
Received on Tue Jun 22 2004 - 05:27:38 BST

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