When we moved, I found an old calculator that I built back in …. gulp…… 1972.
Yes. I built it….. from a kit. It was one of the first affordable, totally electronic calculators ever made, and it was a kit from HeathKit. It cost me $149.00 ( which was a lot more money back in 1972 ), and at that price I had to build it myself. It was totally electronic and could do all four functions, add, subtract, multiply, and divide….. instantly. It did not have to crank and crunch like those old, mechanical Monroes. Remember those?
Old Monroe mechanical calculators
No?….. oh…. of course not………… I forgot that not everybody is as old as I am.
Anyway, my HeathKit did all of that electronically.
So after I found it, on a lark I plugged it in and look!
It Still Works! After all these years, the lights still come on! And here is one feature that I always loved about this calculator that I have never seen on any other one. See this little wheel?
That wheel allows me to set the decimal point anywhere from 0 to 7 plus “F” for “Floating”. So if I am adding up dollars and cents, I can set it to ‘2’, and when I end up with an even number of dollars, I still get to see the cents displayed. Like this:
That certainly makes it easier for this old codger to keep his checkbook straight.
Try that with your Smart Phone!