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PRE computer age computers (aka mechanical calculators/slide rules/analog computers)

L

larryw

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Joined
Mar 7, 2022
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17
SO Anyone on the forum collects or is interested in PRE computer age computers (aka mechanical calculators/slide rules)?. I have quite a few as I find them fascinating from an ancient Fowler (120+ years old) or (Keuffel & Esser Thacher - maybe 110 - 140 years old), some German ad Russian World War II era calculators, and my two early sixties CURTA calculators.

Before the "Serious Collectors" on VCFED jump into object about the discussion, - NONE of these are for sale. So, if you are NOT interested in the discussion - just move on - nothing to see here - these are not the MacDroids you are looking for. If the discussion itself on this early steampunk era and later tech is against the rules then I'm sure the moderator(s) will give me a heads up and or remove this post :)

These pre-computers DONT use batteries, work just as well now as when they were originally sold, and as I said they are fascinating as these things were used (for portability, accuracy, and availability) even after mainframe computers came into their own. So do you slide rule? What do you have? Do you use it? If there's interest I'll post some pictures and descriptions (here?) and/or on my website.
 
My last recollection of a mechanical calculator is one (a Monroe Model 1) that I managed to jam by doing a division problem. The owner was not pleased. In school, I used a Post VersaLog rule until I sprang for an all-metal Pickett 4-ES (which was subsequently stolen). A couple of the rich kids had Curtas, but I never saw them doing phasor arithmetic on those coffee mills. :)

Relay-based computers always fascinated me. A favorite Science Fair project back in the late 50s and 60s was a tic-tac-toe playing machine. There was one such at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I think input was done using a rotary telephone dial.
 
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I have parents/grandparents slide rule and parents adding machines. Thought about getting a real mechanical calculator but haven't. One of the adding machines was frozen with hardened oil/grease from not being used for 30 years but was able to free it and get it working. I make sure they get used periodically to keep them free.

Had them at a VCF. http://www.pdp8online.com/shows/vcfe16/vcfe16.shtml
 
I remember there were a bunch of mechanical calculators at our junior school and I was fascinated by their complexity and they were in part (along with looking though the round window at bottling plants), the seed of my interest in computers.

I was also taught to use a slide rule and log tables at the same junior school, but the calculator revolution hit as I started secondary school and it was all lost.
 
Gary C said:
:0

I always stick to 10%, it just makes it easy.
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Is it wrong when I am in mainland Europe I just dont tip? I mean its gotten beyond absurd here in the states. Even when you pickup food at counters they have tip jars everywhere. And with covid if you are picking up dinner for takeout they expect a tip! My wife and my son went out to have a Prime Rib dinner. This was just in a local tavern, nothing special. They waitress automatically added 20%! For what? 3 people? Now a days people want to get paid for not actually doing anything.
 
Oh I am in agreement. I never had a job that received tips but the whole idea of taking practically no hourly wage and relying on customers gratuities is just bizarre. For the same reasons I would never take a job that paid in commision.
 
Chuck(G) said:
My last recollection of a mechanical calculator is one (a Monroe Model 1) that I managed to jam by doing a division problem. The owner was not pleased. In school, I used a Post VersaLog rule until I sprang for an all-metal Pickett 4-ES (which was subsequently stolen). A couple of the rich kids had Curtas, but I never saw them doing phasor arithmetic on those coffee mills. :)

Relay-based computers always fascinated me. A favorite Science Fair project back in the late 50s and 60s was a tic-tac-toe playing machine. There was one such at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I think input was done using a rotary telephone dial.
Click to expand...
Yeah the mechanical calculators with keys/keyboards don't always hold up over the years for a number of reasons. I have a "Felt and Tarrant" Comptometer with its maybe 90 keys kind of fading away as I'm NOT into disassembling and lubricating, if that's what it needs, these things (it was a take it away or I dump it situation when I got it) but hey it IS a hundred years old, I think, so deserves better respect than a land-fill. Tic-Tac toe on a computer (okay it was actually a terminal but what did my 8/9 year old self know back then) is part of what sparked my interest and later degree in computer science :)
 
Chuck(G) said:
My last recollection of a mechanical calculator is one (a Monroe Model 1) that I managed to jam by doing a division problem. The owner was not pleased. In school, I used a Post VersaLog rule until I sprang for an all-metal Pickett 4-ES (which was subsequently stolen). A couple of the rich kids had Curtas, but I never saw them doing phasor arithmetic on those coffee mills. :)

Relay-based computers always fascinated me. A favorite Science Fair project back in the late 50s and 60s was a tic-tac-toe playing machine. There was one such at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I think input was done using a rotary telephone dial.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly the metal Picketts were out of my price-range back then and I got a plastic (K&E?) for the physics class :). I still have the K&E now with a partially broken cursor.
 
djg said:
I have parents/grandparents slide rule and parents adding machines. Thought about getting a real mechanical calculator but haven't. One of the adding machines was frozen with hardened oil/grease from not being used for 30 years but was able to free it and get it working. I make sure they get used periodically to keep them free.

Had them at a VCF. http://www.pdp8online.com/shows/vcfe16/vcfe16.shtml
Click to expand...
Nice! Really like the picture of the insides of the Sears Accumulator. I'm tempted to see inside my Compometer but that looks like some serious work, if it's even possible, to make it look as good as your images :)
 
In the Navy Aviation Electronics Schools the Pickett 1010 was more or mandatory, and you needed to make that purchase through the base Navy Exchange. My son has mine and I believe he thinks it's a back scratcher.
 
VERAULT said:
Is it wrong when I am in mainland Europe I just dont tip? I mean its gotten beyond absurd here in the states. Even when you pickup food at counters they have tip jars everywhere. And with covid if you are picking up dinner for takeout they expect a tip! My wife and my son went out to have a Prime Rib dinner. This was just in a local tavern, nothing special. They waitress automatically added 20%! For what? 3 people? Now a days people want to get paid for not actually doing anything.
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It depends

Most sit down restaurants get 10%, but very few other things, especially outside of London but in London, its moving to adding gratuities to the bill which I hate.
 
Some pizza delivery guy left a pizza in an unmarked white box on my front porch today. I probably should have eaten it myself, but I called a neighbor who I suspected ordered the thing. No tipping as far as I can tell.
 
i think of pinball machines from the EM era as giant electro-mechanical adding machines with pretty pictures and challenging one to get the largest number to appear as you score.
 
On the subject of Tic-Tac-Toe, I have always wanted to build this https://www.dos4ever.com/ring/Tick_Tack_Toe.pdf. It uses valves, relays and large number of NE-2 neon lamps as the computing elements.

Unfortunately, I have never found a more complete description, as some parts of the logic is not described; and I can’t reconcile the supposed number of neon lamps with my understanding of the basic logic required.

It remains on my “to do” list, but only once I have simulated it and it appears to work adequately...

Dave
 
Gary C said:
It depends

Most sit down restaurants get 10%, but very few other things, especially outside of London but in London, its moving to adding gratuities to the bill which I hate.
Click to expand...
I was thinking more central Europe. I realize that London is not what is used to be.
 
"London is not what is used to be"
Absolutely true :)
Having grown up in London from Primary School through most of Grammar School it is a very different city today. I couldn't find a real fish and chip shop last time I was there as they all seem to now be Indian or Chinese takeout spots but I can't imagine them pre-adding a tip to their prices and getting away with it.
 
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