This page of the Old Calculator Web Museum is here to give acknowledgement and thanks to all of those who have contributed to help the museum. Without the help and assistance of these people and many others, much of what the museum is would not have been possible.
First and foremost, I need to thank my infinitely (well, almost :-) patient and tolerant wife, Patty, for putting up with all of my "stuff". For years, I've been lugging around these machines, and in earlier times, they would occupy some places that weren't very "wife-friendly". Over the many years, Patty has dealt with plugging IC's into the bottom of her bare foot when I left some laying on the floor upside down (OUCH!); stepping on a hot soldering iron that I left sitting on the floor (double OUCH!); having calculators clogging up space in various rooms of the house that weren't really intended for calculators, and being really helpful (and patient) during moves when we have to haul all of this stuff around. On top of all of that, she's dealt with "calculator widow" syndrome (when I disappear for hours over at the museum) with lots of understanding. She knows I'm a bit of an eccentric, but still loves me anyway! Thank you, Patty!
Not everyone who has helped out over the course of the development of this museum is listed here. There are truly countless folks who have contributed in many ways, including many EMails of support, updates and corrections, and additional information that has always been very helpful. Others have contributed information and documentation to the museum, things such as advertisements, sales materials, and other material that adds to the collective of knowledge contained here. To all of these folks, I extend my sincere gratitude. This list of folks is not in any particular order. Each and everyone in this list has contributed in a significant way to making the museum what it is today.
Prof. Hisaki Goto, Kyushu Sangyo University, Japan
Professsor Goto donated a fantastic Busicom 207 calculator to the Old
Calculator Museum in mid-2016. Professor Goto used this calculator
back in the late 1960s through early 1970s as an educational tool
to teach the concepts of computer programming. After it had become
outdated, it was relegated to a storage closet, and remained there
for all these years. When the university was to move to a new
location, faculty and staff were tasked with disposing of unused or
surplus equipment, and fortunately, Professor Goto found the Old Calculator
Museum and offered the machine as a donation rather than simply
tossing it away. This rare and unusual calculator was
designed for Busicom by Wyle Laboratories in the US. Busicom contracted
with Wyle Laboratories to develop the machine, which was a follow on
to the Wyle Labs-designed Busicom 201. The Busicom 207 calculator
arrived safely from its trip across the Pacific with no issues.
The machine is in nice physical condition, but has some electronic
issues which are in the process of being diagnosed and hopefully repaired.
It generates a clean display on the CRT, but does not respond properly
to keypresses. The museum wishes to thank Prof. Goto, and Kyushu Sangyo
University for this amazing donation.
Roger, Christopher and Eugene Reuff
Roger, Christopher, and Eugene Reuff are the sons of former
Senior Friden Service Engineer Clifford Rueff [1/5/1922-8/26/2007].
Clifford served in WWII, as a photographer for the Army Air Corps.
After the war, he worked as a test supervisor at Martin Marietta for the
Titan missile/rocket program. After that, he started work at Friden,
as a field service technician working on Friden's business machines.
He stayed with the Friden division after it was acquired by Singer, and
through Singer's sale of the Friden division to TRW.
Clifford's sons donated a huge cache of parts, documentation, advertising
and tools from their father's time as a service engineer for Friden, Singer,
and onward with TRW after Singer sold the Friden division to TRW.
The museum was contacted in the fall of 2008, and in November, 2008
a trip was made up to Seattle, WA to receive the donation. My
pickup truck was filled to capacity with all kinds of amazing stuff that
ranged the gamut from Friden's Flexowriter and Justowriter; to the early
mechanical calculator-based Computyper; Friden Punched Tape Equipment;
Later electronic 5610, 6010, and 5005 Computyper machines; some Friden
electromechanical calculator documentation; lots of documentation on all
of Friden's electronic calculators; parts for the Friden EC-130 and 132,
including spare CRTs, Keyboard Assemblies, and Power Transformers; Parts for the 116x-series, including spare CRTs; training documentation; many mechancial
parts for Flexowriters, Justowriters, punched tape equipment, and
mechanical calculators; as well as advertising literature; Friden service
memos; and more that I haven't been able to identify. All of the materials
have great historical provenance, and will be carefully preserved, and
where practical, scanned or photographed and placed online for visitors
to the Old Calculator Museum to see.
Sincere thanks does not begin
to convey the gratitude to these fine gentlemen for their generous donation
to the museum.
The Estata of L.B. (Mike) Brega
The daughter of Mr. Brega, Ms. Judith McMahon, made her father's prized
Rockwell 960 calculator
available to the Old Calculator Museum in October of 2018. Mr. Brega
worked for Collins Radio, which was purchased by Rockwell International.
Mike kept on with Rockwell, and ended up doing some very interesting work
for the company, including installation of secure communications equipment
aboard the President of the United States mobile command center commonly
known as Air Force One. When Mike passed away, the calculator was
passed down to his daughter, who, when searching for a power cord for
the calculator, came across the Old Calculator Museum. Ms. McMahon
decided to provide the calculator, it's dust cover, and original manual
to the museum. The exhibit for the calculator is permanently dedicated
to the memory Mr. Brega. Sincere thanks to Ms. McMahon for
making this wonderful calculator available to the Old Calculator Museum.
Lynn Cochran
Mr. Cochran kindly donated a Philips P252 and Philips P251 electronic
calculators, along with the dot-matrix print mechanism from another
P249/P251/P252 calculator. Mr. Cochran visited the museum and personally
delivered the machines. The P252 is in nice physical condition, and
with a little work, looks to be able to be made fully functional. The P251
is in non-restorable condition, but is useful, as a number of the circuit
boards are identical between the P252 and P251, as well as other boards
being a possible source for spare ICs and other components. The spare printing
unit is also a wonderful thing to have for spare parts. Sincere thanks
to Mr. Cochran for his kind donations.
Mr. Gregory Tayman
Greg contacted the museum in February of 2019 indicating that he had
a Victor MEC/223 portable
electronic calculator that he offered to the museum as a donation.
The calculator arrived, and I was surprised to find that other than
the color scheme, the calculator as identical to the Victor MEC/225
that the museum has had for some time. The exhibit for the MEC/225 was
updated to include the MEC/223 that Greg donation. The museum would like
to thank Greg for his kind donation.
Mr. Alfredo Logioia
Mr. Logioia contacted the museum indicating that he had
purchased a Victor 4900
programmable electronic calculator in extremely nice, fully operational
condition, and along with it, he got the user's manual and programming manual
for the calculator. He offered to scan the documentation and provide the scans
to the museum so that they could be shared with other calculator
enthusiasts. Since then, the museum has provided these documents to a
number of Victor 4900 owners who have been grateful to be able to have
documents to go along with their machines. Sincere thanks to Mr. Logioia
for making these nicely scanned copies of these documents available to the
museum, as well as to the calculator interest community in general.
Edward Scheffelin
Mr. Scheffelin, though his son, Tom, donated a nice Compucorp 344 calculator
along with power supply, carrying case, and manual to the museum. Edward
used this calculator for many years in his work, taking great care of
it. It was evenually given to his son, Tom, who provided the machine and
accessories to the museum on behalf of his father. Thanks to both Edward
and Tom for allowing the Old Calculator Museum to become the new home
for this wonderful vintage calculator.
Mr. Charles L. Smith
Mr. Smith worked for Monroe Calculator Co. beginning in 1970 through
around 1976. He attended training schools for a number of Monroe's
Canon-made desktop electronic calculators, including classes
for the
Monroe 920 and
Monroe 925. Charles donated a large cache of original Monroe
service and training documentation for the 920 and 925 calculators,
along with Monroe service bulletins for these and the
Monroe 950, and
Monroe 990 calculators.
The documentation includes logic diagrams, timing diagrams,
circuit board layouts, parts lists, and troubleshooting/repair
guides. The museum will endeavor to scan and put as much of this
documentation online over time.
Along with the donation of documentation, he also donated a
Monroe 920 calculator in good, fully operational condition.
Charles shared a number of interesting stories about problems with
the 920 and 925 calculators, which were manufactured in Japan by
Canon, and sold and services in North America by Monroe. There were
major problems with intermittent connections in the machines that
caused service nightmares because the problems were very difficult
to track down and repair. A settlement was finally made where Canon
provided flow-soldering machines to Monroe's service center in
Orange, NJ, and calculator circuit boards were re-soldered. Sincere
thanks to Charles for his generous donations to the Old Calculator
Museum.
Mr. Bill Ewing
Mr. Ewing took a job at Victor Business Machines back in 1975, fresh out
of the Navy. He worked for Victor his entire career, and is now retired.
Bill happened across the Old Calculator Museum's exhibit on the
Victor 4900 calculator, and
it struck him that he still had some Victor stuff left over from his
work days --
a programming manual for the 4900, and some
magnetic cards for the 4900 calculator. He contacted the museum and
graciously offered the programming manual and magnetic cards to the museum
as a gift. The materials were received in wonderful condition. The
programming manual will be instrumental in further documenting the amazing
capabilities of the 4900. At some point, when time permits, the magnetic
cards, contained in a little envelope marked GAMES could be very interesting to
try reading into the museum's 4900, and see if they are still readable and
functional. Any findings will be added to the 4900 exhibit. Sincere
thanks for Bill for his generous contribution to the museum.
The Estate of Mr. Al Swing
Mr. Swing had a long and rewarding career with Fluor, a global engineering
firm, before retiring as a Piping Material Engineering Group Supervisor.
His experience encompassed dozens of major engineering projects in the US
and abroad. His daily workplace calculator was a Monroe(Litton) Model 1920,
donated by his family to honor a man that appreciated the wonder of
such technology and that utilized it to help build great things.
Dr. Mohamad Hassoun
Mohamad contacted the museum back in 2010, and over the years, we have
come to discover how we are both so passionate about old calculators. This
shared passion has lead to a close friendship. In 2013, Mohamad made
a visit to the Old Calculator Museum, and we had a wonderful time together
tinkering with some machines, including repairing a Victor 13-322 that had developed a problem. Over the years,
Mohamad has supported the museum with greatly appreciated donations
including a beautiful Addo-X 9958, various parts to support the repair of
machines in the museum, as well as sharing of documentation that he's found.
Mohamad is a great friend, and we will continue to share our passion for these
wonderful old machines as long as we're able. Thank you for everything, Mohamad.
Bob Pomerleau
Mr. Pomerleau contacted the Old Calculator Museum in April of 2014 indicating
that he was employed by Wang Labs from 1969 to 1981, and that he had a Wang
C-50 calculator that was used daily in his job since during the mid-1970's, and
when he left Wang, he was given the calculator. It ended up being saved in
a closet all these years, and he pulled it out as he was in the process of moving, and fired it up, and low and behold, it still worked. He found the
Old Calculator via a web search, and offered the machine as a donation to the
museum. The machine was received, and while a little grubby after all these
years, is in good condition and works perfectly. We will be working to
get an exhibit for this great old artifact online as soon as possible.
Sincere thanks to Mr. Pomerleau for his kindness in donating his old calculator
to the museum.
Supply New England/Ms. Kimberly Perry-Ford
The Old Calculator Museum wishes to thank Ms. Kimberly Perry-Ford of
Supply New England, a wholesale heating and plumbing supply company in Attleboro, MA. Ms. Perry-Ford contacted the museum in October of 2007, indicating
that she had an old Sharp EL-160
calculator that was used by the founder of the company, Mr. John Reardon. The
EL-160 was purchased new, and used by Mr. Reardon to perform the financial
calculations for his company until the 1990's, when he retired from his role,
though he was still the Chairman of the Board of Directors, which we stepped
down from in late 2007. Ms. Perry-Ford found the Old Calculator Museum
when searching for information about the old calculator, and offered the machine
to the museum as a donation, which we gladly accepted. Mr. Reardon was pleased
to hear that his calculator was to be preserved by the Old Calculator Museum.
Susan & Dave Rosko
Susan contacted the Old Calculator Museum in early January, 2012, indicating
that she had seen a listing on the museum's
Wanted page
indicating that the museum was looking for the May, 1967 edition of
Radio Electronics, which featured an article on the new "up and coming"
electronic calculators. Inclded in the magazine article are the
Mathatronics Mathatron,
Canon 161,
Monroe EPIC-2000,
SCM Cogito 240SR,
Dero Sage I,
IME 86,
Wyle WS-02 Scientific,
Victor 3900 and the
Wang 360E "desktop computers".
Susan's father, Wesley White, was an electronics enthusiast, and had a
collection of old electronics magazines that Susan took posession of when
her father passed away. She found the magazine that the museum was looking
for in the collection, and offered it up as a donation to the museum,
which is very much appreciated, as we had been looking for this magazine
for a very long time. The magazine is on permanent display in the museum's
collection, and is dedciated to the memory of Wesley White. The museum
offers its sincere thanks to Susan and Dave for their thoughfulness and kindness
in donating this artifact of calculator history to the museum.
Michael Cochran [5/21/1941-12/2/2018]
Mr. Cochran is a luminary in the calculator industry, first working for
Cintra on the development of the
909 calculator, then for Tektronix after Tek purchased Cintra. After
Tektronix, Mr. Cochran went to Texas Instruments, where he proceded to
become TI's chief calculator architect, who was responsible for developing
the architecture for many of TI's advanced calculators, as well as TI's first
calculator-on-a-chip. The curator would like to thank Mr. Cochran for
donation of his TI SR-60A
calculator, along with some (very hard to find) magnetic cards for the
machine. The calculator is in like-new condition, and works beautifully.
Mr. Cochran is the patent holder for the design of the SR-60/SR-60A
machines, as well as holding countless other calculator-related patents
assigned to Texas Instruments.
Matthew Currie
The Old Calculator Museum owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Currie for
donation of a Commdore AL-1000,
serial number 50923 to the museum. This particular machine is a rather
early machine with a low serial number, in excellent condition, and fully
operational, along with an original dust-cover. This machine provides
a basis for comparison with the two other AL-1000's in the museum's collection
that reveals interesting production changes and revisions during the early
production of the AL-1000.
Harold Koplow [11/21/1940 - 11/4/2004]
Harold Koplow was Dr. Wang's "right hand technical man" during the chaotic
times after Hewlett Packard introduced the HP 9100A, and blew away Wang's
seemingly unshakable share of the electronic calculator marketplace. Mr.
Koplow's brilliance led to the development of the microcode that made the
Wang 700-series (Wang's capable and successful counter to the 9100A/B), and
later, Wang's early computer systems, possible. Mr. Koplow has shared many
hours of his time through EMail dialog, allowing capture of information that
likely would never have been captured if not for his taking the time to share. The Old Calculator Museum has permanently dedicated the exhibit on the Wang 720C to the memory of Mr. Koplow.
Katie Wasserman
Profound thanks are due to Katie Wasserman,
a fellow vintage calculator enthusiast, for donation of a beautiful example
of a Canon 130S calculator to
the Old Calculator Museum. The Canon 130S is a follow-on to Canon's
first electronic calculator, the Canon 130. Katie also donated a
Victor 14-322 calculator that had some electronic problems to the museum,
which will eventually be repaired (if possible), or used for parts to
restore a non-operational 14-321 that the museum has on its list of
"to do's".
Arnold Allen
The curator would like to thank Mr. Arnold Allen
for a large series of donations, both material and monetary that are so very
much appreciated. Among the items that Mr. Allen donated were
a Wang 360SE Electronics Package,
a Wang 370 Programmer,
a Wang 371 Punched Card Reader, a stack of Wang Laboratories documentation
including Wang 370 operators manuals, and a bunch of Olivetti Programma 101
documentation. Also included were a Tektronix 4051 desktop computer with
4907 8" Floppy Disc drive system, manuals, and tapes; HP 87 Computer/Calculator;
HP 85 Computer/Calculator; HP 86B Computer/Calculator; numerous HP-IB mass
storage units; lots of HP 85/86/87 documentation; HP 85/86/87 peripheral
modules and ROM packs; along with a large assortment of other interesting
items. Mr. Arnold graciously donated the items as well as shipping all of
the items to the museum. I cannot express how much Mr. Arnold's support of
the Old Calculator Museum is appreciated.
Ignacy Fonberg
The Old Calculator Museum would like to
offer its thanks to Mr. Ignacy Fonberg for donation of a Wang 701 Output
Writer, and a Wang 720C Advanced Programming Calculator. The 701 Output
Writer has been restored and is operational. An exhibit on the 701 Output
Writer is being prepared. The 720C Calculator suffers from a
defective ROM, which prevents it from operating, but it is hoped that it
can be repaired in time.
Andrew M. Andrews III
The Old Calculator Museum is honored to
thank Mr. Andrew M. Andrews, III, for donation of a box of
Monroe 1800-series Mark Sense
Program Cards to the museum. These cards, copyrighted in 1974, were
used with the Monroe CP-2 card reader (which could read both punched and
mark-sense cards) connected to a Monroe 1800-Series programmable calculator
to load programs into the calculator's memory.
Carlos Tomaszewski
Carlos Tomaszewski was the architect of the
Wyle Labs WS-01/WS-02 Scientific, and when Wyle Labs decided not
to pursue
further interest in the calculator business, was one of a group of folks
that left Wyle Laboratories to form their own calculator company,
Computer Design Corporation (later Compucorp). Mr. Tomaszewski was
the main architect behind the development of Computer Design Corporation's
revolutionary Large Scale Integration (LSI) chipsets (the HTL and ACL chipsets)
that blurred the line between calculator and computer, making possible
a wide range of high-powered calculators. Carlos has been an invaluable
source of information relating to the history and development of Computer
Design Corp., and their amazing calculators. For his contributions,
the Old Calculator Museum is deeply indebted.
Dr. Irwin Wunderman [4/24/1931 - 7/23/2005]
Dr. Wunderman founded Cintra in late 1967, as a company
that developed and marketed digital measurement instrumentation, specifically
related to measuring optical energy. Later, a project to develop a calculator
that could interface with the instrumentation, to serve as a controller
and mathatmatics processor for the instruments. Prior to founding Cintra, Dr.
Wunderman was a senior engineer at Hewlett Packard, involved in the early
design process of what became HP's first electronic calculator, the
HP 9100A. After starting Cintra, Wunderman felt a calculator that could
interface to his photometry instrumentation would be a very powerful
addition to his company's product line. The calculator was
the Cintra 909, followed shortly later by the Cintra 911. Cintra was later sold
to Tektronix, which marketed the calculators under the Tektronix
name as the Tektronix Model 909
and Model 911 calculators. Dr. Wunderman has contributed copies of many
original Cintra advertisements and data sheets, as well as sharing his
memories of the company. A deep debt of gratitude is owed to Dr. Wunderman
for his contributions.
William Kahn
Mr. Kahn was one of the principles of
Mathatronics, and the architect of the design of the Mathatron calculator.
The Mathatronics Mathatron has the historical distinction as being the first
known commercially-marketed all-electronic programmable desktop calculator.
The Mathatron was way ahead of its time, (1964) with algebraic entry,
learn-mode programming, automatic square root, and printing of all problems
and results on a built-in printer. Mr. Kahn has kindly shared a
great deal of information about the formation of Mathatronics, and the
design of the early calculators.
Robert H. Norman [3/24/1927-1/6/2017]
Bob Norman spent considerable time sharing
his memories via EMail about the company he co-founded, General
Micro-electronics, a pioneering integrated circuit manufacturer that
created the earliest large-scale Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) integrated
circuits. General Micro-electronics (GM-e) created the first MOS
Large-Scale IC calculator chipset that debuted in 1965 in the history-making
Victor 3900 electronic
calculator. Bob also came and visited the Old Calculator Museum in 2011, and
spent a couple of hours reminiscing about those days. It was a very
special few hours that I will never forget. Thanks just doesn't say
enough.
Dr. Norman Martin
Dr. Martin is a professor of computer science
and philisophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He was the designer
of an amazing calculator called the
Logicon Computer, developed for in-house engineering use at a
company called Logicon, Inc. in the mid-1960's. This machine, while never
sold as a commercial product, was quite a feat of engineering brilliance,
with a CRT-display, core memory, wire-rope ROM, learn-mode programming,
and full math capabilities. This machine gave Logicon engineers fast
results to complex math problems that would have required the use of
the company's large computer system, saving both time and money.
Dr. Martin has shared his memories in a lengthy exchange of EMail.
This invaluable capture of information will be the source for an
article on the development of this calculator to be posted on the
museum in the future. Sincere thanks to Dr. Martin for taking the time
to share his memories.
Jim Battle
Jim is a fellow fan of the machines of Wang Laboratories, and has a nice collection of vintage Wang equipment.
Jim donated a treasure trove of old Wang 500, 600, and 700-series
literature in April of 2010, and again in November of 2018, most of which
are now scanned and available on the museum website. Many thanks to Jim
for these wonderful materials. Jim maintains a couple of fabulous
websites, including a site
that documents Wang's very successful entry into the personal computer age,
the Wang 2200, as well as another
site
dedicated to Wang Labs' rather unsuccessful entry into the
timesharing computer marketplace, the Wang 3300. Both sites include
fantastic emulators that faithfully execute the original microcode that
made these machines run.
Dennis McNurland
Mr. McNurland worked for Wang Laboratories
from 1973 to 1980, mainly working on Wang's 400- and C-Series calculators.
He soon became the acknowledged expert in factory repair of these machines,
and came to know them inside-out. Dennis kept a great deal of old
documentation from his days at Wang, and has generously provided scans and
photos from those days which have proven to be wonderful additions to the
museum. In addition, Dennis wrote his
story about this times at Wang
Laboratories, and provided it to the museum for publication. Most recently,
Dennis donated parts from a Wang 452 calculator that he came to inherit
while working at Wang Labs. This machine, belonging to a Wang staff member,
had suffered a motherboard (power supply) failure, and when Dennis went to look for the replacement part, it was out of stock. Rather than wait, he just got a
new motherboard for the machine (which was in stock), and quickly got his
co-worker back up and running. Over time, various parts were accumulated
to make an operational 452 using the old motherboard, but was a project
that was never completed. Sincere thanks to Mr. McNurland for his donations
and support for the Old Calculator Museum.
Dick Ahrens
Mr. Ahrens, a former Friden employee who, as an
Electronics Engineer,
was involved in the development of the Friden 130 and follow-on electronic calculators. Mr.
Ahrens has been an
invaluable source of information about the early electronic calculator
days at Friden. He has provided the museum with a great deal of
material, ranging from a
fascinating account of his time at Friden during the development of
the 130, to an early prototype production circuit board (a major stretch
in the state of the art of circuit board design at the time), and an
original photograph of the first operational production prototype of
the Friden 130. The information and materials that Dick has provided
have greatly enhanced the information available on the development of
this revolutionary machine.
Gene McGough
Gene provided a wonderful cache of materials from
Wang Laboratories, related to the Wang 300-series and some information
on Wang 700-series. Included in the materials donated by Gene
are a very comprehensive set of "Wang Laboratories Programmer"
periodicals, a Wang 700 Interim Instruction
Manual, a number of program library documents for the Wang 300-series
calculators, a Wang 370 Programming Guide, a Core Memory board for
a Wang 300-series, a keyboard circuit board for a 300-series keyboard/display
unit, service invoices for a Wang 360E
calculator, various Wang punched cards, an IBM Port-O-Punch, and other
Wang information. Gene also provided some very uncommon punched
cards for the Wyle Laboratories WS-01/WS-02 Scientific
calculator. The Old Calculator Museum deeply appreciates Gene's
generosity.
Janet Harrison
Janet and other members of her family donated
a number of wonderful instruments to the museum, including a
Monroe 1665, a
Wang 720, and a Wang 711 I/O writer. All of these devices
belonged to her father, Thomas (1914-1996), who was a mechanical
engineering consultant, who used these machines in his business.
Janet and other members of her family decided to donate these
machines to the museum after her father passed away and the machines
were gathering dust. Sincere thanks for these amazing artifacts.
Dr. Michael R. Williams
Dr. Williams, a Professor of Computer Science
at The University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, thoughtfully
provided a number of original Olivetti Programma 101 Program Coding forms,
Magnetic Cards and Mag. Card Storage Jackets for inclusion in the museum.
David Monroe
David kindly provided access to a collection of
old Wang Laboratories' Programmer magazines which were
a great source of information about Wang's 300 and 700-series calculators.
Joe Rigdon
Joe has been a great source of inspiration and
feedback for my museum. He's provided technical information on a number
of machines, as well as donating a rare cable to connect the museum's
HP 9830A calculator to the HP 9866 thermal
printer.
Donald Dupre
Don has been extremely generous in his contributions
to the museum, including donation of the electronics package for
an early Monroe EPIC-2000 calculator, as well
as making a rare early Canon 161 available to the
museum. Don's enthusiastic support of the museum is greatly appreciated.
Frank Trantanella
Frank was one of the early employees of Wang
Laboratories who was involved in the development of Wang's early
electronic calculators. Frank's main involvement was design of custom
systems using Wang calculators (Specifically the LOCI-2). Frank has been extremely generous in sharing his insights and
experiences with me so I can document them and make them available here
in the museum. Frank has also been invaluable in putting the museum in touch
with other folks that worked at Wang during the mid to late 1960's.
Gary Laroff
Gary was heavily involved in calculator technology
since his graduate school days in the late 1960's, where he became a
successful programmer for the HP 9100, and later 9800-series calculators.
Gary wrote the statistical program library for HP's 9100 and 9810
calculators, as well as developing a number of
other custom programs for HP. Later, Gary went to work for Tektronix,
and was heavily involved with the marketing of Tek's Model 21
and Model 31 calculators.
Gary also recently donated his personal collection of HP and Tektronix calculators and materials which is greatly appreciated.
Prentice Robinson
Prentice has been another invaluable source
of information on the early days of Wang calculators. Prentice
was the primary designer of the logic of the Wang LOCI-2, and Wang 300-Series calculators. Prentice worked closely with Dr. Wang to translate Dr. Wang's
ideas into electronic reality. The various documents and recollections
of the early times at Wang Labs that Prentice has provided have been
wonderful additions to the knowledge base of information on early Wang
electronic calculators presented here.
Alex Knight
Alex is a great friend and fellow
collector of electronic calculators. Alex's compendium of information on old
calculators has provided a great deal of helpful information to the museum
which wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Alex has also provided me
a lot of encouagement, proof-reading, guidance, and overall information
exchange that has been invaluable in making the museum a reality. Alex
maintains a great calculator Web site called
"The Electronic Calculator
History & Technology E-Museum".
Paxton Hoag
Paxton has turned me on to a number of machines
that would have otherwise ended up being scrapped. He's kept on the lookout
for the museum, and I really appreciate the help he's given by allowing
me to rescue some difficult to find old machines. Included among the
machines that Paxton provided direct access to, or provided pointers
to were the HP9100A, Wang 700-Series machines, HP 9810, HP 9820, and
HP9830, all of which are wonderful additions to the museum.
Mark Glusker
Mark, another fellow collector who specializes in
electro-mechanical machines, has been a great source of information and
inspiration, as well as a donor of a number of interesting machines that
have made their way into the museum.
Jim Willing
Another source of a few wonderful and noteworthy
machines in the museum.
David Lammi
In 2010, David donated a nice
Monroe 1655 programmable
calculator, and the optional CR-1 Punched Card Reader, along with dust
covers for both the calculator and the card reader, plus a Monroe-branded
Port-A-Punch for punching the program cards. Sincere thanks to David
for this generous donation.
Kirk Wennerstrom
Thanks to Kirk for donation of an original copy of
the Monroe 1610 Electronic Display Calculator Operating Instructions.
Dan McDonald
Dan has helped me find a number of great old machines for the museum. Dan collects electro-mechanical calculators, along with classic
computers and other interesting technological artifacts.
Doug Coward
Doug has provided the museum with a great deal of
supporting information on the Wang 300-series calculators that has proven
to be very helpful.
Chuck Carbaugh
Chuck kindly donated some Wang 300-series equipment
that he had stored in his basement. This generous donation helped round out
the configuration of the Wang 360SE system in
the museum, as well as adding an invaluable source of accessories and
spare parts which will help maintain the Wang 300-Series machines in
the museum.
Serge Devidts
A fellow desktop electronic calculator enthusiast
and collector living in Belguim, Serge has been a wonderful source of
inspiration for my calculator preservation efforts. He has also been a
great source of information and photos which have helped document some
of the machines in the Old Calculator Museum. Serge has built a wonderful
calculator-related Web site called
Calcuseum that has a huge number
of calculators, and is definitely worth visiting.
Mark Paulin
Mark loaned the museum his pristine
Sharp Compet 363P calculator
for a guest exhibit. The museum has since acquired it's own 363P, but would
like to acknowledge Mr. Paulin's gracious loan of his machine for creating
the exhibit on the Compet 363P.