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Here is a list of some sites that specialize in old calculators and related technology. Please visit these pages to learn more about the world of calculating machines from the past. Click on a link to visit any of the sites. Please notify museum staff (by clicking HERE) if any of the links do not work. Ditto if you know of any other sites that should be added to the list. Sites are listed in no particular order or preference.
Mark
Glusker's "Mechanical Calculation" site
Mark has put together
a very nice site that focuses on later model electro-mechanical calculators.
He has an impressive collection of wonderful machines from Friden, Monroe,
Marchant, Olivetti, and others. He also as a great section on his amazing
development of a re-creation of Thomas Fowler's ternary (Base 3) calculating
machine of 1840.
"Funky Goods" Calculator Museum
A nice collection
of various electronic calculators from the time period of 1966 to 1974.
Site is in Japanese. Homepage translates well into other languages
with Google Translate, but unfortunately, at least as far as I can find,
the individual calculator pages do not seem to translate properly. Detailed,
high-quality photos of calculators inside and out.
Virtual Museum of Calculators (Virtuális számológép-múzeum)
A stunningly well
crafted, beautifully photographed, and very informative site about calculating
instruments. Located in Hungary, th site is in Hungarian, but also presented
in English with a link that goes to English version of the site. A large collection
(over 300) of electronic calculators, including some fascinating early
Hungarian-made calculators, including Hungary's first electronic calculator,
the
Hunor 131,
and the Intel 4040 microprocessor-based Hunor 301 Programmable Scientific
desktop calculator. Also has nice exhibits on slide rules made in Hungary.
Snekooei's
Online Calculator Museum
A broad assortment of mechanical, eletromechanical, Nixie-era, and later VFD/LCD desktop and handheld electronic
calculators, as well as a few hand-made calculators created by the site's author.
Bob's
Calculators and Slide Rules
A nicely produced site that lists Bob has built that has a great selection of vintage mechanical and electronic
calculators, as well as slide-rules, some of which Bob has built his own re-creations of, which is simply amazing.
Very nice photography and well-written descriptions of the various calculating devices.
Robert Lacoste's "Calculatrices" site
French collector
Robert Lacoste has an impressive collection of calculators dating from the
1920's through 2010. Great photography of the calculators. Site is in French.
John Wolff's Calculating Machines Web Museum
A very fine site,
put together by Australian collector John Wolff, that documents many
aspects of calculating machine technology, from
slide rules to electronic calculators. High quality photography
and extremely well-written exhibits. Of special note is an extremely
detailed account of the workings of an electro-mechanical work of art,
the Madas 20ATG.
A Collection of Mechanical Calculators
A nicely
presented site that presents a collection of mechanical and electromechanical
calculators from "Before the Electronic Age".
Katie Wasserman's Calculator Manual Repository
A great and continually growing
collection of PDF scans of entire calculator user's manuals.
Daniel Sancho's Virtual Museum on the Evolution of Calculating Machines
A very nicely prepared
site, with wonderful documentation on the history of calculating machines,
including early mechanical and electro-mechanical adders and calculators,
early electronic calculators, and later evolution of calculators and
computers. Site is mostly in Spanish, but, for those who are not literate
in Spanish (such as myself), Google's web page translator clearly shows
the quality of Daniel's research.
Brent Hilpert's EEC - Early Electronic Calculator Technology Reference
A wonderful
site with lots of detailed data on a variety of old electronic
calculators as well as obsolete integrated circuits that
are used as the guts for calculators from the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Laura & Michael Greenfield's Vintage Technology Museum
Vintage technology
through the years. A wonderfully-designed site, with a time-machine
theme. Includes calculating machines, along with radios, television,
lab equipment...you name it, it's probably there.
Joerg Woerner's Datamath Calculator Museum
A site specializing
in exhibition and documentation of classic Texas Instruments calculators, along
with those that use Texas Instruments IC's as their brains.
Nigel Tout's Vintage Calculator Web Museum
Award-winning site
of a fellow old calculator collector in the UK who does a great job of
preserving and documenting old calculating machines. Special interest in
machines made in the UK.
Dentaku Museum
A fantastic site
documenting the history of Japanese electronic calculator technology.
Lots of very good information. Some pages in Japanese only, but most
pages also have available English text. Some great photos of early Casio relay
calculators. Highly recommended.
Serge Devidts' Calcuseum
A huge and fantastic
site with detailed photos and technical information on a vast number of old
electronic calculators.
Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti per il Calcolo
An Italian National
Museum devoted to documentation and preservation of calculating instruments,
located near Pisa, Italy.
Francesco Bonomi's Olivetti Programma 101 Information Source
An extremely well
presented collection of information on the Olivetti Programma 101, one of the
earliest all-electronic programmable calculators.
Mike Sebastian's Calculator Technical Information Web Pages
A site specializing
in information on early LSI chip sets used in calculators.
Sergei Frolov's Soviet Digital Electronics Museum
The Soviet Union
had some truly amazing calculator technology. Sergei's site documents
an ever-growing collection of Soviet calculating technology. A definite
must-see.
Gerhard Wenzel's Museum of Pocket Calculating Devices
A comprehensive and
amazing collection of pocket calculators, along with many other calculating
devices. Great photographs.
Rick Furr's Calculator Reference
A site packed with
information on Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard, and Curta calculators.
The definitive source for information on Curta calculators.
David Hicks' Museum of HP Calculators
The definitive web
resource for information on Hewlett Packard calculators. Very high quality web
design, with tons of useful information. Can't recommend this site highly
enough!
Alex Knight's Electronic Calculator History and Technology E-Museum
A fellow collector
from the East Coast of the US who shares the same vision for preservation
and documentation of old electronic calculators as I. Lots of great
articles and photos of early calculator technology. Gotta love
those early Mathatron calculators in his museum. Check it out!
Dan Veeneman's "Decode Systems" Calculator Collection Site
An informative and nicely produced site featuring Mr. Veeneman's great
calculator collection.
Listed here are links related to vintage office technology.
Early Office Museum
A museum devoted to
documenting and preserving all equipment used in offices. Great exhibits
on things like fastening technology, copying technology, and even
great detail on pencil sharpeners!
Yesterday's Office
A beautifully
crafted site specializing in anything relating of vintage office equipment,
including typewriters, duplicating machines, cash registers, adding
machines and calculators. Features articles on various museum sites
around the world.
Here are some links to sites relating to the technology used in old calculators.
Mike's Electric Stuff
Check out the page on Nixie Tubes, Counter Tubes, and Selector
tubes. Great stuff!
These are some of my favorite computing history websites
IPSJ Computer Museum
A fantastic resource on the history of electronic computers in Japan.
Computer History Museum
The largest museum in the US devoted to the history of computing. The physical museum is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Mountain View, California. While the physical museum is currently closed (as of December, 2021) due to COVID-19, the online presence is rich with a lot of great information, photos,
and videos.
Here are some retro-computing sites of interest.
Wang2200.org
Jim Battle has
developed a fantastic site dedicated to Wang's early 2200-series of
computers that had the BASIC computer language built-in. The
2200-series computers were an outgrowth of Wang's high-end calculator designs.
Beautifully-designed site, extremely well-written, and loaded with great
historical and technical details. Also features a Wang 2200 emulator
that runs under Windows or iOS that executes the actual Wang 2200
microcode captured from an early Wang 2200 computer!
The Small Wang Museum
A wonderful
museum devoted to the machines of Wang Laboratories, put together by
Jan Van de Veen of the Netherlands. Jan has a very highly-optioned
Wang 720C calculator system, as well as a great selection of early Wang
computer equipment.