HP 19C Spring loaded Thingy?

[rprosperi]

When the 19C came out in 1977, it cost $345, which is about $1,460 today. As these were popular and highly sought after, many of them were stolen, e.g. when left on an Engineer's desk overnight. As these were somewhat larger than most handheld machines, they often were not carried home in a briefcase, but left in the office.

HP either reacted to hearing about it this, or possibly even anticipated it, and they released the Security Cradles you've no doubt seen for the 65/67, Classic and Woodstock machines; the cradle locks around the calculator and each cradle has a place to mount a steel cable, which could be looped around a nearby workbench fixture or table leg, etc. to prevent the machine from 'growing legs'.

The 19C and 10A were high-end models and so they needed similar protection, however because they have paper bays which need to be flipped open to refill the paper roll, the original style cradle (which totally enclose the machine except for the keyboard and screen) could not be used, so HP integrated a retractable 'hook' to which one could attach a security cable.