NEW PERMANENT EXHIBITION OF HP and NON HP CALCULATORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA (

[Alevin]

Dear friends:

As curator, I am happy to inform you that at the beginning of November 2021 a new permanent physical exhibition will be inaugurated at the Higher Polytechnic School of Huesca, belonging to the University of Zaragoza (Spain), with the title:

El CÁCULO EN TU MANO (CALCULUS AT YOUR HAND)

This exhibition expands and gives permanence to the exhibition that took place in the same place in September 2018, under the title ‘Electronic archeology: The first calculators’, whose on-line content can been seen here:

https://campushuesca.unizar.es/galeria-e...as-escuela

This new permanent exhibition is located at one entrance hall to the main campus building, with free public access, with 11 large display cabinets and associated posters.

The exhibition displays a part of the collection of more than 500 unique electronic calculators that have been researched, documented and compiled over the last few years. The collection includes only significant models rigorously selected from among the thousands of existing models, for reasons of novelty, innovation, unique characteristics or rarity. They all are fully functional (except perhaps half a dozen, with partial operation), and can be used on request, to capture the special operational, visual and tactile sensations that they provide, sometimes unexpected and far from those currently established.

The calculators collection focuses on "pocket calculators" of the period 1969-1992, (including the Pocket Computers from the 80s), both for general and scientific use. This collection is virtually finish in all the most important items of this era. To complete the outlook and technological evolution, it also includes scientific desktop models and exemplars of the most popular mechanical calculators, applied to accounting and scientific task, which still coexisted with electronic ones for a short time.

There are some examples of desktop calculators built with discrete components in the second half of the 60s (IME-96S, CANON 161 and 130s), but the mythical equipment of the 60s such as ANITA MK, FRIDEN 130, WANG, MARCHANT COGITO, SHARP COMPET CS-10A, SHARP COMPET 20, ... ,are still lacking. The same can be said in respect early HP 1900, HP 8000 and TI SR-60 desktop scientific series. In this sense, to complete its funds, the museum seeks donations, even some purchase at a reasonable price, since it is financed only with small charities of the teachers and staff voluntary work.

The exhibition is conceived with revolving thematic, to make it more dynamic, with various central themes planned, reserving the temporally unexposed funds in a chamber with controlled temperature and humidity conditions for long-term conservation.

The current exhibition focuses on the first electronic calculators with the 4 basic functions that present a curious emergence of evolutionary diversity, which over time converged on the standards that we now know (see the list of thematic content of each of the showcases in the post end part). For next year 2022, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first scientific pocket calculator, HP-35, part of the content will be renewed an expanded with the new central motif of scientific calculators from the period 1972-1995.

I enclose some low-res images of the preliminary assembly of a pair of display cabinets (numbers 6 and 7). You are invited to visit it and it will be a pleasure to accompany you on a guided tour, if you ever come here.

It is planned to complete the content of the virtual exhibition of 2018, which only showed a small part of the items. Therefore the entire collection will be accessible online in the near future.

Greetings to the entire community interested in these topics and do not hesitate to ask your questions and give suggestions.

Ricardo Aliod & Helen May

LISTING OF DISPLAY CABINTES FOR EXHIBITION, PERIOD NOV 2021- NOV 2022

1 PORTABLE MECHANICAL ADDERS
2 MECHANICAL DESKTOP CALCULATORS
3 AUTOMATIC MECHANICAL CALCULATOR, ELECTRICAL DRIVEN
4 SLIDE RULES
5 FIRST ELECTRONIC DESKTOP CALCULATORS
6 FIRST PORTABLE CALCULATORS (1970-1972)
7 FOUR FUNCTIONS CALCULATORS (1972-1974)
8 EVOLUTION OF CALCULATORS WITH FOUR FUNCTIONS (1975-1983)
9 FIRST SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL CALCULATORS (1974-1975)
10 CALCULATORS MADE IN SPAIN (1972-1979)
11 CURIOUS CALCULATORS WITH OTHER USES (1974-2000)