Multiply: The Francis Hookham Collection (Second Edition)

[Mark Power]

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, at Cambridge University, have decided to produce a second edition and print run of Multiply – the catalogue of the Francis Hookham Collection of Handheld Electronic Calculators.

It would be great if readers of the forum could have a look at the first edition PDF and see if they can spot any errors that should be corrected for the second edition. Please post your errata to this thread and I will add them to the list below.

The second print run will be limited and the estimated cost will be approximately £20-25 plus postage, depending on the size of the print run. The book is 120 pages, perfect bound on high quality A4 paper with a matt cardboard cover and is approximately 7mm thick.

To help Cambridge University work out how many copies to print, please send me a PM or email if you would like a copy. The first edition print run was something like 25 copies, so these are very rare!

If there is sufficient interest from the USA we can look into sending a box full over from the UK and having them distributed locally to reduce postage charges, as we did for RCL40.

If you want to know more about the collection, see this post.



Multiply Errata as of 27 Aug 2024:

Errata from Mark, Gene, Tony, Jake:

Please note:
• p.x is the page number shown in the book as printed.
• pdf.x is the page number of the PDF file.
• (xxx) is the Francis Hookham collection id.
• p.11 explains that the first date shown is the date of the calculator in the collection, not the date of introduction of the mode.

1) p1. says that the HP-35 was introduced by Texas Instruments. It should of course say Hewlett-Packard (with the hyphen to be correct I believe)
2) p5. footnote 1 - typo: hte should be the
3) p.14. The HP41C entry (011) should say “positive click” rather than “no click”. I realise this is subjective but “no click” is definitely wrong. IMHO it has the best keyboard ever produced in a calculator, but I might be slightly biased as the HP41CV is what I used at university.
4) p.14. The HP41C entry (011) says “£170 in 1973”, which should say “£170 in 1979” - the year the calculator was introduced.
5) p.22. TI-25 (044A) can we improve the contrast of the image as in print it is almost completely black? One of the images in the online collection is slightly better https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac...9.044A.png
6) p.22. TI SR-10 (042B) price should be ‘£33.95 in May 1975, to £35.95 in March 1976’ (which is incorrectly shown against TI SR-50A (048) on p.23)
7) p.23. TI SR-50A (048) picture is incorrect – the SR-10 is shown (042B on p.22). The correct picture is in the online collection at: https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac...11/#images
8) p.23. TI SR-50A (048) price should be “$149.95 in late 1972; £55.50 in July 1974” (which is incorrectly shown on p.22 SR-10 (042B) – it looks like the price entries have been swapped).
9) p.23. TI SR-50A (048) comment about “This was the last of the TI calculators to have colourful blue and orange keys” should be against TI SR-50 (047B), which as the picture shows did have blue and orange keys. The TI SR-50A had gold and brown keys function keys as per this images at https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac...11/#images
10) p.23. TI-30 (045A1) image is missing. Duplicate from the TI-30 in the next cell (045A).
11) p.26. HP-45. The comment should read “This model, the third made by Hewlett Packard, was the first scientific calculator to have a 'shift' key”. The lack of an equals key is a feature of RPN calculators, and the first calculator with a shift key was the HP-80 business calculator introduced 3 months before the HP-45.
12) p.56. HP-21 (218) comment is incorrect. There is no yellow key on the HP-21 (as per the image) and the comment seems to have been copied from HP-33E on page 62. Suggest the comment is removed “A yellow 'f' key … was unique to HP”
13) p.81. Panasonic rebranded “Olympia Werke AG: CD80” (349) does not have a clock display. Incorrect comment should be removed.
14) p.88. The page numbering restarts with 1 on page 96 of the pdf file. It is correct in the printed book.
15) p.90. Radio Shack EC-266 (387) is missing its photo. It is also missing from the online image collection.
16) p.93. HP-18C (407) would be better represented if the image showed the left hand keyboard as well as the righthand side as per https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac...29.407.png
17) p.99. Samsung is missing from the ‘Index by Manufacturer’. The Samsung entry should be: 367, 377
18) p.99. Sharp is missing from the ‘Index by Manufacturer’. The Sharp entry should be: 019A, 024, 059A, 080, 081, 082, 089, 091, 097, 111, 214A, 215, 232, 251, 252, 252A, 253, 265, 273, 280, 322B, 347, 355, 365
19) p.27. EL-8 (081) “Screen: fluorescent” -> “Screen: 9 segment fluorescent”.
20) p.14. HP-41C (011) “Screen: LCD” -> “Screen: 14 segment LCD”.
21) p.15. (019A) might be the best place to add this note if it will fit (p.17 would be more logical but I don’t think there is space): “Sharp used the name “Elsi mate” for many of their calculators. Elsi was a Sharp acronym for Extra Large Scale Integration”.
22) p.22. TI-25 (044A). Add a note: “This was TI’s first LCD calculator.”
23) p.50. HP-35 (182A). If it will fit, change the note to read: “"This was the last version of the first pocket calculator from HP, the first 'scientific' pocket calculator, and also the first using Reverse Polish Notation (RPN)."
24) p.52. TI-58C (199A). Change the note to read: “This model was created in 1977 but this constant memory version was not introduced until 1979.”


Typos from Eric (19 Aug 2024):

Page numbers are as labelled at the bottom of each page, not the PDF page number:

1) Page 6, middle of page, "colleciton" should be "collection" and "tourst" should be "tourist".
2) Page 14, the HP-41C entry (011) says "as as" instead of just "as", and the Compucorp entry (013) says "was was" instead of just "was".
3) Page 28, "materal" should be "material".
4) Page 36, "lighest" should be "lightest" and "advertisment" should be "advertisement". I question the use of "annoted" instead of "annotated" but maybe it was intentional here.
5) Page 38, "competetive" should be "competitive".
6) Page 45, the Super Vatman II entry (174) says "short-traval" instead of "short-travel".
7) Page 49, "the the" should be just "the".
8) Page 50, the HP-35 entry (182A) says "somewha heavy" instead of "somewhat heavy".
9) Page 63, the Executive Card entry (260A) says "hort-travel" instead of "short-travel".
10) Page 79, "Advertisment" should be "Advertisement".
11) Page "1" (PDF page 98, not numbered correctly, should be 88), the Rockwell 31R entry (39) says "Silde Rule" instead of "Slide Rule".
12) Page "1" (PDF page 105, not numbered correctly) , the Facit CA1-13 entry says "machanism" instead of "mechanism".
13) PDF page 108 (no page number), it says "Caculators" instead of "Calculators". Just below this headline, "reuseable" should be "reusable".
14) PDF page 115 (no page number), "advertisments" should be "advertisments".
15) As you can see there is a problem with PDF page numbering. It starts over with 1 several times. I think the page numbers would be much more useful if there were no more than one page with the same number. The cover is page 1, then it starts at 1 again on PDF page 5, then again on PDF page 11, then again on PDF page 98, then again on PDF page 103, then again on PDF page 105, and then no page numbers for the last 14 pages, beginning at PDF page 107.
16) Also, various calculators were donated by "Micheal Marriott". While this may indeed be correct, they might want to verify the unusual spelling of his name (vs "Michael").
17) On page 39, under item Facit 2004 (120), it says "spashy", and on page 64, under item Prinztronic XL 103 (266), it says "squasy", which aren’t real words. We suspect both should be “squashy”.

Comments from Demosthenes edited by Mark to remove duplicates (20 Aug 2024):

1) "During the 1970s, improvements in screens" -> displays
2) Footnote 1: "different types of calculator" -> calculators
3) Page 6: "documenting a moment, and a technology" comma?
4) Page 14: "but didn't give it to the Whipple Museum at the same time as the rest because he was still using it - this may explain why it has the same number as as another in the collection" -> “but he didn't”; and remove the double "as", please.
5) Page 15: (021A2) "Sinclair: Cambridgep" -> Cambridge
6) Page 23: (047A) "The 'electronic slide rule' added added".
7) Page 39: "Rockwell were an early single-chip manufacturer" -> was
8) Page 51: Again "Rockwell were an early single-chip manufacturer" -> was
9) Page 57, item 227A: "On the rear of this model, the first programmable pocket calculator, is a pack of program cards" -> “The first programmable pocket calculator” (remove the bit about the pack of program cards)
10) Page 80, item 340: Add a note “The HP-12C was introduced in 1981 and is still sold in 2024”.
11) Page 54 and page 96. Should just be titled "Security cradles and cases" (remove HP / Hewlett Packard) as at least one of those cases is for a Sharp calculator.

Corrections from Philippe (25 August 2024):

Notation:
• Page references are using the numbering of the PDF pages
• #nnn is a calculator’s Hookham Number.
• “[]” are inserts in the text.
• “underlined” highlights a word (typo, etc.) in the text.
• “strikeout” word to remove in the text.

Notes:
• THE INDEX WAS NOT CHECKED FOR ACCURACY (I’m not going to index the book).

General points:
• “Hand Held” – this is in 6 places in the text. This is incorrect; it should be “handheld” or “hand-held” (the former is in 5 places (including links) and the latter in 3). It would be better to be consistent (as well as correct) and use either “handheld” or “hand-held” throughout – but not both.
• “Hewlett Packard” – variously spelt that way (22 places) or “Hewlett-Packard” (6 places). The latter is the correct spelling.
• We have 6x “well-weighted” and 52x “well weighted”. There’s nothing particularly wrong with either, but considering that “short-travel” etc. is used in the majority (i.e. using hyphenation), this should be consistent in style and we should either have “well weighted” everywhere or correct all to be “well-weighted”.
• Quite a few of the descriptions for the keys on data pages are ambiguous. For instance, take “Keys: medium-travel, squashy, light, muffled click”. Commas are used to separate entries in a list, here adjectives or adjectival phrases describing the keys. However, there is also a description of the keys’ action, e.g. the clicks. So, what is described? You might say “it’s obvious: the keys feel light”. I would tend to agree, but I also found “light click” (e.g. in 006A4); so it’s now uncertain whether this meant “medium-travel, squashy” (keys) and “light, muffled click” (click), or “medium-travel, squashy, light” (keys) and “muffled” (click). That’s where using commas and semicolons would greatly clarify, e.g. “Keys: medium-travel, squashy; light, muffled click”. Effectively, there is now no way to tell L.
• Missing photos: for #045A1 and #387.
• p.82 #306 and other others – I wonder if they actually meant for a difference between “squishy” and “squashy”. It might be better if this were consistent throughout, i.e. one or the other.

Errata and specific points:
1) p.3 – #011 – “Hewlett Packard 41C” – besides the missing hyphen, this would be better as “Hewlett-Packard HP-41C”, as all other HPs are labelled HP-xx.
2) p.9 – “Not Exactly Pocket Sized” -> “Not Exactly Pocket-Sized”
3) p.9 – “Gold plated luxury” -> “Gold-plated luxury”
4) p.11 – “Once integrated circuits and better screens were available, by the 1970s calculators were truly pocket-sized.” Misplaced comma rendering it nonsensical. In any case this would be better as: “Once integrated circuits and better screens were available by the 1970s, calculators became truly pocket-sized.”
5) p.12 – “It takes an astute curator or collector to spot an object in daily use, to realise that it is important, and transforming our lives, and to begin” – misplaced comma -> “It takes an astute curator or collector to spot an object in daily use, to realise that it is important and transforming our lives, and to begin”
6) p.12 – “and although no new calculators have since been added to it” – that’s a damn shame!
7) p.15 – “and to become fascinated with these hand held electronic devices.” – one of the incorrect “hand held”.
8) p.15 – “I think it was realising what the chip was actually doing. It was the first direct experience of what this marvellous thing that we kept hearing about: the integrated circuit and the chip. Actually seeing that it was doing things which before we’d struggled with—slide rules and worse still [,] log tables—and there was this super thing that was doing it all for us 1 .” This is supposed to be a quote, so I’m reluctant, but some of the grammar is broken (corrections in the text). Also “this marvellous thing” should be plural, since he lists two.
9) p.15 – “Why he became so passionate about collecting hand-held electronic calculators [,] even he wasn’t later entirely sure” – missing comma.
10) p.15 – “Bowmar in Canada who made the first [calculator] have not replied.”
11) p.15 – “his correspondence relating to the creation of the colleciton” – typo, “collection”.
12) p.24 – #011 – “Hewlett Packard: 41C“ – should be “Hewlett-Packard” (with the hyphen), of course, and all the other HPs are labelled HP-xx, so it would be better if it was “Hewlett-Packard: HP-41C”.
13) p.24 – #011 – “This calculator was in Hookham's original collection, but [he] didn't give it to the Whipple Museum”
14) p.24 – #013 – “This was claimed to be one of the first microcomputers for desktop use, and was was marketed in the UK by Sumlock Anita”
15) p.25 – #021A2 – “Sinclair: Cambridgep” – is “Cambridgep” a typo?
16) p.32 – #041 – “No screen; print out only” – “print out” feels wrong. If it’s meant to be “[it] print out only”, then it should be “prints out only”; if it’s meant to be a noun, it should be “printout only” or “print-out only” (as is used in #346).
17) p.32 – #041 – “This was the first handheld printing computer by Texas Instruments” – probably meant “printing calculator”.
18) p.33 – #047A – The “Power” etc. section is not tabulated. Maybe they did that because of a lack of vertical space, but if so, it would be much better to use full stops to separate the phrases rather than commas, e.g. “Power: removable rechargeable battery pack. Screen: LED. Chip: TMS…”.
19) p.33 – #047A – “The 'electronic slide rule' added added trigonometric” – duplication of “added”.
20) p.34 – #054A/#054A1 – I get the feeling that there’s a disconnect here. The specs of 054A seem to match that of a TI-59, but if so, why is it not mentioning the card reader whereas the 054A1 explicitly mentions “program cards” and the master library pack.. and still not the card reader? Is 054A1 actually a TI-58? The picture is too small to make sure. There’s no mention of the memory, which would have helped.
21) p.34 – #056 – “the Dataman can perform calculators as well as” – typo, “calculations”.
22) p.35 – #059A – “touch sensitive membrane” -> “touch-sensitive membrane” – hyphen.
23) p.35 – #059A – “with 'sensor touch' key adding a 'beep' each key press” – awkward, and unclear. http://www.datamath.org/Related/Sharp/EL-8130.htm confirms that this would be clearer as “with ‘sensor touch’ key to activate beeping on each keypress”.
24) p.37 – #081 – “This model was one of the first handheld, portable, battery[-]operated calculators” – typo, “battery-operated”.
25) p.38 – “and other ephemeral materal to give context” – typo, “material”.
26) p.40 – #086 – “Keys: long[-]travel” – fine by itself, but everywhere else a hyphen is used, so this should be “long-travel”.
27) p.40 – #087A1 – “Keys: short-trave” – typo, “short-travel”.
28) p.41 – #091 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keypad” – typo, “touch-sensitive”.
29) p.46 – “The advertisment opposite was clipped from” – typo, “Advertisement”.
30) p.48 – #112 – “have a brushed aluminium plate reading [“]Addison[”] on the top right” – quotes would be appropriate here around “Addison”.
31) p.48 – #117 – “Sinclar's only calculator not to be made in England - prices were so competetive that manufacturing had moved to Hong Kong” – two typos: “Sinclair” and “competitive”.
32) p.49 – #123A – “Keys: short[-]travel” – For consistency, a hyphen should be used.
33) p.50 – #127 – “Keys: short[-]travel” – another missing hyphen.
34) p.52 – #143 – “Prinz and Prinztronic brand names were used in the 1970s by Dixons electronics stores” – same text as for many other Dixons calculators, but for some reasons this one has extra spaces around “Dixons”.
35) p.53 – #157A – “very similar to the many 'Vatman' models” – inconsistent typography: it’s written “VATman” in other descriptions (but not in titles).
36) p.58 – “Early calculators had either flourescent or LED displays.” – typo, “Fluorescent”.
37) p.58 – “Flourescent displays (more correctly known as vacuum flourescent displays) work by causing” – twice the same typo, “Fluorescent”.
38) p.60 – #182A – “and also the first using Reverse Polish Notation (RPN)” – slightly ambiguous, as it was the first handheld/pocket calculator with RPN, but not the first calculator with RPN. A simple “and also the first [handheld calculator] using Reverse Polish Notation (RPN)” would suffice.
39) p.62 – #198 – “A highly specialised version of the TI-58 was produced by fitting it with a 'Harrier' module, to enable this model of calculator to be used by pilots of Harrier aircraft” – many specialised versions of the TI-58 were produced. This description gives the impression that there was only one. This could do with a rewrite, e.g. “Highly specialised versions of the TI-58 were produced by fitting them with dedicated modules and sometimes even front plates. For instance, the USMC Harrier was a TI-58 with a 'Harrier' module, to enable this model of calculator to be used by pilots of Harrier aircrafts”.
40) p.65 – #208 – “This language[-]learning aid plays word games” – missing hyphen in “language-learning”.
41) p.65 – #209 – “This spelling[-]learning aid plays word games” – missing hyphen in “spelling-learning”.
42) p.65 – #214A – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keys” – missing hyphen in “touch-sensitive”.
43) p.66 – #218 – “each key's three functions is being used, a way of marking keys that was unique to HP” – run-on sentence. Better as “each key's three functions is being used; a way of marking keys that was unique to HP”.
44) p.67 – #227A – “On the rear of this model … is a pack of program cards” – misleading: there was no pack of cards on the rear of the calculator! Also, why is it not mentioning that it had a card reader? Or, for that matter, that this was the first magnetic card-reader handheld calculator?
45) p.70 – #236A – “somwhat squashy” – typo, “somewhat”.
46) p.71 – #239 – “The entire front casing must be removed to get to [the] battery compartment, by pressing in [the] plastic clips at the top and the bottom” – missing articles.
47) p.71 – #241 – “This spelling[-]learning aid plays word games” – missing hyphen.
48) p.72 – #248 – the description is the same as that of the 218, with the same run-on sentence.
49) p.72 – #249 – “This spelling[-]learning aid plays word games” – missing hyphen.
50) p.74 – #269 – “Keys: medium-travel, quite light, low metallick click” – typo, “metallic”. Also, that’s an odd turn of phrase. What’s a click that’s both “low” and metallic”? So I’m not sure what they meant to say.
51) p.76 – #281 – “teaching the main arithmetical functions” – it would be more usual to write “arithmetic functions”.
52) p.76 – #285 – “Power: AA battery or mains, Screen: fluorescent” – just like 047A, there is inconsistent tabulation (and incorrect use of commas). Better written on two lines, and there isn’t the excuse of a lack of space here.
53) p.77 – #288 – “Keys: almost flush and short-travel, light, muffled click” – inconsistent use of “and”; better with a comma, i.e. “Keys: almost flush, short-travel,
54) light, muffled click”.
55) p.79 – #104A1 – “Decimo Vatman (above) and Vatman mini adverts (right)” – as written, this could be understood as mini adverts for the Vatman (as I actually read it the first time). This is better written with quotes, i.e. “Decimo ‘Vatman’ (above) and ‘Vatman mini’ adverts (right)”.
56) p.79 – #104A1 – “As they were characterised by some at the time, the tax inspectors were the bad guys, ruthlessly targeting small business owners and shopkeepers, then Vatman calculators were promoted as superheroes” – this is confusing and hard to understand. This would be much clearer as “As the tax inspectors were characterised by some at the time as the bad guys, ruthlessly targeting small business owners and shopkeepers, the Vatman calculators were promoted as superheroes”.
57) p.81 – #300 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keys” – missing hyphen.
58) P.83 – #313A – “soft and squash press” – typo. An adjective is needed, so “squashy”.
59) p.83 – #317 – “Keys: tall and dome[-]shaped” – A hyphen would be better, here.
60) p.85 – #329 – “The model has an alarm function and the case has ten holes in the front through which it can be heard” – as written, this means that the alarm function (or worse, the case) can be heard; not the alarm. Better as “The model has an alarm function and the case has ten holes in the front through which the alarm can be heard”.
61) p.89 – “Advertisment for Casio QL-10” – typo, “Advertisement”.
62) p.90 – #339 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keys” – missing hyphen.
63) p.93 – #364 – “Keys: long-travel, light and springy, high[-]pitched thud” – missing hyphen.
64) p.95 – #207 – “He asks one of his 16,000 pre-programmed questions, and checks if you enter the right answer” – confusing anthropomorphism. It’s better with “It asks one of its…”
65) p.97 – “This advert sets out which of the range of calculators from Texas Instruments were most appropriate for different school levels” – confusingly written. “were” implies a plural, yet “range” is singular, with the double “of” not helping decide whether it’s “range” or “calculators” that we are talking about. In fact, it’s neither. The rest of the description does no service to what the advert actually says. This would be better as “This advert sets out which category of calculators in Texas Instruments’ range was most appropriate for different school levels.”
This should then be followed by “It identifies the TI-57 as suitable for A-levels and University students, and the TI-30 as appropriate for students doing O-levels.”
66) p.99 – #379 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keys” – missing hyphen.
67) p.100 – #384 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive keys” – missing hyphen.
68) p.100 – #387 – “Radio Shack/Tandy Corporation: EC-266 (Mity” – missing closing parenthesis. Are there missing characters too? Also, the photo is missing.
69) p.103 – #411 – “Keys: touch[-]sensitive, with finger input…” – ok, but better with a hyphen.
70) p.103 – #411 – “Keys are touch[-]sensitive and also…” – ok, but better with a hyphen.
71) p.105 – Facit CA1-13 – “This is a rotary calculator, using a pinwheel machanism” – typo, “mechanism”.
72) p.107 – “The first reuseable spacecraft was launched in 1981 – NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia” – better with a colon, i.e. “The first reuseable spacecraft was launched in 1981: NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia”.
73) p.113 – “Thankyou also to Nick Eagleton…” – non-standard. Better written as “Thanks also to…”.
74) P.115 – “Every effort has been made to secure permission to reproduce in this book advertisments and…” – typo, “advertisements”.
75) p.115 – “10: Hewlett-Packard, Getting the most from continuous memory booklet, 1977 © HP Inc” – quotes needed, and capitalisation (or all caps), e.g. “10: Hewlett-Packard, ‘Getting The Most From Continuous Memory’ booklet, 1977 © HP Inc”.