This is just one of the arrivals this month, I'm always searching for things that I can buy with my "eBay dollars" that I gain from selling various things. It gives me guilt free pocket money that burns a hole in my pockets, and I decided I would travel down the RPN rabbit hole once again and purchase one of the most significant calculators in the HP lineup.
That is Hewlett Packard from "back then" and not the company it is nowadays.
The above unit is the HP-12C Financial calculator, it is a Voyager model, introduced in 1981 with an estimated life span, by the project team, of two years. In defiance of that projection the model has become HP's longest and best-selling product, in continual production since its introduction. This almost mint example cost me C$35.90 including shipping, from a Canadian seller.
The serial number on the HP-12C is 3425S03298 which means that it was built in (1960)+34 = 1994 and in week 25 in the Singapore facility. The 03298 is the unit number so there are a few fun nerdy facts for you.
A little personal history is in order regarding my interest in the RPN calculators and it was from my 1985 stint at McDonnell Douglas in California. I was so impressed at the time by the HP-11C and the HP-15C Scientific calculators that I was standing in a store in Long Beach about to buy the cheaper HP-11C (it was on sale at around US$75) and I rationalized I could "amortize" the cost into my expenses at the time.
History shows that I walked out of that camera store without a calculator.
Nine years would pass before I would buy my first RPN calculator, and I felt at the time that I had wasted a lot of time using tradional "algebraic" units, but finally my "Reverse Polish Notation" days had arrived (complete with steep learning curve).
The impact on my generation of handheld calculators is huge, I started as an apprentice in 1974 and was advised to buy British Thornton draughtsman instruments and a slide rule, within eighteen months we were all encouraged (by the Ford Motor Company) to leave the slide rule behind and buy a CBM (Commodore Business Machines) SR7919 Scientific Calculator, and the company allowed us to have the cost deducted from our pay slips over twenty weeks.
I still have one of those too.
I'll talk more about calculators, and eBay acquisitions, in future posts.
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