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HP 12c Financial Calculator
First introduced: 1981
Back before the days of home computers and pocket calculators, doing complex math was a real bitch. You actually had to work stuff out with paper and pen and a slide rule. For finance and accounting types, it also meant having to lug around giant books of precalculated formulas. By the late '70s, Hewlett Packard (HP) had put out a financial calculator, but because it was huge and had to be plugged into the wall, it was a hot mess of Fail. The company went back to the drawing board and came up with the 12c, which, to finance geeks, was a godsend. It fit in a shirt pocket, had an LCD screen (which was considered cutting-edge back then), had batteries that lasted for ages, was horizontally arrayed like an adding machine, and could calculate using Reverse Polish Notation (which apparently accounting nerds really dig). Understandably, it was a hit -- so much so that HP still sells the exact same model, with absolutely nothing changed, 27 years later!
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Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsDANIEL OCHSNov 11th 2008 2:53PM
I bought the 12C in 1981 and have changed the batteries only once!! The same is true for the 15C (math). That one I use daily.
dufferskNov 11th 2008 4:26PM
I have both a 12C as well as a 15C and don't leave home without them. I acquired both units in the 80's. As for RPN, simple as well as complex calculations are snap compared to doing the same calcs on an algebraic calculator.
s detwilerNov 11th 2008 6:12PM
And I still have my HP 12C. I had to replace it once. But I got my first one right after it came out. LOVE the RPN (reverse polish notation to you non-geeks). It lets you do calculations in the correct algebraic order -- inside the parentheses first, etc.
oldJohnNov 11th 2008 7:12PM
In 1974 I got a Uniden portable calculator. Batteries - no cord! Add, subtract, multiply, and divide was all it did. Paid $22.50 for it, about $200.00 today. The neighbors came over to see it! Wish I still had it.
egloskerryNov 12th 2008 2:57AM
My dad showed me an old calculator he still had. It had, not an LCD, but an LED screen! He told me it was cutting edge at the time, I believe in the late 70s. It was also about an inch thick. Sadly, it didn't work. I really wanted to get it working and bring it to calc. I forget what brand it was.
JefferyNov 16th 2008 5:48AM
I have a calculator with a VFD screen (you know, like the old cash registers and elevator number signs?), and it has a power consumption that would make a modern pocket calculator cry (and then divide by 0 and burst into flames). That said, it's a neat piece of history. I also use Free42 on my Internet Tablet, which is an open source recreation (not an emulator) of the HP-42S, which was made at the height of their awesomness of old.