I never knew it exists. It looks way cool.
Posted on 10/24/2019 7:07:53 PM PDT by DoodleBob
The 12c calculator from Hewlett-Packard is one of those products that is so ubiquitous and familiar that you almost forget it exists, yet at the same time is so different that there's almost nothing like it. Whenever someone pulls it out of a drawer or pocket to do a calculation, no matter how trivial, you know you are dealing with a professional. Remarkably, it has been in continuous production for over 35 years, with very few changes. While there are now fancier and in some ways more sophisticated calculators, such as with screens for doing graphs, the 12c remains a cult status symbol for professionals.
And people really bond with their 12c's. I'm reminded of the chant from the movie Full Metal Jacket, when the recruits are first learning to use their rifles:
“This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle I am useless.”
The 12c has much the same aura: They are mass-manufactured, yet individual. Learning to use it well involves a pretty steep curve, and, like a sophisticated piece of software, the learning curve keeps going as you get better, egging you on to dive deeper, deeper. For accountants and other financial professionals who need to go beyond basic adding and subtracting, there's a host of sophisticated functionality. Amortization? Yes. Compound interest? Certainly. Calculating Net Present Value and Bond yields? Of course.
Toda the 12c can be bought for under $50. But when it was launched on September 1, 1981, it retailed for $150 (equivalent to over $400 today). Even at that price it was an instant success.
(Excerpt) Read more at massmadesoul.com ...
I’ve sold many of these on eBay over the years.
It is as elegant as the photos suggest. Mainly old school types still swear by them even with far more capable apps available. Can’t say that I blame them.
Please don’t hold that against the article. It’s a nice piece on how much soul is contained in that hunk of electronics.
The instruction book was bigger than the calculator.
Mines around somewhere.
Ah, the financial version?
Still have my 15C, you know, the weird scientific version.
I never knew it exists. It looks way cool.
Back in the 80s, I was never without my 41C at my desk or drafting table (and I had a 12 too), but they eventually gave out.
Fast forward to smartphone era, when screens became about the same size as a 41, you run an app, and it’s just like the real thing! Wellll....not quite. No tactile feedback, and the ‘key’ response isn’t very quick, so you’re always making mistakes and having to start over.
Finally decided I needed to go back to a real, physical calculator, but all the current ones suck, and lack tactile keys besides. Well, guess what! HE hasn’t forgotten all its old fossils! HP-35 for like (coincidentally) $35. Does Everything a 41 will do and more for like 5% of what I paid for my 41, inflation adjusted. I love that thing!
I was a TI man through and through
Me too. A slide rule and a TI-30 got me through High School. A TI-55 got me through college.
I remember that well. Our chem prof decided to give us 90% to set the problem up properly and only 10% for the answer.
The setup was with paper and pencil and the equations were complex with large numbers. I would set them all up and then go back and compute the answers in the remaining time.
I'm still good at long division due to that experience.
Certainly not HP’s first calculator with RPN. Had a programmable i cannot recall the number of, red LED display, very short battery life, like barely enought to get through an exam. had to keep turning it off to make it.
Programming was fun, they gave you the code for a moon lander, adjust the burn rate and try not to use it up too soon.
Got so used to RPN I can barely use the other style, sort of like driving a manual vs. auto. Far faster method, likely why most EE types prefer it.
Meant to say ‘all US old fossils’
+1 on the 15C.
Bought mine in 1982 for $85 add still use it today. I honestly think you’ve changed the triple button cell batteries like four times over the years.
I remember losing it once in college, and couldn’t afford a new one. I thought it might have slipped out of the rat trap on my Honda 650. Searched the parking lot at school the next morning and there it was, on the ground with tire tracks across it. Powered up fine add still runs like a top.
I had an 11c for decades. I also programmed in Forth in the 80s. Both were RPN. RPN just seemed natural.
I’m a 15C dude, 11C is okay ...
Have ‘em all, 12C too. Original 15C, HP 15C Limited Edition, and the Swissmicro 15C clone.
I have an HP 12C on my desk and another in my briefcase. I still have the first one that I bought in 1982 in a drawer. It works fine, but it is hard to make out the print on most of the keys and I lost the battery cover years ago.
I received (some would say earned) a BSME in 1977. Calculators were forbidden in my frosh year, 1973-74. Slide rules rule. To this day!
Comrade!
15C is so powerful — it does imaginary math.
Had it NOT been RPN, it would have been lost forever.
It cleary was not HP's first RPN calculator, but it may have been the first FINANCIAL calculator with RPN. It unquestionably is HP's most successful RPN calculator.
HP came out with a new model a couple of years later, but no one bought it and they kept on selling the 12c. It amazes me that they still sell the same model calculator over 35 years later.
The 15C are worth a lot of money since they don’t make them anymore.
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