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Addendum to 'The Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators'
"C–D"

The Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators lists over 1,500 models of early pocket calculators from over 220 companies and provides an excellent source of information on early hand-held calculators.  However, since it was published further models have come to light and are listed here.

If you have an early pocket calculator (from the 1970s with LED, vacuum fluorescent, discharge, or early LCD display, and battery powered) which is not in The Collector's Guide, please email the details as in the list below for inclusion here.

Details for each calculator are required in the format used in the book, and below:
Manufacturer or Trading Company, Model Name or Number (there may be more than one), Functions, Display Type, Battery type (and if rechargeable), Size, Country of Manufacture, any Interesting Features.

A small frontal photograph (jpeg format, about 600 pixels max dimension) of each would be useful and will be included with the details if of good quality.
Please email with details.

New Calculators

Latest Update - latest additions have the date added.

Go to   C   D

 

C

C011X (Only name on calculator.  German company?)

Calate (Manufactured by Advanced Telecommunications Equipment Ltd., Woking, England. See also Supacal.)

Calcom (Calcom Electronics, New Delhi, India)

Calconsa (CALCONSA AG, ZURICH)

CalcuCounter

Calculated Industries

Calculighter

Calculo

Calculor

Calcumatic (Leisurecraft Products Ltd., U.S.)

Calcu-pen (made in Japan, may have been manufactured by, or for, Satolex Corporation)

Calcutron

Calfax (U.S. company)

Calmaster See Tokai

CALOR

Calstar

Caltek

caltron

Caltronic

CAMBRIDGE-LEE

Candle

Cannella

Canon (Japanese manufacturer. Many models include "Palmtronic" in front of the model number.)

Capri

Carinco

CARTER

CARTEX

Casio (Japanese manufacturer)

CASTELBAJAC

CB

CBC (CBC International Group of Companies)

CBM - See Commodore.

CEDEO

Century or Century Mark IV
(These calculators are reported to have been made for and exclusively distributed by Gulf Oil Mail Order.  However, the "Century Mark IV" has on the back the address of "Special Offer Headquarters 6775 West 174th St., Tinley Park, Illinois, U.S.A.", which appears to be related to the "Penny Saver" advertising newspaper.
Another example of the "Century Mark IV" is reported to have on the back "Rapid Data Systems Intern. Ltd., Havant, Hants, England, Model 535".
Also, the Century Mark IV name appears on other electronic products including radios, 8-track cartridge players, and cassette recorders.
So the company behind the name had its fingers in many pies.)

Chason

Checkmate - See Litronix.

Check Tronic (probably not the manufacturer. Please get in touch with us if you know)

Chinon (Japanese manufacturer, known for its cameras.  Calculators mainly seen in Europe)

Cipel

Citaco (Citaco Business Machines Ltd., Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London W.C.2)

CI and C. Itoh (CI Business Machines and C. Itoh Business Machines.  Both "a division of C. Itoh & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.")

Citizen (Japanese manufacturer, calculators mainly seen in Europe)

Clever

CM

CO (This series of calculators is a bit of a puzzle since this may be a part of the  model number of calculators from an unknown company.)

Coca Cola (The Coca Cola company)

Colex (Hong Kong company)

Collins

Columbia (Columbia Scientific, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.)

Comico

Commodore (CBM - Commodore Business Machines - USA company (originally from Canada) with strong UK ties)

Compex (Cal-Comp Electronics, Inc.)

Compuad (Australian company - Compuad Australia Sales)

Compuchron

Compucorp (U.S. Company. These machines were sold under the Compucorp name and were also supplied to Monroe, Sumlock, IME, Ricoh, ATAIO, and others, and labelled for them.)

Compumatic ( P.O. Box 3263, Huntsville, Alabama 35810, U.S.A.)

COMPU-TECH (COMPU-TECH PRODUCTS LTD., NEW YORK, N.Y.)

Computech

Computer

Computex

Comus (Comus Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.)

Concept (Zayre Corporation, U.S.A.  See also Texas Instruments Concept models)

Concept 2000

concorde

Condata

Conic

Continental

Control Metric (Please get in touch with us if you have any information about Control Metric).

Controller (Electronic Resources Ltd., Hong Kong)

Co-op (British consumer co-operative)

Coronet

CORRECT

Corvus (U.S. company)

Coteco (nothing known about this company. If you have any information please get in touch)

Craig (U.S. company)

Cristalonic (AVIATRONIX GMBH, Munich, Germany)

Crown Radio

Cybernet

Cybio (nothing known about this company. If you have any information please get in touch)

 

 

D

DADS (DADS Root Beer, U.S.A.  A soft drink.)

Daltone (Dalamal Electronics Corp., 107 Franklin Street, New York, N.Y. 10113 - U.S. manufacturer.)

Dantron

Datacal ("Distributed by V.I.P. programs company, Westbury, N.Y., U.S.A.")

Dataking

DEC Engineering Corp. (Korean company)

Decimo (English company.  Also supplied the W.H. Smith store chain with Strand calculators.)

Deetee

DELTEK

Demicom

demitronics (demitronics, inc., Japan)

Descom

Detron (Dae Han Electronics Ltd., Seoul, Korea. Marketed in Europe)

Detson (Company appears to have been related to Lloyds and Lloytron.  This brand seen in Europe.)

DEV-TRONICS (DEV-TRONICS, INC., Twin Falls, Idaho)

Diamond

Diamant

Dictaphone (U.S. company)

Dietzgen

Digicomp (CPA Digicomp Inc., Chatsworth, California, U.S.A. An Esmond Industries company)

Digical

Digi-matic (See Sears)

DIGIT

digita

Digita-Victor

Digitrex

Digitron

dismac (Brazilian company. Some calculators may have been assembled in the Manaus Free Trade Zone)

DIPLOMAT

Dittel (dittel GMBH, Landsberg, Germany)

Dixons (See Prinztronic)

DOOR

dsc

DUGENA ("DUGENA UHREN UND SCHMUK EG, Darmstadt W. Germany" [DUGENA Clock and Jewellery company].)

DULIX

Dynson (Spanish manufacturer)

 

 

Click to go to :
Calculator Book Addendum A-B
Calculator Book Addendum E-I
Calculator Book Addendum J-O
Calculator Book Addendum P-R
Calculator Book Addendum S
Calculator Book Addendum T-Z

 

Key to Abbreviations

Functions:
4-funct = 4 basic mathematical functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
sci-funct = scientific or engineering functions (logarithmic and trigonometric functions such as log, sine, and cosine and usually memory, square, pi, etc.)
mem = memory
% = percent function
exp = exponent
paren = parentheses
pi = pi value
recip = reciprocal
sgn chg = sign change
sq rt = square root
sq funct = square functions (including square and square root)

Battery Type:
button rep batt = very small, disk-shaped, replaceable batteries commonly termed button-types, used mainly in LCD models.
rep batt = replaceable batteries (such as 9V, AA, C, and N batteries)
rep batt pack = replaceable batteries in a removable pack
sealed batt = rechargeable batteries sealed in the case
sealed batt pack = rechargeable batteries in a removable pack

Display Type:
See the section on Calculator Displays for more detailed information.
Displays have 8 digits unless specified otherwise.

COS-LCD = Early Liquid Crystal Display from Sharp showing silver digits on a dark background. COS stands for Crystal on Substrate. This display was used as early as October 1973 but eventually was phased out.
fluor = see VFD.
Gas discharge = Display containing all digits sealed in a single package employing  gas discharge to generate light in the same way as a neon lamp. Normally give amber- or orange-colored digits, and typified by the Panaplex® used by a few calculator manufacturers.
LCD = Liquid Crystal Display, a flat, gray-digit type of display type that uses less power and was embraced by calculator makers by the end of the 1970s. Early versions (used in the early 1970s) by Rockwell and Sharp are included in this guide.
LED = Light Emitting Diode display (usually red although sometimes a purple filter was used to color the display). LEDs often have small half bubble-like covers over the digits. tube or mini-tube = separate vacuum or fluorescent tube for each digit of display.
Yellow LCD = Early LCDs had a reliability problem with ultra-violet light and manufacturers used a yellow-colored filter over the normally gray display to remedy that. Refinements in later LCD designs removed the need for the filter.
VFD = Vacuum Fluorescent Display. Display containing all digits sealed in a single tube generating light from an electrical discharge onto a fluorescent material. The color of the digits is normally green or blue, or somewhere in between.

Other Information:
Klixon keypad = Texas Instruments Klixon® keypad was one of the earliest keypads and used greatly by Bowmar and a few other early calculator makers. It had the four basic functions and used metal key pads about 1/2" square.
Japan (for example) = country of manufacture as stated on calculator
RPN = Reverse Polish Notation, a method of calculating and user data entry used by HP calculators. A few other manufacturers also used RPN in more limited scale.
"aka" (also known as) is used when there is another name or model variation on the calculator.
"c" (for example, c1973) is used as "circa," denoting at approximately that time.

 

A big thanks to Thomas Brockmeier, Richard Brooks, Andrew Davie, Larry Gilbert, Niels Grot, Palmer Hanson, Steve Haynes, Robert King, Kent King, Jeff Lane, Philippe Leckler, Ken Meine, Bob Patton, James Redin, and CB Wilson for their help.

 

How to Buy the Book!!!!

Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators

by Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm

This 204 page, softcover book is the world's most comprehensive listing of electronic pocket calculators from the 1970's, the so-called Golden Age of Pocket Calculators.  Over 1,500 known calculators are detailed with information on features, size, display type, power type, and pricing.  In addition, when known, the listing also contains date of sales, original pricing, and country of origin information.

The book features over 470 photographs of various models from over 240 manufacturers around the world (including calculators from lesser-known companies in England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, and Russia).

"The Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators" includes a comprehensive value guide to help you gauge rarity and desirability of the various models -- especially as they relate to each other.

The book can be purchased for $20.00 plus $5 for USA mailing ($10 for first class mailing to Canada, and $23 to other countries).  California residents please add $1.86 state sales tax.

For payment by PayPal, or for additional details and information, contact co-author Guy Ball.  Guy is happy to sign the books if asked.

 

Copyright ©1997 Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm, ©2002-2024 Nigel Tout

Vintage Calculators

Text & photographs copyright, except where stated otherwise, © Nigel Tout 2000-2024.