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Addendum to 'The Collector's Guide to Pocket Calculators'
"P–R"

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.

Displays are 8-digits unless described otherwise.

Go to   P   Q   R

 

P

PACIFIC ELECTRONICS

Panasonic (Manufactured by the Japanese Matsushita Corporation.  Also used the name "National Panasonic")

PAN-SONIC

PASSPORT

Peripheral Magnetics (U.S. company)

Philips (Dutch multi-national.)

Phytron (British marketing company)

Pico

Picom

Pioneer (see Rapid Data)

Piratron

PLANAR

Plustronics ("Plustronics Ltd., a company of Photopia International Ltd." British photographic and electronic marketing company.  May just have the name Plustron.)

Pocket Numerology

POLYGON

POLYTRON

Power (if you have any information about the company marketing this model please get in touch)

POWERS TEN (Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.)

PRA (PRA INDUSTRIES, Chicago, Ill., U.S.A.)

PRECISA

PRECOR (atlas electronics corporation limited)

PREFECT

PRESIDENT

PrintaBowmar (Mexican company)

Prinztronic (Trade name of Dixons, a British photographic and electronics chain store)

Prismatic

Privileg (a trade name of the German chain-store Quelle International)

Protronic (no information available about this company, but the operating manual of the Model 212 is in German. If you have any information please get in touch)

Pulsar

Pye (British company - for more information see the British Calculators site)

Pythagoras

 

Q

Quali (Taiwanese company)

Qualimat

Qualitron
Qualitron Industrial Corp was a Taiwanese company owned by the Lin family. Mr Stan Shih (who later founded the Acer computer group) played a major part in establishing the company and its calculators in 1972. The company ran into financial problem in the mid-1970s. See http://www.cbronline.com/news/not_my_style_acers_shih_is_latest_ceo_to_turn_to_print.

Quelle (see Privileg)

Quik-Check (manufacturer unknown - please get in touch with us if you have more information)

Quorum (Farmington, Connecticut, U.S.A.)

 

R

R and S

RACING NOVELTIES (Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A.)

Radio Shack (a Tandy Corporation company, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.. See alsoTandy.)

Radionic (Radionics Products Ltd., of Bristol, U.K.)

Radofin (Radofin Electronics (F.E.) Limited, Kowloon, Hong Kong.  London office: King Street, London, W6.  Triton was a registered trade name of the company)#.

Ragen Precision Industries (U.S. company)

Rambler (Apparently a brand name of an Australian marketing company)

Ramsgate (Ramsgate Inc., Eveleth, Minnesota, U.S.A.)

RANG (RANG ELECTRONICS PTE LTD, Singapore)

RandS

Rapid Data (Rapid Data Systems and Equipment Limited, Canada)

Rapidex (European company)

RBM (U.S. company)

REAL

Realtone (Euro-market company)

REALTRONIC

Regan (Regan Industries, Glendale, Claifornia, U.S.A.)

REMA

Remington See Sperry-Remington-Rand.

Reno (German company)

RES (Radiant Energy Systems, Newbury Park, California, U.S.A.)

REVETRONIC

Rex (Euro-market)

RFT (East German (DDR) company)

Ricoh (Japanese company)

RIVIERA

RIZ (Radio Industrija Zagreb, Ex-Yugoslavia, now Croatia).

RMS International (Westlake Village, California, U.S.A.)

RJP

Rockwell (U.S. company. See also Anita, Galfa, House of Fraser)

rocky

Rodan (distributed in Australia by Plessey Ducon Pty.)

Rodell

ROLLS MICRO ("ANOTHER FINE PRODUCT OF LUMEX ELECTRIC CO. INC., GREAT NECK, NEW YORK")

Roger (see Tohotronic)

Roman

Royal (Royal Typewriter Company, a division of Litton Industries.  Some models are similar to those of other Litton brands: Adler, Imperial, and Triumph.)

Ruby (NEC (Nippon Electric Company), Japan.  Any connection with the Ruby calculators from Sola Enterprise, below, is not known.)

Ruby (Sola Enterprise Co., Ltd., Taiwan.  Sometimes labelled "Advance Electronics Co., Ltd."-See also there.  Any connection with the Ruby calculators from NEC, above, is not known.)

 

 

Click to go to :
Calculator Book Addendum A-B
Calculator Book Addendum C-D
Calculator Book Addendum E-I
Calculator Book Addendum J-O
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.