Imperial & Royal
Imperial Typewriter Company Ltd. was formed in 1908 in Leicester, and became a very successful producer of typewriters.
In 1966 it was
acquired by Litton Industries and merged with its Royal Typewriter division.
The company sold mechanical calculators under the Imperial name, and electronic calculators were sold under both the Imperial and Royal names in the early to mid 1970s. The Imperial electronic models are largely identical to the Royal equivalent (and also the Triumph/Adler equivalent, since these were also part of Litton Industries).
The Leicester factory was closed in 1974 after a bitter labour dispute. The sales office continued, being renamed Imperial Business Equipment in 1975, until about 1989.
Known Imperial calculators:
Mechanical calculators:
Desk Electronic calculators:
Hand-held calculators (are similar to the corresponding Royal and Triumph-Adler models) :
Many Imperial hand-held calculators are of a similar boxy design which comes in three sizes, tiny, normal, and large, as shown above:
Hand-held electronic labelled "Royal" on the front, "Made in ... for Imperial Typewriter Company Limited" on the back (all similar to the corresponding Royal models) -
Click on an image for a larger pictures and technical details -
British calculators
Vintage Calculators
© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout 2000-2019 except where noted otherwise.