Hand-held Calculators

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Summit Ko9V, K16, & SE88M

Many Summit calculators used a very similar, small but chunky case, as in these examples.

Illustrated here are three models:

Other examples of Summit hand-held calculators are illustrated in the Photograph Library.

Summit Ko9V

Summit Ko9V
Summit Ko9V

Summit Ko9V

Distinctive features: One of a distinctive series of small hand-held calculators made by Summit.

Technical details:
Display is 8 digits, red LED.

4-functions, constant. The "D" key refreshes the display once it is automatically switched off after the calculator is unused for some time.

9v (PP3).

68 x 101 x 34 mm (2.7" x 4.0" x 1.4").

About 1973.

Summit International Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah.
Manufactured by NCE Nuclear, made in U.S.A.

One of the very small and distinctively styled calculators from Summit, one of the smallest using the Texas Instruments "Klixon" keyboard common on early calculators.
The calculator is quite thick and much of the space is wasted by the large battery compartment, much larger than the battery. The case was actually designed for a set a rechargeable cells, as seen in the K16 below.

Inside Summit Ko9V

With rear cover removed.

Summit K16 / Citaco K16

Citaco K16
Inside

With rear cover removed, showing the six rechargeable cells.

Summit Ko9V / Citaco K16

Distinctive features: One of a distinctive series of small hand-held calculators made by Summit. Rebranded with the Citaco name.

Technical details:
Display is 8 digits, red LED.

4-functions, constant. The "D" key refreshes the display once it is automatically switched off after the calculator is unused for some time.

7.2v (6x AA rechargeable cells).

68 x 101 x 34 mm (2.7" x 4.0" x 1.4").

About 1973.

This example with the Citaco name was obtained in Britain and is labelled:
"A product of Summit International Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah.
Made in U.S.A."

An advertisement for another Citaco hand-held calculator gives the information:
Citaco Business Machines Ltd.
Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London W.C.2

The logo is actually a matrix with a 'C' filled in. On this calculator it has had to be rotated 90° anti-clockwise to fit in the small space on the left below the display.

Citaco K16

Summit SE88M

Summit SE88M
Inside Summit SE88M

With rear cover removed, showing the six rechargeable cells.

Summit SE88M

Distinctive features: One of a distinctive series of small hand-held calculators made by Summit.

Technical details:
Display is 8 digits, red LED.

4-functions, %, memory, with reciprocal, square, square root on separate buttons on the top.

7.2v (6x AA rechargeable cells).

70 mm x 103 mm x 35 mm (2.75" x 4.0" x 1.4").

Introduced 1973, cost US$169.50[1].

The SE88M does not have enough keys on the front for all the functions, so, unusually, three extra buttons are mounted on the top.

 

 

Summit International Corporation.

In 1971 Ed Price made a prototype hand-held electronic calculator using a carved wooden case and breadboarded electronics.
Nuclear Controls and Electronics (NCE) of Salt Lake City were interested in diversifying and contracted Ed and his calculator. They were marketed by the affiliated Summit International Corporation and a series of generally very small calculators was developed and sold from 1972.
Trans Atlas took over NCE and Summit in 1974, by which time there was a glut of manufacturers in a maturing, low profit market and manufacture of Summit calculators ceased.
Ed Price went on to form a new company, Price Research Associates, which made one characteristically tiny hand-held model.

 

Click here to read the excellent article "Summit: a Man and the Idea" on the history of Summit calculators by Guy Ball in the Collecting Calculators section of this site.

 

Other examples of Summit hand-held calculators are illustrated in the Photograph Library.

 

Reference:

  1. Popular Electronics, August 1973, p100.

Hand-held Calculators

Vintage Calculators

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