18 Sep
2021
18 Sep
'21
10:33 a.m.
On 9/18/21 11:15 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Clive Sinclair died at 81 after a long illness
(probably not Covid)
'course now he is touted as being "the inventor of the pocket calculator"
(as with all "FIRST"s, it leaves out a few predecessors,such as Busicom
(1971, whose contract with Intel led to the 4004), Kilby's 1967 "Cal Tech"
at TI, etc.)
I'm not sure, but the HP35 might even have preceded the Sinclair calculator.
As with all "FIRST"s, an entry can be saved by redefining the field.
Sinclair's was probably the first one costing 5 pounds or less.
Pockets in the US were bigger than in the UK ;-)
I do remember the Sinclair products using hearing aid batteries and so
being very slimline and compact in comparison to other hand-helds of the
era, but I don't know about any claim to "first".
Jules