R.I.P. Clive Sinclair

[Jules Richardson]

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