Calculators

The calculators column is intended to focus on that aspect of computing history that in many respects preceded the introduction of the computer and has paralleled the computer for the past 50 years as the original “desktop” machine, and in later years as the “pocket” machine. Through this column we hope to provide information for historians and collectors about the world of calculators. We invite readers to submit short contributions regarding the development, manufacture, and use of calculators for publication in this column. This column is from Frank Preston. As a graduate student at MIT, he was an operator of Vannevar Bush´s network analyzer in the early 1940s. He was with Norden Systems in a variety of engineering and management roles from 1945 to 1977. He was a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an engineering consultant from 1977 to 1982. From 1982 to 1989 he developed advanced simulators at NASA Ames. Since 1989 he has worked on supercomputer systems with NASA Langley