Further Information About The Early ANITA Calculators
- The first of the ANITA models was called the Mk VII (i.e. Mark VII) because the development of the mechanism of the Sumlock mechanical calculators made by the company had already gone through design numbers Mk I to Mk VI. So the next number in the series was used for the first electronic design.
- The moulded plastic casing of the first ANITA calculators was particularly complicated for the time, and required development of new techniques by the moulding company. Originally moulded in ABS the material was later changed to polycarbonate for improved fire resistance.
- Operators converting from mechanical machines to the new electronic ANITA calculators often complained initially that the key stroke was too light and did not give the feel of the mechanical machine. Also, they missed the noise of the mechanism which indicated that the calculation was taking place and went quiet when the calculation was completed.
- An article of 1965 on cold cathode tubes from Mullard Ltd. (a British manufacturer of these devices, which also produced a prototype calculator using them) gives an insight into why they were used in these calculators at the time - "... They are an accountant's dream; a typical modern tube has a life expectancy several thousand times better than the conventional thermionic tube, although they employ voltages of the same order. They are much cheaper than either semiconductor devices or vacuum tubes; they do not require costly materials with a high degree of purity in their manufacture, nor do they need transformers or cooling systems to operate. The tubes require no warm-up period and they can take severe overload."
Read more about this topic: Sumlock ANITA Calculator
Famous quotes containing the words information, early and/or calculators:
“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“It is easy to see that, even in the freedom of early youth, an American girl never quite loses control of herself; she enjoys all permitted pleasures without losing her head about any of them, and her reason never lets the reins go, though it may often seem to let them flap.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)