RIP Sir Clive Sinclair

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Sir Clive Sinclair has died aged 81.

Many people will remember him for C5 but forget that he invented the pocket calculator.

My life long love of computers and coding started with my Sinclair ZX81 which I started using at age 11.

Thank you Sir Clive.
 
I had one of Clive Sinclair's calculators. It was pretty basic but so much smaller than the 14 digit calculator I shared with 3 others in the lab. The shared one was on a trolley, about the size of a large golf ball typewriter and was moved from desk to desk as required. On the other hand it did have a square root key and a single memory!
The Sinclair calculator certainly wasn't cheap compared with my wage at that time. I think I stayed with it for about a year before moving on to a Texas calculator. I wish that I'd kept the succession of calculators and computers I used through my time in education, research, development and production. It's quite remarkable that the transistor was invented a couple of years after I was born and the first transistor I got my hands on to solder into a circuit was about the size of half a small finger nail.
Compare that with those in a smartphone!
Memories.

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
I had one of Clive Sinclair's calculators. It was pretty basic but so much smaller than the 14 digit calculator I shared with 3 others in the lab. The shared one was on a trolley, about the size of a large golf ball typewriter and was moved from desk to desk as required. On the other hand it did have a square root key and a single memory!................................

Colin 🙂🙂🙂

You've taken me right back Colin.

We used double bank mechanical Brunsvigas that were the weight of a small suitcase.

Later we used Facit mechanical calculators that we thought very modern.

:oops:
 
We still have a zx81 with a 16k expansion thing on the back and a portable telly with a 2 inch screen in the loft somewhere
 
I’ve still got a working 48k Spectrum, with loads of programs on cassettes, a cassette player and a 14” Ferguson tv as a monitor. I remember having to wait for quite a while for delivery when I bought it new.
 
Aah What about the mechanical calculators that you would wind until a ding !
I gpt some of the Texas calculators to replace these.
My favourite bit of old tech is my logarithmic/normal slide rule !
Yep, I've still got a few slide rules.
I can't find my 6" rule (always in the top pocket of the lab coat in a well turned out lab guy!) or my 6" cylindrical slide rule - equivalent to something like a 5' slide rule from memory.
Does anyone remember their teacher standing at the front of the class with a huge linear slide rule about 5 feet long so that the whole class could follow what was being taught?
I also have a set of 4 figure and a set of 6 figure maths 'tables' somewhere.
Memories.

Back to topic. I recall that Clive Sinclair sold his computer business to Alan Sugar when he ran into severe financial problems. Hence A.M.S. Trading (Amstrad) got into computers. I did a presentation to Alan Sugar long ago. He had a really good feel for what people would and wouldn't buy - and at what price. Hopeless technically, but a bloody sharp business person. He listened carefully, handled the technology and said "I can sell this for £49.99. How much can you make it for?".

Colin :):):)
 
Yep, I've still got a few slide rules.
I can't find my 6" rule (always in the top pocket of the lab coat in a well turned out lab guy!) or my 6" cylindrical slide rule - equivalent to something like a 5' slide rule from memory.
Does anyone remember their teacher standing at the front of the class with a huge linear slide rule about 5 feet long so that the whole class could follow what was being taught?
I also have a set of 4 figure and a set of 6 figure maths 'tables' somewhere.
Memories.

Back to topic. I recall that Clive Sinclair sold his computer business to Alan Sugar when he ran into severe financial problems. Hence A.M.S. Trading (Amstrad) got into computers. I did a presentation to Alan Sugar long ago. He had a really good feel for what people would and wouldn't buy - and at what price. Hopeless technically, but a bloody sharp business person. He listened carefully, handled the technology and said "I can sell this for £49.99. How much can you make it for?".

Colin :):):)
Yes my Physics teacher had a cylindrical slide rule...which I had forgotten...thanks.
 
Im with you, never had anything to a chap showed me a old pc with win xp, did not last long with all its troubles to I switched to ubuntu.
Oh forgot i had a watch calulator from toyota for services rendered in the seventies.
 

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