1979 · Alphanumeric Programmable Calculator · Work 953 of 1,871
A full-size training cabin on the ground in Houston lined with pale grey panels of small toggle switches, an upright black calculator fifteen centimetres tall held against one panel, black keys on a dark grey key field, one yellow key and one wide key, every key plain, smooth and unmarked, at its top a narrow plain pale grey-green display window, across the top row a strip of small plain tabs in pink, yellow, light blue and white, a short hook-and-loop strap tethering it to an open padded pouch of beige woven fabric with a zip, a hand in a light blue sleeve pressing the strap onto the panel, even white light.
What it was used for
The Hewlett-Packard Journal of March 1980 describes the HP-41C programmable calculator, introduced in 1979, and gives 295 dollars for the calculator, 195 for the card reader, 350 for the 82143A thermal printer, 45 per memory module and 30 for an application module. The machine holds over 130 pre-programmed functions, 64 usable registers divided between data and program, and a continuous memory that preserves its contents through switch-off. The National Air and Space Museum writes that NASA bought its example in a shop in Houston; it flew on 9 Space Shuttle missions of the 1980s, among others with Sally Ride, with software loaded specially for each mission.
What was new
The HP-41C could do what HP's earlier handhelds could not: show and accept words. The Journal describes "a 12-character 14-segment liquid crystal display" and an alpha register holding up to 24 characters, so the machine could ask in plain words for what it needed next. Added to that were 4 ports on the top edge for memory, read-only modules, card reader and printer, and a USER mode in which the key assignment was free and survived switch-off. The barb: the device NASA carried on 9 flights, which could have taken over re-entry calculations had the main computers failed, was, the museum says, bought in a shop.
What the sources leave open: Technology and prices come from the original article in the Hewlett-Packard Journal, March 1980 (Musch, Wong, Conklin), as reproduced by the Museum of HP Calculators. There the card reader is given once as 82104A and once as 62104A. The 9 Shuttle flights and the Houston purchase come from the NASM object page, which names no individual missions or years.