1984 · Scientific School Calculator · Work 958 of 1,871
A classroom of a polytechnic secondary school in Erfurt on a grey autumn morning, on a light wooden school desk an upright pocket calculator with a black top frame and a silvery light grey metal front, at its top a plain pale grey display window, two small slide switches, thirty-five keys in seven rows in black, pale beige and orange-red, every key plain, smooth and unmarked, the lower front bare, a brown leatherette school bag beside it, a child's hands at the lower edge of the frame sliding a closed slide rule deep into a dark green case, pupils in knitted jumpers seen from directly behind, a green chalkboard wiped clean, tall windows.
What it was used for
According to the Museum Europäischer Kulturen the "Schulrechner" SR 1 was built from 1984 at VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, and introduced into GDR schools in 1984/1985; from grade 5 or 6 children used it in mathematics lessons. Families had to buy it: 123 marks with a ration voucher, considerably more without one according to the museum. The device is a small calculator of plastic and metal in a brown case, with a 3 V supply, number and function keys and a narrow display. The museum says it quickly displaced the slide rule from the classroom.
What was new
There was nothing new in the circuitry. The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum calls the SR1 a copy of the MR609, which likewise came out of Mühlhausen in 1982 and is considered the GDR's first scientific pocket calculator. The achievement lay in distribution: according to the same source about 1 million SR1 were built and sold to schoolchildren at 123 marks. The barb: the state wrote the device into the curriculum, while the families had to buy it.
What the sources leave open: Maker, the year 1984, the school introduction and the price of 123 marks with a voucher come from the Museum Europäischer Kulturen; the figure of about 1 million units and the descent from the MR609 from the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum. The HNF gives no introduction year for the SR1 itself; it names Mühlhausen as the place of manufacture.