Soundesign 8300 Desktop Electronic Calculator
date: label: date made
content: ca 1973
name: label: maker
content: Soundesign
notes: label: Description
content: This compact desktop electronic calculator has a metal and plastic case with seventeen indented keys, most of them square. The 0, addition/total, and subtraction/difference keys are twice the size of the other keys. In addition to the rectangular keys, there are nine other digit keys, a decimal point key, a multiplication key, a division key, a clear entry key, and a clear key. Above the keys is a constant switch, a switch to set the location of the decimal point, an on button, and an off button. Behind the keyboard is an eight-digit blue vacuum fluorescent display with another place for setting the sign. Text behind the display reads: SOUNDESIGN 8300.
label: Description
content: The back of the calculator has a compartment at the top for four C (1.5 V) batteries. A sticker inside it reads: 19053-K0202. The “3” is largely effaced and the K is in red.
label: Description
content: Below the compartment is a sticker with instructions. It reads at the top: SOUNDESIGN 8300 MACH II. It reads at the bottom: Made in Japan.
label: Description
content: A jack for a power adapter is along the back edge, but this example has no adapter.
label: Description
content: The calculator has a zippered plastic carrying case with a handle. A mark on the front reads: SOUNDESIGN.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm, <I>The Complete Collector’s Guide to Pocket Calculators</I>, Tustin, CA: Wilson/Barnett, 1997, p. 145. They indicate that the calculator was on sale for $99 in 1973.
label: Description
content: John R. Free, “PS Buyer’s Guide to Under-$100 Electronic Calculators,” <I>Popular Science</I>, March, 1973, pp. 86–88, 156. Page 156 indicates that the price of the calculator was $99. It was sold by Soundesign Realtone of Jersey City, New Jersey, a company that also sold radios.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Japan
topic: label: Subject
content: Business
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
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content: Computers & Business Machines
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content: Desktop Electronic Calculators
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John B. Priser
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0988.009
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0988.009
label: accession number
content: 1986.0988
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electronic calculator
label: Other Terms
content: electronic calculator; Desktop
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (case; keys; carrying case material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (keyboard; circuitry material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/4 in x 7 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; 4.445 cm x 19.05 cm x 11.43 cm