Bowmar MX-90 Handheld Electronic Calculator
date: label: date made
content: 1974-1975
name: label: maker
content: Bowmar/Ali
notes: label: Description
content: The firm of Bowmar/Ali manufactured electronic calculators in the early 1970s. Its first calculators carried out basic arithmetic, with occasional attempts at percentages. In mid-1974, the company introduced what one advertisement called "a brilliant new calculator," the MX-90. It not only offered four arithmetic function keys and a percent key, but reciprocals, square roots, sign change and four memory keys. Behind the keyboard was a ten-digit display.
label: Description
content: The plug for the power supply was at the back. (This example has no power supply.)
label: Description
content: A tag on the back of this example reads in part: Bowmar MX-90 CALCULATOR. Further text toward the bottom of the tag reads: USE ONLY ADAPTER PROVIDED TO RECHARGE BATTERIES AND TO (/) OPERATE ON AC. (/) MODEL No. MX-90 SERIAL NO. 174939 (/) BOWMAR/ALI, INC., ACTON, MASSACHUSETTS 01720 U.S.A.
label: Description
content: The device has a black zippered sleeve, with a loop so that it could be carried from the belt. The front of the sleeve reads: BOWMAR.
label: Description
content: An advertisement in July 1974 issues of the <I>Los Angeles Times</I> indicate that the MX-90 then sold for $89.99. By December 1975, an advertisement in the <I> New York Times</I> lists the model as was on sale for $30. A <I>Chicago Tribune</I> advertisement from December 1975, indicates that the model had an original dealer's price of $58.50 and was on sale for $39.99.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: <I>Los Angeles Times</I>, July 12, 1974, p. G10.
label: Description
content: <I>New York Times</I>, December 4, 1975, p. 16.
label: Description
content: <I>Chicago Tribune</I>, December 7, 1975, p. 30.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: Handheld 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: 1986.0988.104
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0988.104
label: accession number
content: 1986.0988
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electronic calculator
label: Other Terms
content: electronic calculator; Handheld
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (case; keys; circuit board; sleeve material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (circuitry; zipper material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/2 in x 3 in x 5 1/4 in; 3.81 cm x 7.62 cm x 13.335 cm