BOTGA Hardware Collection

I am sure that I didn’t purchase this, I think it was inherited from my grandparents. My grandfather called Montgomery Ward ‘Monkey Wards’

According to the Smithsonian–

This handheld electronic calculator has a tan plastic case and seventeen rectangular plastic keys. In addition to ten digit keys and a decimal point key, it has a clear entry/clear key, four arithmetic function keys, and a total key. On the left on the copper-colored keyboard is an on/off switch. Text next to the switch reads: MONTGOMERY (/) WARD. Behind the keyboard is an eight-digit LED display. A compartment for a battery opens on the top of the back.

A jack for a power adapter is on the left side.

A sticker on the back gives instructions. Text at the top reads: WARDS P-50. Text at the bottom reads: Distributed by Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. (/) Chicago, Illinois 60607 (/) Model No. DNS-8660A (/) Made in U.S.A. Serial No. 57X-152856.

Compare Novus 850 (1986.0988.306). The calculator was made for Montgomery Ward by National Semiconductor Corporation.

References:

Guy Ball and Bruce Flamm, The Complete Collector’s Guide to Pocket Calculators, Tustin, CA: Wilson/Barnett, 1997, p. 102.

Online Datamath Calculator Museum, accessed August 29, 2014.

This was my very first calculator. Ordered out of the back of a magazine in the mid 1970s. the back cover slides up and the battery comes out and plugs directly into a 110V AC receptacle. This company also made similar or simply rebranded versions called the Monte Carlo and the Bond. See the Vintage Calculator Web Museum for more information.

The Cambridge Programmable was my first programmable calculator. I ordered it out of a dubious advertisement in the back of a magazine. It was not overly expensive and one of those ‘8-10 week’ delivery items that you are never sure if it will actually arrive. Overall, it seemed too good to be true but once I got it, I became a true believer in Sinclair.