jerryc41 wrote:
There's been some discussion about how manuals are now available only online, which is a bit of a nuisance. Last night, I watched someone on YouTube exploring an HP 41 calculator from the 1980s. It came with two 8 x 11" manuals, totaling 164 pages. The price of that calculator was $249 in 1983. It has two expansion slots to insert optional modules.
"Adjusted for inflation, $249 in 1983 is equal to $711 in 2022." Wow!
I bought the original HP41C in 79 and it was $350. Someone stole it out of my car so I bought the improved version 41CV (5 times the memory built in) in 81 and also for $350. It has 4 open slot. I had the magnetic card readers, the thermal printer and the bar code reader. The entire set was more than $1000. They came with a bunch of manuals. I still use the calculator today.
It was the first calculator that can display alphabet characters as well and numbers and has continuous memory that is it doesn't lose the memory when you turn it off. Nasa used it on the space shutte.