"The Truth Of Growing Older..."

Sometimes I am awestruck by the progress of the world in my short lifetime.  In addition, I am often shocked by how much I can measure the passage of time by the changes in the technology of our daily lives.

On this date in 1888, William Seward Burroughs received the patent for his adding machine.  Burroughs invented one of the earliest and most accurate adding machines of the day and the company he founded, headquartered in Detroit since 1904 became a leading manufacturer of adding machines, banking equipment and in the mid 20th century main frame computers.

I can well remember not only seeing mechanical adding machines, but also using one in the 1970 and '80s.  Adding machines were not calculators, they could generally only add and subtract.  But for basic accounting this was enough and they revolutionized the world of banking, finance and accounting in their day.

As I remembered my interaction with adding machines today, I also was reminded of when I saw my first multi-function portable calculator.  It was just before Christmas 1973.  I was nine years old and the J.L Hudson's department store was the first retailer in Detroit to have them.  My brother William bought one of these first very expensive gadgets (about $45) and brought it home.  We were all amazed.... Not only could this little white box (about the size of a small transistor radio of the day - 3"x6"x1") add and subtract, it could also multiply and divide.  Those were its only four functions.  I remember it had a red LED display that produced boxy shaped numerals about 1/4" high.  It could calculate values up to 7 places including decimal computations.  It ran on batteries (which lasted about 20 minutes) or on an AC adapter for up to an hour after which its early integrated circuit (processing chip) would succumb to heat failure and you had to let it rest and cool off.

As with other technological advances of that day, within a few years, calculators became smaller, less expensive and more capable.  I recall buying a financial calculator in the 1980s for about $20 that could compute complex amortization tables and perform other scientific functions as well.  But even now, I remember when mechanized computation was commonplace.  I can remember mechanical cash registers and adding machines very well and I remember the familiar clanking and whirring sound of the gears inside them and that reminds me that I've lived through some momentous changes in the world.

That I can write about and publish this and it be able to be read from almost any place in the world almost instantaneously is something that I could never have imagined on that day in December 1973 when I saw my first electronic calculator or in the years before and after when I still used a mechanical adding machine and paper and pencil for bookkeeping and accounting.