Ancient and Modern: I Modern

Restoration of a defunct calculator

I really have too many scientific calculators now that I work largely from one place. The one in this photograph is pretty basic, but I'm quite attached to it, both because it's fairly small and neat, and because it's helped me with calculations that have turned out to be of some significance.

But... it appeared dead and defunct. Certainly, if I costed my time properly, there could be no justification for dismantling the device and trying to mend it. But... again, I'm an obstinate and fairly determined person, so now you see the calculator taken apart.

Do you know, it now works again! I think that one of the key contacts (it would be connected via the flexible sheet in the tray on the right) had become permanently 'on'. Just the act of stripping down cleared that fault. Old age and perished material, I suppose.

The real glitch in the operation is that, in opening the machine, the plastic keys (seen from the rear of the front panel on the left) jumped out of their holes. I then had to find out, by trial and error, which one went where. Finding the numbers wasn't too bad. Functions +. ?, etc., a little harder, but sin, cos, tan like a really difficult crossword puzzle.

Is it a waste of time to mend something like this? Not really, because it's quite fun, and, who knows, I might otherwise be doing ordinary crossword puzzles to fill the time.