Inexpensive Four-Function Calculators Early handheld electronic calculators could be ordered from manufacturers or dealers. They also sold as relatively expensive goods in department stores. In the ...

He then went into the arithmometer, which is arguably the first commercially successful mechanical calculator with four functions. That was around 1821 or so. But [Dan] mentions it used a Leibniz ...

Prices dropped as new features were added and sales doubled each year. By 1976, a four-function calculator cost only a few dollars. In 1972, 5 million calculators were sold in the US and within ...