TRIUMPH 81C

Description

Brand: TRIUMPH (TRIUMPH-ADLER)
Model: 81C / EC 24A
Type: Calculator
Picture: TRIUMPH 81C
Batteries: AAA x 4
Lifetime: Introduced: 1975
Terminated: unknown
Notes: The TRIUMPH 81S is a basic calculators with memory and percentages.

This plain calculator has a green fluorescent display and uses four AAA batteries. One thing that struck me about the the TRIUMPH 81C and the TRIUMPH 81S are their distinctive smell. I’ve seen more than one of these calculators and all of them have this smell.

This calculator is the first calculator I ever owned. It was given to me in a broken state by Theo van de Ros, a very good friend of my father. Thanks, Theo. I took it apart to try to figure out how calculators work, and also to try to fix it. The problem was the keyboard, took it apart and cleaned the contacts which wasn’t all that easy because there’s a spring behind every key! One bad movement and all the springs jump out of the calculator. At least that is how I remember it! :-)

I really loved this calculator at the time. Took it with me everywhere I went. I remember being on holiday with my parents, somewhere in the 1970’s and suddenly one of the keys didn’t work anymore. Took it apart on the hotel bed, springs everywhere!

I also remember looking into the fluorescent lights in the dark and seeing, for the first time, the little cathode wires glowing. And the sound it made when switched on (the little transformer for the higher voltages of the fluorescent display).

I will stop now. By now it should be clear that weren’t it for Mr. Theo van de Ros, this site here probably would never have come to be.

My TRIUMPH 81C doesn’t work anymore and the "Σ"-key is broken, but considering what it brought about it’s on display anyway.

Peripherals

A power adapter.