← Harold's Old Time Radio
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Now, the rest of the story, what you're about to hear, began as a publicity gimmick sponsored by a leading department store in Melbourne, Australia. The store owner had a large stock of electronic pocket calculators. This was back in 1976, so the pocket calculator was hot technology, a big seller. Anyway, the store owner wanted to demonstrate the efficiency of the device, so he decided to stage a public competition between one of his calculators and an outdated adding machine. Now, don't race on ahead of me. The store owner contacted a fellow named Donald Presser. Don was a transplanted American head of the Australian subsidiary of a New York based calculator firm. And the store owner confided his plans and asked Don if he would compete using the calculator. After all, who in Australia could be more qualified than the head of a calculator company? And Don agreed. Now all that was left was to find an adding machine operator. And one was found. His name was Johnson Lowe, and he was operations manager for a Melbourne air dispatch company. On the appointed day, Presser and Lowe arrived at the department store to greet a crowd of curious onlookers. So, so far, the publicity gimmick was working. The competitors checked out their equipment and sat poised to receive the first mathematical problem. On your mark, get set, go. With facile fingers, the two men keyed in and computed the data on their separate instruments. Press her on his pocket calculator and Low on his old adding machine. In seconds, it was over. And rather predictably, the pocket calculator had won. Low patted the perspiration from his brow as the spectators applauded his opponent. There were nine problems to go, so the moderator revealed the second problem. And again the two competitors were often a flurry of flying fingers. But this time, when Presser looked up from his calculator, it was to see Low with his answer already submitted. And the answer was correct. The adding machine had won. And you know something? That old adding machine of Johnson Lowe's took the next eight answers over Don Presser's ultra modern electronic calculator. And the crowd was stunned. Few years back, you couldn't touch a battery operated pocket calculator for under $100. Remember that. Of course, that's all changed today. Comparable equipment is sometimes given away. And even as manufacturers continue slimming and trimming and miniaturizing and augmenting the functions of those devices, a legion of other devices, infinitely more complex, has joined the conspiracy of technology. And still reactionaries fondly recall the calculator competition of 1976, held in Melbourne, Australia, a contest in which the electronic calculator lost nine out of 10 times to an outdated adding machine. But would you ever guess just how outdated that adding machine was? You see, the math match, originally intended to boost pocket calculator sales, wound up endorsing instead a gizmo made of water buffalo horn and wooden beads, a 12th century Chinese abacus, a pocket calculator 800 years old. Now you know the rest of the story.