This eBay listing makes me really happy that I bought a beautifully kept, spotlessly clean Programma 101 with original dust cover, power cord, and original sales receipt from Portland Typewriter & Office Machine Co. (Portland, Oregon) for $300 in early 2013 from the original owner. The original owner claimed that this machine was the first Programma 101 sold in the Pacific Northwest.
The calculator was lovingly cared for during its tenure as a critical component of the owner's engineering business until it was replaced by an IBM PC. This particular calculator was used extensively in the engineering calculations for the design of the Glenn Jackson bridge over the Columbia River between Portland, OR, and Vancouver WA. After it was retired in 1984, it was kept in the owner's home office, as a cherished possession. The machine literally looks like it could have been trapped in a time vortex for all these years, it is so clean inside and out. There is only one tiny chip in the paint, and no scratches anywhere to be found. It appears essentially unused, with virtually no signs of wear and tear. The machine is in significantly better condition than the one listed, and has all belts intact and in usable condition. It is non-operational due to a broken nylon gear in the print drum drivetrain, but I am working on getting a replacement gear manufactured, and once it is in place, I am quite sure that it will be fully operational. All of the rubber parts (printer platen and rollers, mag-card drive rollers) are in pristine condition. It is interesting that the seller of the machine listed on eBay claims that an operational Programma 101 /sold/ for $36K, when in fact, the listing was "ENDED", because the "item was no longer available". This does not imply in any way that the machine sold for $36K. Also, the claim that only five operational Programma 101s are in existence is bunk -- I know of twelve that are in operational condition, and surely there are others out there that I am not aware of. The Programma 101 is indeed a benchmark machine in electronic calculator history. While not the first programmable electronic calculator as many claim, it definitely set the standard for a long time (especially during this particularly frenetic period of electronics development), until the HP 9100A came out in '68. I don't want to diminish its place in history in any way. But... ...Maybe I should put it up on eBay, as-is, for let's say, oh, $30K? Sheesh. -Rick --- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com
