成人快手

CALCULATORS, COMPUTERS AND CLIVE SINCLAIR

Sinclair Spectrums were the 80s must have

If you are reading this article you are probably a home computer owner, or are surfing the web when you should be working! But as little as 35 years ago calculators - let alone computers - were the stuff of dreams聟 and Tomorrow's World.

We may not have flying cars or home help robots, but compared with 30 years ago, personal electronics have developed beyond recognition.

But forget Bill Gates, one of the biggest instigators of this change was based in Cambridge and his name? Clive Sinclair.

Inside Out sends Tomorrow's World presenter Maggie Philbin to find out more.

It doesn't add up聟

If you are under 30 than times tables, long division and percentages were probably all performed with the help of a trusty calculator.

The Sinclair Executive - one of the first ever pocket calculators

But go back a bit further and your mental arithmetic wasn't quite up to Carol Vorderman's standard you would have found yourself struggling with adding machines and slide rules - expensive and difficult to use.

Then in 1972 along came Clive Sinclair and the slim, modern Sinclair Executive - which many consider to be the first ever true pocket calculator.

For an example of the Sinclair Executive and other pocket calculators, why not pay a visit to Whipple Museum in Cambridge.

With the Sinclair Executive you could add, subtract, multiply and divide, but at a cost of 拢69, it doesn't take a calculator to work out that they didn't come cheap!

But as with most things, you get what you pay for and Sinclair Executive owner Rodney Chopping is still getting his money's worth over 30 years later.

"I bought it because it was what I thought we'd all be using in the future," says Rodney Copping, an owner of a working Sinclair Executive.

Keyboard wizard

From calculators to the ZX80 to the ZX81 Sinclair set about bringing the computers into the home.

The ZX81 was not the first microcomputer but it was certainly the most affordable, but it wasn't until the Sinclair Spectrum that computers really started to make an appearance in the home.

With its colour screen the Spectrum was one of the first machines to make sophisticated computer games popular. With popular favourites like International Track and Field, Rampage and Paperboy, the Spectrum keyboard would take a great deal of hammering.

So popular were the games of the 1980s that the Spectrum has a large cult following today.

"It took ages to load a game from a cassette," remembers Andy Kavanagh, Sinclair Spectrum owner and enthusiast.

"There's a kind of law among Spectrum owners: the machine always crashed whenever your Mum walked in!"

Faux pas

But even the creative genius of Sinclair couldn't get it right every time, which leads to the next - less successful creation - the C5.

The Sinclair C5 was a battery powered one-seater tricycle which could reach a maximum speed of 15 mph, requiring pedal power for starting and uphill travel.

The future of transport - but then again...

The C5 was designed to skirt the law requiring tax and insurance. Tempting, until you realise it allowed 14 year olds to drive, no driving license was required and helmets were not compulsory!

The Sinclair C5 posed no real threat to the car it was more an alternative to push bikes or mopeds.

Although C5 sales got off to a quick start, they soon dwindled and production was discontinued.

But like the Spectrum, the C5 still has a die-hard following. The C5 owners club is based in Watton near the flat panes of Norfolk - just as well seeing as the C5's performance up hills is notoriously bad.

"I like them basically, that's it," insists Ray Ives, owner of two C5s.

"I take them to the odd classic car show. I've had students come up to me and say they've never ever seen one before!"

So as you are scrolling to the bottom of this article, preparing to click away, you have Clive Sinclair, his calculator and the Spectrum to thank for it.