A group of men photographed by Arthur Rothstein outside a post office and store in Nethers, Virginia, United States in October 1935.
Credit: sebcolorisation
Texas has a knack for changing the world, and the handheld calculator is proof! Back in 1967, Texas Instruments (TI) unveiled the 'Cal-Tech,' the first-ever portable electronic calculator, born in Dallas. This wasn’t just a gadget—it was a revolution. Before this, calculators were bulky, desk-bound machines that weighed pounds and cost a fortune. Then came Jack Kilby (the Nobel Prize-winning mind behind the integrated circuit), Jerry Merryman, and James Van Tassel, a trio of TI engineers tasked with shrinking the future into your hand.
It all started in 1965 when TI’s leadership challenged their team to create something portable enough to replace slide rules and massive adding machines. After two years of tinkering, the result was a 6-inch-long, battery-powered marvel that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide—pretty advanced for the time! Weighing about 45 ounces, it wasn’t exactly pocket-sized by today’s standards, but it was a giant leap forward. The prototype, now preserved at the Smithsonian, used Kilby’s microchip tech to crunch numbers on a tiny thermal printer strip.
Patented in 1974, the Cal-Tech laid the groundwork for the sleek calculators we know today. By the 1970s, TI was mass-producing affordable versions, putting math power in classrooms and offices worldwide.
