When the hand-held or "pocket" calculator business was new in late 1971, the biggest and most-widely discussed calculator manufacturer was Bowmar. Officially, it was the Bowmar/ALI Division of Bowmar Instrument who made the calculators, but regardless of actual title the name "Bowmar" became well known in electronics circles and, for that matter, all over the world as the sales of its compact calculators exceeded all expectations. By February of 1975 the entire company - both subsidiary and parent - had been bankrupted by the calculator business and was forced to not only reorganize but sell off the calculator products. Here's the story of this amazing rise and fall in brief, illustrated by examples in my collection.
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| Bowmar 901B |
When the pocket calculator market was created in Fall of 1971, this is the device that did it (above) - the famous Bowmar 901B. This calculator wasn't the first digital calculator; desk models had been out for a while. It wasn't the first portable digital calculator; other printing models such as the Pocketronic had been on the market before it. But this machine is that which captured the imagination of the public. Of course, since it was introduced originally at a price of about $240 only the very well-heeled could afford one. Price notwithstanding, "personal computing" had dawned with the introduction of this device.
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| Craig 4501 |
At first, Bowmar had considered that getting into the calculator business was only a way to ensure that its heavy expenditure into the technology of LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays paid off. Integrated circuit chips, another vital part, had been under development for years, with a hand-held calculator only one of many possible ideas floating around for them. In fact, Bowmar really only made the display and the case of this calculator and performed the assembly. The logic chip for the calculator was provided by Texas Instruments; other companies supplied chips to drive the display, as well as manufactured various diodes and resistors soldered onto the circuit board inside. The keyboard, well known among collectors as a "Klixon" keyboard (this being a Texas Instruments brand name and product) was actually a series 6KS keyboard - 6KS denoting a completely assembled, ready to install keyboard shipped from TI's facilities. The fact that big corporations had done the leg work and made the large investments in such technologies as displays, chips and keyboards meant that just about anyone could (and later would) get into the calculator business with enough capital. The fact that many did get in was one of the things that would eventually doom Bowmar. But, for 1972 and much of 1973 Bowmar rode on the top of the world in sales.
Bowmar also originally thought that it would just make the calculators for others to sell - and it got contracts with Craig Corporation and with Commodore to do just that. The Craig 4501 was sold heavily by mail order - the famous mail marketer Joseph Sugarman and his powerhouse JS&A company being primarily responsible. (Craig 4501 seen above.) Unfortunately for Bowmar, Craig decided to begin importing a large number of new Japanese calculators (although a couple of later Craigs were in fact Bowmars) and Commodore, understanding the business, built itself a large new calculator plant in California and stopped buying calculators from Bowmar. Not long before the calculators appeared, Bowmar decided to also sell them under its own brand name.
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| Bowmar 905 |
Bowmar fairly quickly had some stark realizations. The first was that it was not in control of extremely important technology - mainly, the calculator chips. These were sourced from Texas Instruments initially, but allegations of misdeeds and then even fraud rapidly escalated between the two after TI entered the business itself with its own Datamath calculator in 1972. Bowmar would have to source chips from elsewhere, which it did throughout the rest of its operations but it also spent something over $7 million to construct its own integrated circuit chip manufacturing plant at Chandler, Arizona (its calculator plant was in Massachusetts.)
The second realization was that manufacturing of the calculators in the United States was in fact cheaper than in Japan, but not necessarily cheaper than in other places, such as Mexico. The company did open a manufacturing operation in Mexico as well as in the United States, and later model Bowmar calculators can be found made either in the US or in Mexico.
As mentioned, with much of the seriously technical parts of a a calculator available for purchase essentially straight out of manufacturer catalogs a large number of companies began to get into the calculator business acting essentially as assemblers who then had to seek outlets for their products. One of the aims of these companies (and the reason many quickly failed) was to be able to sell a calculator much more inexpensive than the price the Bowmars were selling for, and before the end of 1972 not only were there several brands (particularly, the Rapid Data "Rapidman 800") on the market selling at $99.99 there was also a Bowmar. Breaking from the original boxy, cigarette pack shape and style was the all-white Bowmar 905 (seen above) which appeared before the end of 1972 and which was itself just under the $100 mark. The example seen above is, by the way, perhaps the third or fourth one made, with serial number 100003. (There is considerable evidence that these started at 100000 and not at 0.)
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| Bowmar MX61 |
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| Bowmar MX80 |
Here we see that the original body size, if not exact shape of the Bowmars continued on into the new model numbering series. This is an MX80, Bowmar Model 90152. This calculator adds a percent key as compared to the first model, omits the D key to refresh the display and like the earlier (not shown) Bowmar Ten, has a ten digit display. This is also a US-made calculator. By the way - Bowmar trademarked its name for calculators, with a "first use" being given as October 15, 1971 (surely the appearance of the 901B.) It also trademarked its later, familiar "Bowmar Brain" ad phrase which was actually only first used on a Bowmar product January 5, 1973. So, if you see a Bowmar product using the phrase "Bowmar Brain" or some such, it's made during 1973 or later. (The MX61 shown earlier does in fact use the phrase on its instruction manual.) As to our guesses on the extrapolated model numbering, the only thing that pops out here is that of the number 90152, five and two and one added together equal eight, and the MX number for this calculator is 80. Again, this should be taken as speculative and not definitive.
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| Digi-matic M8 |
All the manufacturers sought to get contracts with the giant US retailers and their corporate relatives elsewhere; the calculator above fits that mold. This is a Digi-matic M8 sold by Simpsons-Sears and by Simpsons in Canada. This is actually a Bowmar MX75 (Bowmar Model 90705) but in this case carries the Sears styled model number 41028 on its rear by its serial number. This calculator has a switchable constant feature (the sigma switch on the top left) and, you will note, no longer uses the combined +/= and -/= keys seen on early square body models, having a separate = key.
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| Century Mark IV |
Mail order sales companies got into the act too, and Bowmar supplied at least this model for one of them; this carries the mail-order firm's trademarked "Century Mark IV" name (also used on radios, binoculars and other things sold via inserts in Gulf Oil billing mailers) but still also identifies itself as a Bowmar. On the rear we find a modified but identifiably Bowmar label telling us that this calculator is a Model 90512. Also made in the USA; note that this calculator is in all functional and dimensional ways identical to the original 905 seen earlier. Only the colors of the various external plastic components differs.
1974 saw Bowmar no longer on the top of the world in sales, even though its own sales continued to grow. The company worked to get its new chip plant in Arizona into full operation; statements by Bowmar during 1974 tell us that the company hoped eventually to source all of its chips from that plant. However, this was not to be. The erosion of profit by the plummeting price of calculators on the retail market was killing the company, as likely was prolonged litigation between it and several other companies - most notably, Texas Instruments.
The first quarter of 1975 saw both Bowmar-ALI and its parent Bowmar Instrument declare bankruptcy and enter reorganization. The parent company would survive, in part due to a later $5 million out of court settlement with Texas Instruments. The calculator operations though were about to enter an interesting, almost unfortunate, final phase.
Almost certainly in order to appease creditors, the company sold its calculator (and digital watch) business to a company called International Fastener Research in June, 1975. IFR was given the right to use the Bowmar name on calculators and watches, but had a large number of quality and use rights stipulations placed on the agreement by Bowmar. It appears that IFR almost immediately began to exceed its rights on the use of the name, according to a lawsuit filed later by Bowmar.
The story takes another turn in the Fall of 1975 when a new corporation, named Continental Microsystems, Inc. purchased all of the Bowmar rights and business from IFR. In fact, it appears that ownership of the two firms overlapped. Bowmar was not immediately informed of this change - and, to make a long story short, even more misuse and infringement on the name occurred as the new company not only advertised but sold other kinds of products using the name Bowmar in some way, shape or form. Bowmar sued, of course, and won judgments against the offending companies.
It's not known how long calculators lasted in production under the new ownership of the two companies, IFR and Continental Microsystems - but collectors do know that there are some very cheap, foreign made calculators around carrying the Bowmar name. Now we can add one more interesting item to the end of the story, as shown below in two photos.
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| Bowmar MX100 |
The calculator above is a Bowmar MX-100, Bowmar Model 92001. This is a late style scientific calculator, but look closely; it's the same size and shape as the original 901B, and the keyboard area formerly occupied by a TI 6KS Klixon keyboard with large keys is now occupied by a keyboard with much smaller keys which, interestingly, have a very positive action just like the Klixon variant. The most interesting thing about this calculator, though, is found on the rear label.
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| Bowmar MX100, rear label |
The rear label of the MX100, seen above, shows quite clearly the name "Continental Microsystems, North Hollywood, CA 91605" and "Assembled in Mexico." This is the only example I have seen so far that actually carries the name of either of the two companies who succeeded Bowmar in carrying on Bowmar's calculator business before being forced to halt it. It seems almost certain to me that this calculator was made very soon after Continental bought the business from IFR in late 1975, and the serial 100659 seems to imply that this would be the 659th example of this model made by Continental Microsystems. As a side note, a small flat area can be seen at the bottom of the rear of the calculator with two screws on it. Normally on early models this is covered by a sticker that says "REMOVAL VOIDS WARRANTY" and under which is a stamped date code. However on this example it appears as if no sticker was ever there, and no date code is visible.
So, then, the Bowmar calculator enterprise itself lasted about three and a half years on the retail market with perhaps another six months or maybe a little more tacked onto the end as unscrupulous buyers attempted to wring some further life out of the name. Overall the failure of any company in the calculator business in the 1970's wasn't surprising, but the failure of the "father of the industry," Bowmar, perhaps was. In the final analysis the company didn't actually control enough of the technology to make the calculators as it needed to in order to control final product supply and cost. The factors that had led it into the calculator business in the first place had eventually contributed to its end.
SOURCES - As on this blog's source page, plus the following:
"Shakeout Time for Calculators," Nathaniel C. Nash. New York Times, Dec. 8, 1974
Bowmar Instrument Corporation vs. Continental Microsystems, Inc., CMI Products, Inc., Global Marketing Company and International Fastener Research Corporation. US District Court of New York, August 21, 1980.
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