Sharp ELSI-8 Calculator Commercial (1970)

★★★★★ · The Price is Right, Pt.2 · op712 · 2004-08-09

What's interesting is that with the price of this calculator, released in 1970, using the flourscent numerical displays (LED's/LCD's weren't invented yet) being priced this high, color TV's were just about the same price. Now, let's advance up 34 years, and this same calculator would only cost pocket change, yet the color TV's are STILL at this same price (only with bigger screens). Great little ad though to get society "wet nursed" into electronic gadgetry.

★★★★★ · Not the "LC-8", but the "ELSI-8". · Colin Howell · 2010-10-08

(Wow, the mistake I pointed out in the description was fixed quickly! Thanks!) Because the calculator's name is only spoken in this ad, never shown, some copies of this video have gotten it wrong and call it the "LC-8" instead of the correct name ELSI-8. Sharp also used the ELSI-8 name in their print ads. (The official model name was EL-8.) "ELSI" was Sharp's abbreviation for "Extra Large Scale Integration", which was their name for the integrated circuit technology used in the calculator. Of course, later advances in integrated circuits would make the expression look quaint, but Sharp's kept…

★★★ · Wilford B. Wolf · 2004-07-29

Circa 1970 commercial for the Sharp LC-8, the first of the handheld calculators. Great close up shots of the early LED display (with its curious rounded sides, as opposed the more standard straight edged LCD we are used to today), keypad and relative size. It is hard to remember in this day and age that calculators in 1970 were only about 10 years or so removed from filling an entire room, or were an unweildly mechanical contraption. It was also really the first computerized device most people had contact with, though the notion of a calculator as a computer is no longer made. Nowdays, you…