A sexy calculator? You’ve got to be kidding. Though indisputably necessary, it’s hard even to remember a time when they existed. Today we just instinctively tap an app on our phone for some quick multiplication.
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In the early 1950s, calculators were room-sized precursors to computers, but the technology developed stunningly quickly, from 1961’s bulky desktops to 1967’s first handheld bricks, to Texas Instruments’ chunky Datamath of 1972 – every pocket-protected engineer’s first crush, and one of the first with a mini screen with glowing red LED numbers. Slide rules were finally dead.
Designer Mario Bellini gives an interview in Milan, Italy, in 2017. Photo: AP Photo
But Mario Bellini’s 1972 design of the Divisumma 18 was in another league, costing about US$2,000 in 2024 money. To compensate for its lack of screen, it had a built-in mini thermal printer (like those used in Hong Kong taxis for receipts) that would print and scroll out from a little roll whatever you typed onto its keypad. It even had a built-in rechargeable battery. These cutting-edge technologies were introduced by Olivetti, the industry underdog whose products make today’s tech giants look like they’re napping.
Olivetti was founded in 1908 by Camillo Olivetti in Ivrea, a small town just north of Turin in Italy’s industrial north, making first typewriters and adding machines. In the 50s his son and grandson, Adriano and Roberto, took over, focusing on electronics and the first transistorised computers in 1959. Their first (the first) personal computer, the Perottina (launched in 1965, also designed by Bellini), was used by Nasa to calculate the Apollo 11 moon landing.
This innovative office-equipment company was way ahead of everyone else because it hired only the best – engineers, designers, graphic artists, architects – and courageously let these avant-garde leaders of culture, aesthetics, humanism and design push the envelope of what could be.
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Bellini (born 1935), chief design consultant for Olivetti from 1963 to 1991, was one of the world’s greatest product designers (he’s still going strong). Much of his work is still in production, probably the most famous being his B&B Italia modular Camaleonda and Bambola sofa systems, both experiencing a trendy resurgence.
