Casio, a brief history of calculators

Casio has become a pioneer in the most convenient products such as calculators and digital watches. We both take the 21st century for granted.
A talented young apprentice named Tadao Kashio began studying at Waseda Koshu University in Tokyo. Tadao gained experience in manufacturing general daily necessities such as pots, frying pans, and lamps for bicycle generators at the factory (while studying), and decided to start his own business in 1946 (Kashiwaseisakujo). .. ..
Tadoa had his younger brother Toshio, who was creatively equipped with a wide range of E liquid knowledge about electricity. From an early age, Tadoa praised Edison’s pioneering work in inventing the light bulb and always told his family that he wanted to be the inventor.
At that time, Tadio was a naturally talented engineer of the Ministry of Communications. He decided to quit his job at the Ministry of Communications in pursuit of his dream, the inventor’s most challenging job and skill test. Toshio joined Tadoa with Kiyosaku Kashio and began experimenting with some innovative ideas, using his natural ingenuity. One is a tobacco holder (Yubiwa pipe) attached to the ring, which provides a way to smoke with a wick while working. We must not forget that there was a shortage of products in postwar Japan. This means that Toshio has a potential market for its new innovation. Tadoa stands on a lathe and the father of two brothers sells the product. Orders for tubes began to come in and the product was successful.
The capital generated by Yubiwa Pipe had to invest in new innovations. At a trade fair in Ginza, Tokyo, the brothers realized that the success of the Yubiwa Pipe could lead to a gap in the calculator market. At that time, most calculators were mechanically oriented and required the use of cranks manually.
Some advanced electronic computers overseas operate using electric motors that make noise when gears rotate at high speeds. Toshio’s idea was to design a complete electronic circuit calculator with solenoids that could solve many of the problems that arise in today’s machine-based inventions. He wanted to make his own calculator. While outsourcing work at Kiyosaku Kashio Castle, Tadoa and Toshio spend a lot of time developing calculators. The basic prototype was shown to humans and the feedback received solved many problems. This was later repeated in the prototype. After some sophisticated prototypes, Tadoa and Toshio finally developed Japan’s first electric calculator in 1954.
However, when the brothers approached Bunshodou Co., Ltd., which specializes in office supplies, a troublesome problem arose. Bunshodou criticizes the present invention and emphasizes the lack of multiplication function. Current calculators have not been able to perform continuous multiplications that can multiply the result of the first multiplication by another value. The brothers returned to design and brought two other brothers, Kazuo and Yukio, to the development team. Yukio, a mechanical engineering student, helped design the blueprints, and Tadoa and Kazuo produced them.
In 1956, over the six years of design, development, problem solving and error, the team was constantly innovating. However, Toshio decided to make a major design change to make the calculator completely electronic. The current solenoid solution, based on their original idea, was to replace it with an electronic relay. It has many advantages, one of which has made mass production of products more achievable. In fact, the drawback of relays was that they were susceptible to fine particles and dust. Computer systems that used relays at the time usually covered the entire room and had their own air filter system. This provides the project with a whole new problem domain.
To overcome this, the team has significantly reduced the number of relays and developed a new type of relay that is less susceptible to fine particles and dust. Similar to today’s calculators, a unique interface with 10 numeric keys has also been developed. A typical calculator at the time had three screens, two for input arguments and the last for calculation results. It was a revolution in itself. When the user entered an entry, the screen deleted the old entry number and replaced it with a new entry entered by the user. A complete computer was born.