Museum of Science, Tokyo University of Science / Column 1
The Museum of Science, Tokyo University of Science was established in 1991. The building is a reconstruction of the original wooden building constructed in 1906 that housed the Tokyo College of Science. The permanent exhibit presents the history of computing devices including abacuses, calculators, and computers. (For more information, see the February 2013 issue of the PR magazine pla-topia.) http://www.tus.ac.jp/info/setubi/museum/
Column 1
In 1923, Torajiro Ohmoto debuted the Tiger brand calculator (the company's name was subsequently changed to Tiger Calculator). Tiger calculators were widely used through to the 1970s. Because mechanical calculators were very heavy, various innovations were implemented during model updates in order to achieve lightweighting. The model introduced in 1962 featured a plastic housing in place of a metal one and lightweighting was thereby achieved. Subsequently, the type debuted in 1968 adopted engineering plastics in some of the gears.
