“They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase plenty of times. Things break all the time, and it never seems like whatever just broke worked for long enough before needing to be replaced. Nowadays, that phrase tends to be accompanied by a derision of Chinese-made products since factories in that country make so many of the goods that American consumers purchase.
At the museum, we have loads of mechanical artifacts – machines, if you will. We rarely make any attempt at operating them since knowing they work rarely improves their ability to be conserved or displayed and trying to force an item might break it.
While going through a portion of Pan Am section of our aviation collection, I came across a machine that let me know it still worked without me having to do anything. The solar calculator pictured above came to life and soon as I flipped open the cover to see what was inside. Sure enough, it still works perfectly, adding and dividing whatever numbers I asked of it, despite having been in the collection for fifteen years.
On the back the calculator proudly states that it was made in Hong Kong.
-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator
