Product number (P/N): NUCLEAR CONTROLS AND ELECTRONICS (NCE) (Company),
Keywords/Tags: NUCLEAR CONTROLS AND ELECTRONICS (NCE) (Company) | PRICE Ed (Person)
Date of intro: 1971, Origin: USA (List),
Classification: / Company Info,
Info: SUMMIT International Corporation was an American calculator company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, best remembered for its unusually compact pocket calculators in the early 1970s.
Surviving machines identify NCE Nuclear as their manufacturer and Summit as the company whose name appeared on the product.
The story began with PRICE Ed, who built a prototype handheld calculator in 1971, using a carved wooden case and experimental electronics.
NUCLEAR CONTROLS and ELECTRONICS (NCE) became interested in the design as a way to diversify its business, while the affiliated Summit company handled sales and distribution.
The first model, the NCE1, was reportedly available by March 1972 for just under $200.
Period advertisements also reveal the rapid fall in prices.
The Smithsonian records a $189 advertised price for the Ko8 in June 1972, a $114.88 sale price in November, and $109.88 in January 1973.
These are prices from different advertisements, rather than a formal company price history, but they illustrate the competitive pressure.
The company’s growth was short-lived.
According to the historical account based on PRICE’s recollections, TRANS ATLAS took over NCE and SUMMIT in 1974.
A failed European distribution transaction, reportedly involving $4 million in calculators, compounded the pressure from falling prices.
SUMMIT stopped manufacturing calculators by the end of that year.
PRICE subsequently tried again through PRICE RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, producing the small Wisp calculator.
SUMMIT’s importance lies in its early pursuit of very small, genuinely portable calculators.
Its brief rise and disappearance also capture how quickly the calculator market changed between 1972 and 1974.
Internet: Link-1: VINTAGE CALCULATORS WEB MUSEUM