I bought my first electronic calculator in 1969 when I worked for Borg Warner Chemicals (then Marbon) in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The calculators that we used then were mechanical monstrosities (I called them kerchunkers). They would do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and they made a lot of noise.
When a Burroughs salesman showed me and my co-workers the new Burroughs electronic calculator, we were amazed. This calculator had no moving parts and its display numbers were something called nixie tubes. It could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It could also do squares and (wonder of wonders) square roots! It was "portable" and came with its own carrying case. With the case, it weighed 22 pounds.
We bought the calculator. We were able to get the price down to $995 with trade-in of the old Freiden electro-mechanical unit.
Since I bought that calculator, I've also bought a HP45 ($495), a TI58, a TI59 (with printer), a HP41 with accessories, and many others.
The last calculator I bought cost about $3.00. It does everything that my first $1000 calculator did.
The Burroughs calculator is in my basement. I thought for a long time that it no longer worked. Then I remembered that it has vacuum tubes. After it warms up for a couple of minutes, it works fine.