The CRC 102A is a valve calculator produced by Computer Research Corporation (CRC), a company later acquired by the US corporation National Cash Registers (NCR), which is still active in the production of POS (cash registers) and ATMs. Requested in 1954 by the then rector of the Polytechnic of Milan Gino Cassinis, the CRC 102A was the first electronic calculator installed in continental Europe. The calculator was built in Hawthorne, California, with the collaboration of the professor Luigi Dadda. The 102A model was advertised as an inexpensive but very efficient computer, with many features available and little experience required to operate it. When the car was finished, it was loaded onto a Liberty cargo ship and, after fixing it with cotton bales, it was taken to Italy.
Initially it was used to solve linear algebraic equations, facilitating the calculations necessary for the construction of large works especially in the construction and general construction fields.
