the curta calculator
In the late 1940s, Hertzstark had filed new patents and eventually found a backer in the Prince of Liechtenstein. The country, where Hertzstark resettled until his death in 1988, was looking to expand its economy and the Prince agreed to help set up a company to build and market the Curta, the Contina AG Mauren, with Hertzstark holding 30 percent o... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
"The head of the department, Mr. Munich said, 'See, Herzstark, I understand you've been working on a new thing, a small calculating machine. Do you know, I can give you a tip. We will allow you to make and draw everything. If it is really worth something, then we will give it to the Führer as a present after we win the war. Then, surely, you will b... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
"And again and again, wherever one went, competitors came with wonderful, big machines, which were ever more expensive and electric, but something was missing in the world market," said Herzstark in an extensive interview (PDF) conducted by the Charles Babbage Institute in 1987. "'I would like to have a machine that fits into my pocket and can calc... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
Curta adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, square and cube roots, continuous multiplication, negative multiplication, standard deviations and all statistical calculations, squares and higher powers, co-ordinates and associated land survey formulae, and every other computation arising in science and commerce. Available on a trial basis. Price $125.00. Write for literature.
Some relief from tedious manual number crunching came in the 17th century with the invention of logarithms followed by mechanical aids like the slide rule and the first adding machines. Unfortunately, they weren't that much of a help. Slide rules couldn't handle numbers to more than two or three decimal places and, for centuries, calculators were l... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
insane that calculators are actually super recent
the royal family of Liechtenstein invested in Herzstark after WWII
An Interview with Curt Herzstark
Curt Herzstark discusses the history of the Austrian Calculating Machine Manufacturing Company, his father's inventions and the development of the CURTA hand-held calculator.
conservancy.umn.eduinterview w Herzstark
HERZSTARK: Yes, we had our basic four function machines. This machine, our machine, could automatically multiply and divide. But we did not produce large numbers of machines because we did not have the capital. We also had electric machines of which we produced about 10-12 in a month. Then we had the Astra to sell and then, of course, the Multisumm... See more
Curt Herzstark • An Interview with Curt Herzstark
so interesting to think of the calculator as replacing human labor —> nice way to connect this all to our present moment.