the curta calculator
And all this without batteries and to 8 to eleven places.
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
What's worse was that inside the device each digit of a number was set on a separate register with its own mechanism that had to be repeated up to eight to 10 times. Then to compound the problem, subtraction meant duplicating all these in reverse, plus a special mechanism to handle carrying the number when necessary. No wonder a handheld calculator... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
love how physical everything is - there was a mechanism built specifically to carry a number over
When I was growing up my parents used a Curta calculator to balance their ‘budget book’. Don’t ask me how it works.
made for easy use lol
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... 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.
"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... See more