
The Curta Mechanical Calculator - mhb
http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm
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kragen
Curtas are lovely. I think that with our current knowledge we could produce a
mechanical Von Neumann CPU in roughly the same number of parts in the same
size cut to the same precision, but I haven't finished designing it yet. But
then you need a few kilobytes of RAM, which is going to be several times
larger.

But nowadays I think you can probably make things quite a bit smaller, even
using conventional machining processes.

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paulmd
Curtas are great, I ran across them a few years ago and I've wanted one ever
since.

I'm a huge fan of flight computers too - they're basically a circular slide
rule with common units marked. A lot of people don't use them regularly now
that we have electronic calculators, but an E6B never runs out of batteries in
midair. They're very easy for quick conversions once you get the hang of it.

ASA makes a nice one in aluminum that I really like:
[http://www.amazon.com/ASA-E6B-Metal-Flight-
Computer/dp/B003Z...](http://www.amazon.com/ASA-E6B-Metal-Flight-
Computer/dp/B003ZFSJ3M)

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tzs
A lot of tech nerds seem to have an interest in older computation devices. All
the patents on the Curta have expired, and manufacturing technology has
improved greatly since it was last made--so where is the Kickstarter to make
more of these? I'd pay $200-300 for one.

And while we are at it, where are replicas of the Antikythera mechanism?

Heck, even a good slide rule would be nice. Think Geek had a slide rule for
sale a few years ago and I bought a couple, but they were poor quality.

~~~
DanBC
The Curta is incredibly complex, and full of springs. That kind of mechanical
gizmo is probably a dead art now.

There are other gizmos that would be much easier to build. Like you say, slide
rules are cool.

[http://www.sliderule.ca/](http://www.sliderule.ca/)

And some of the other mechanical computers would probably be easy enough to
make:

[http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6717/Arithmometer:%20...](http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6717/Arithmometer:%20first%20commercially%20successful%20mechanical%20calculator%20launched)

[http://history-
computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/Pioneers/M...](http://history-
computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/Pioneers/Morland.html)

[http://lecture.eingang.org/pascaline.html](http://lecture.eingang.org/pascaline.html)

[https://calculating.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/calculators-
for...](https://calculating.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/calculators-for-
computers/)

Some of these would work as papercraft. Someone creating a nice set of PDFs
could probably make a bit of passive income.

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daviross
A Curta has been in my "If I ever have way too much money and have already
spread it everywhere else I could" dream-category for years. I would doubly
love (and be willing to back) a revival of them (that way it wouldn't feel
like I'm buying up a historical artifact for personal enjoyment).

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fest
When I read William Gibbson's "Pattern recognition" I googled a few items
described in the book to better visualize the scene (e.g. the mine manual,
Stetson, Rickson's jacket).

It did not occur to me to look Curta calculator up- they sure do look to be
worth obsessing about :)

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someguydave
I had the privilege of holding one of these a few days ago. One of my co-
workers owns one and was happy to demonstrate it to me. The 9's complement
subtraction was interesting to watch.

