the curta calculator
the phrase number crunching comes from how old calculators used to work
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the (abridged) story of Curt Herzstark, the brilliant Viennese engineer who invented an incredibly complex handheld mechanical calculator in the Buchenwald concentration camp
By 1938, Hertzstark had applied for patents for his new design and had made a couple of prototypes of the basic mechanism out of Bakelite plastic to demonstrate the principle. Unfortunately, that's as far as he got because in March 1938 the Anschluss took place and Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht marched over the border to annex Austria.
The inside of a Cu... See more
The inside of a Cu... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
Then in 1937, Hertzstark had a breakthrough. Instead of making a machine that could add and subtract, make one that did nothing but add, but in such a way that it also subtracted.
"I can remember. I sat in a compartment alone and looked out and thought at that moment, 'Good Grief! One can get the result of a subtraction figuratively by adding the co... See more
"I can remember. I sat in a compartment alone and looked out and thought at that moment, 'Good Grief! One can get the result of a subtraction figuratively by adding the co... See more
David Szondy • Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp
Now comes... the CURTA comes in for the first time, no? I knew how in principle to build a machine for the hand in 1938. Naturally the moment that Hitler came all of this was put aside. First, we were not allowed to build any more calculating machines. Secondly, I said to myself, this is a living for me perhaps if I emigrate or something. Aside fro... See more
Curt Herzstark • An Interview with Curt Herzstark
Then along came Curt Herzstark, a young man who in the 1920s regularly traveled through the former Austrian Empire selling mechanical calculators to banks and other businesses. It was on these travels that he heard the same complaints from his customers.