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I guess I can do one of these a day or so. I've collected some novelties over the years.

First up is a Curta mechanical calculator. Before electronic calculators became a thing, these were the best portable calculators in the world. Notably, they were the calculator of choice in rally car sports.

They work by a series of helical gears that act as registers. A series of internal gears and value assignment switches apply an adjustable number of incrementations to those gears, multiplying gears and the tracking gears, once per "grind." The result is output as a number on top of the device. The "clear register" function is lifting the top ring, which releases the reverse lockout on the gears and a clockwise turn on the ring then resets them to their zero state.

They were designed by Curtz Herzstark, partly before WWII and partly while he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. He had filed a patent for it in 1938, shortly before his family's manufacturey became a weapons factory. During his imprisonment, in addition to nearly starving to death, he completed his plans for manufacturing of his calculator.

It had fun names like the, "pepper grinder," and "math grenade."

Comments
  • 8
    Normally I would very much respect other people's things but damn that calculator would test me....so many things to fiddle with.....must touch!
  • 3
    Damn, this is so cool, I need one too now
  • 3
    Now I have to try this atleast once in my lifetime.
  • 1
    Saw this recently on a TechMoan. Immediately thought that you might have it.
  • 0
    Nice keycaps color scheme though. Are they clicky or silent? Or even capacitive or buckling?
  • 1
    Wow, that this is worth something 😍
  • 1
    Looks great !
  • 2
    Wow, it's really interesting
  • 0
    That is fascinating! Also your KEEB is interesting and I love the key caps. Do you mind sharing what set it is?
  • 1
    @Lyym
    It's two keyboards. I don't recall what the set was, had it for years.

    The clustering pattern is known as the Honeywell colorway, as it first appeared on their microswitch brand keyboards.

    The front is a modified keycool keyboard with reds. The back is a keychron k2 with stock caps.
  • 1
    @uyouthe
    Back keyboard are browns, front is reds.
  • 0
    @SortOfTested sweet boards!
  • 0
    That's oke hell of a relic. Fuck I want one. Nice find!
  • 0
    This literally looks like a thing from CSGO
  • 0
    Our professor loved these, he showed us lots of old calculators
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