Beautiful. My father used such a device at work, for calculations of construction works in the mid-60s. As little boy, I loved coming to his place at work and twisting that arm until I was unconscious. This video brought me back to the beautiful moments of my childhood. Thanks a lot! ❤
I knew a watch repairman who cleaned and repaired the handheld mechanical calculators, and he would show them to me and explain the operation. Fascinating devices.
Fascinating and beautiful tech, especially the Curta. It's soooooo teeny tiny - and a masterpiece of mechanical engineering. Thing of beauty, joy for ever!
Nice video, thanks. I am lucky enough to have a UK made pin-wheel calculator - the Britannic by Guy's Calculating Machines Ltd., Wood Green, London. As a child in the 60's I knew a chap who worked there, although by that time they where owned by Muldivo. His enthusiasm for engineering has stayed with me to this day.
When hearing the first number 355 I knew it would be divided by 113 in the end. I just was not prepared for the division operation and how complex it is already on the table machine. On the curta machine with no bell it may be close to deserving the no-bell price.
For years and years I had a soldering station. The iron had a thermocouple near the tip. The station had an analog board with some transistors, resistors, a transformer, and a triac. The knob was marked 200 300 400 500 600 700 C but was basically uncalibrated. I just kept it around 300 or 400 and it worked fine. (Need more heat, turn it up a bit :-) There was a red LED on the station which went on when the iron was on. It heated up in about 15 seconds, then the LED turned on and off with some hysteresis. If you turned up the knob, the LED would immediately go on and then off a few seconds later, and the iron was now a bit hotter. It was very cool to use, actually. Then one day there was the smell of burning 🔥 components from the base. It never worked again, but it had certainly done its job admirably for about 20 years 👍
I remember learning the slide rule for one year in school and then the next year they got rid of that and switched to electronic calculators. I used adding machines back in the day (mechanical) but never one that could even do multiplication or division. Very interesting! Now, how do they work on the inside??? My father was a sales engineer and had to do calculations all the time. He relied on his slide rule. When the first scientific calculator came out that could do trig functions, logs, etc... (HP 35) he bought one right away and never went back to the slide rule again! I still have that HP 35 and it still works!
It would be so easy to turn the Curta backwards by mistake when you hit the overflow. 😢 I've used a desktop one before in the 80's, my science teacher brought one to school to show us. It was a lot of fun. I wanted to borrow it for maths class as that was, (and still is), my worst subject. LOL
Clearly the person who designed this was a mechanical genius
Beautiful. My father used such a device at work, for calculations of construction works in the mid-60s. As little boy, I loved coming to his place at work and twisting that arm until I was unconscious. This video brought me back to the beautiful moments of my childhood. Thanks a lot! ❤
I knew a watch repairman who cleaned and repaired the handheld mechanical calculators, and he would show them to me and explain the operation. Fascinating devices.
Fascinating and beautiful tech, especially the Curta. It's soooooo teeny tiny - and a masterpiece of mechanical engineering. Thing of beauty, joy for ever!
What a incredible device a genius was behind this mechanical design.
Nice video, thanks. I am lucky enough to have a UK made pin-wheel calculator - the Britannic by Guy's Calculating Machines Ltd., Wood Green, London. As a child in the 60's I knew a chap who worked there, although by that time they where owned by Muldivo. His enthusiasm for engineering has stayed with me to this day.
Thank you for bringing this knowledge lost in time to TH-cam..
I learned a new thing today..
that desk calculator is sweet.
Magnificent historical machines ..
When hearing the first number 355 I knew it would be divided by 113 in the end.
I just was not prepared for the division operation and how complex it is already on the table machine.
On the curta machine with no bell it may be close to deserving the no-bell price.
For years and years I had a soldering station. The iron had a thermocouple near the tip. The station had an analog board with some transistors, resistors, a transformer, and a triac.
The knob was marked 200 300 400 500 600 700 C but was basically uncalibrated. I just kept it around 300 or 400 and it worked fine. (Need more heat, turn it up a bit :-)
There was a red LED on the station which went on when the iron was on. It heated up in about 15 seconds, then the LED turned on and off with some hysteresis.
If you turned up the knob, the LED would immediately go on and then off a few seconds later, and the iron was now a bit hotter.
It was very cool to use, actually.
Then one day there was the smell of burning 🔥 components from the base.
It never worked again, but it had certainly done its job admirably for about 20 years 👍
These things have always fascinated me. Thanks for the demonstration! I might suggest some WD40 for your chair though. 😅
Now that's cool! I expect that these are EMP proof, as are slide rules.
I remember learning the slide rule for one year in school and then the next year they got rid of that and switched to electronic calculators. I used adding machines back in the day (mechanical) but never one that could even do multiplication or division. Very interesting! Now, how do they work on the inside??? My father was a sales engineer and had to do calculations all the time. He relied on his slide rule. When the first scientific calculator came out that could do trig functions, logs, etc... (HP 35) he bought one right away and never went back to the slide rule again! I still have that HP 35 and it still works!
th-cam.com/video/GNhivjsSiD4/w-d-xo.html
I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Quick question: How do mechanical calculators handle division by zero?
you just keep cranking cranking cranking...
It would be so easy to turn the Curta backwards by mistake when you hit the overflow. 😢
I've used a desktop one before in the 80's, my science teacher brought one to school to show us. It was a lot of fun. I wanted to borrow it for maths class as that was, (and still is), my worst subject. LOL
How do you know the location of the decimal point in the answer?
Very cool gadget. I have a cylinder shaped sliderule, I think it's from england.
th-cam.com/video/oMSptZCOOa4/w-d-xo.html
What’s the difference between the type 1 and type 2 Curta?
th-cam.com/video/ks17S56XZtw/w-d-xo.html
type writter move from right to left
Wtf? 😮 No wonder those things became obsolete.