@@fintan9218i mean... yea... i guess you could say the 2nd most recent century in history is modern. i mean, its more modern than the 20th century B.C.
a lot of our design sensibilities are still similar - and machining processes lend themselves to certain design elements anyway, like cylinders, knurling, and anodizing. those still look very modern.
Never knew there were mechanical calculating machines that small, it really does look like an engineering marvel. BTW I love than that style of metallic precision-made machinery still looks modern to this day, I have a pair of soviet binoculars that are at least 50 years old yet the only thing that gives away their age is the wear on their leather case, the thing itself doesn't look antiquated or old at all and is still in mostly mint condition because my grandma barely used it.
The first ‘shirt pocket’ calculator. But it takes a bit of practice to really fly thru calculation. When it was introduced using logs was still the norm. Yeah big improvement and designed for field use, not really an office machine.
It really does look modern! I clicked out of curiosity because it did.. beautiful machining and finish. Coolest thing I’ve seen in a while 👍 good stuff Edit- what model of binos are you taking about? They sound nice, would like to check them out too
@@larryscott3982 My uncle used his Curta heavily for astrophysical research in the 50's and early 60's. That was the only way to do a lot of calculations on numbers with a lot of significative digits back then, what was before taking weeks of work to solve equations was now taking hours with a Curta. Off course Curtas had a short useful lifespan, quickly the very first electronic calculators were there and now it was minutes to solve calculations... I was able to witness him use his Curta when he was still alive and he was very very very fast to use this complex machine, quite incredible. He knew a lot of tricks and would chain calculations to obtain the result he was looking for. Would do that casually barely looking at the machine, like if he was grinding coffee.
I have the exact same Curta. It worked, but not flawless. I sent it to a Curta expert in Germany and had it serviced. This guy has a huge stack of original parts. It now works effortless and its a blast to calculate with it!
@@hiteck007 An oil change you could perform on your own. First dunk the Curta in naphta, shake, drain and evaporate. Then mix a little bit of sewing machine oil in nphta, dunk the Curta in it, shake a little bit, drain off and let the naphta evaporate leaving the oil. Works like a breeze. A lot of users use this method.
You can really see why people were just as hyped for clockwork and precision-manufacturing in the decades preceding the 20th century, as we were about semiconductors at the turn of the 21st! As you say this specific device is postwar, but it’s conceptually a miniaturisation of a much older design of adding machine which has indeed been around for all that time. Hence why some compare it to a smartphone, and how they took a desktop computer into a pocket device. The sci-fi trope of a computer becoming so complex it becomes spontaneously self-aware started with stories about electro-mechanical telephone exchange switches! Which have a lot in common with these adding machines, and more fundamentally with mechanical clocks.
Superb. I have a Model 1 that was purchased new by my Grandfather in the 1950s. I take it out from time to time to give it some exercise. It always puts a smile on my face. I’ve never done a square root with mine, I’ll have to look into how it’s done. It’s good to know that there are still people capable of servicing these fascinating old machines. Carry on.
As an engineer, I am in awe of this wonderful, and frankly beautiful calculator. The fact that it is somewhat long-winded to get your answer, has no bearing of the Curta type 2 calculator. Before calculators I was using a slide rule and mathematical formula reference books. Thank you for a most interesting post, I have a philosophy in life, and that is to never stop being inquisitive and to learn from ideas young and old. So again thank you.
Slide rules are still cool. There are ways to make a slide rule produce more accurate digits, that only the likes Hans Bethe could master. Curta is an marvel of engineering, but the users are just.. users. Being good with a slide rule make the user feel smart.
I saw my first Curta when I was in 6th grade. I've wanted one for years and ended up purchasing a model-1. It kind of amazes me that no one has taken up the call to make a modern replica.
Curta's getting dropped was a common thing to happen back in the 60's. The main shaft would get bent and this would stop them from working properly. Back then you could send them back to Curta to be repaired too, but it was always expensive. I've loved these things from the very first time I saw them and now get myself into trouble every time I buy another one.
The Curta has a very important array of jigs and fixtures for both assembly and disassembly and you really need them -- especially the tiny spring compressor-holders. I hope you can find a Curta repair specialist who either has these or has built his own.
Thanks, I have seen some jigs used in other videos. You can bet I won't be going deeper into the mechanism without learning more and making sure I have everything I need first.
I have always wanted to play with a math grenade since I heard about them from a William Gibson novel in my younger days.. What a super cool and special object
Yes JanusCycle has -always- been an absolute goldmine of esoteric data rapped within an enigma of a riddle of a ruse amongst the bauxite *wrap glad gladwrap =special
I’ve just sold my Curta Type 2. The calculations I could use it for were, Adding, Subtract, multiply, divide, accumulate quotients, gear ratios,Sides of a triangle, heat insulation calculations, square roots, cube roots, fractional powers of numbers, quadratic equations and cubic equations, summation of squares, fractional powers of numbers, accumulation of products, evaluation of a polynomial or of a power series, evaluation of series, construction of a Nth order polynomial from Nth differences, and a few other things related to wages, percentages and amortisation of debts by annuities. I’m a retired Computer Scientist and these devices were (in my opinion) more accurate than some slide rules. At school in the late 1960’s early 70’s you could use a slide rule in mathematics exams, but you had to declare it was used at the end of your answer. Slide rules had a “cursor” and sometimes this landed between two value indicators, you had to estimate how much between each of the indicators the cursor was - so half way would be 0.5 extra on your answer, so an estimated final answer. The curta was far more accurate than that. My unit was serial number 515557, so there are websites for working out the manufacture date from the serial number. Mine was circa September 1960, so 62 years old and worked as smooth as butter. My unit sold for £930 on Mar 24 2023 on eBay. The first one I ever saw and used was as an amateur rally navigator for doing speed, time and distance between the rally checkpoints. Cars had to arrive at a fixed time. So the curta was used to tell the driver what speed he needed. Rally guys called curta units “pepper grinders” or “peppermill.”
I would've loved to have met Curt, the pure genius behind these brilliant machines which have become real collector-items! May I suggest buying some circlip-pliers (mine are the inexpensive type with the interchangeable & reversible head sections, some of which I've modified the ends), small jewellers' pliers without teeth, and jewellers' parrallel pliers (a pair with & another without teeth) as these have a V-groove down the length of one jaw (good for gripping pins without marking). For punching out rivets & pins, I have a range of punches & rods (some brass, but mostly hardened steel collected from computer-drives, appliances, audio/video machines, etc., but what can also be handy is a gadget for removing pins from steel watch-strap links (careful tho, as the cheaper ones are too thin & weak)! Also the best lubricant would be minimal amounts of watchmakers oil!
Some really great info, thank you! I have recently acquired some watchmakers oil. But I've yet to apply any because I've read there are some parts in the Curta that should not be oiled. I'm learning as much as I can before doing anything, to respect the valuable nature of this machine.
@@JanusCycle Great approach to take! My trade before I began having serious health problems was jewellery manufacturer, but during that time I repaired some gold & silver watch-cases, which made me become interested in how watches worked, were made, & repaired. That's how I know that oiling some parts & not others is critical, as well as needing to be applied only sparingly to avoid having exposed oil drying out & gumming up gears, etc.
My school in Switzerland, about 50km from the factory, had some of these machines. We had to learn how to operate it in 1969 in the 11th grade. At that time, they were used by many Swiss institutions and companies. Of course, electronic calculators came along in the early 1970s, making the curtas obsolete.
I blame William Gibson for my obsession with the Curta, and anytime I see a Curta show up on my RU-vid home page? I *will* watch that video. That sound is so unique and such a salve to my ears, I absolutely love the sound of it and would love to have one in hand. Thank you for bringing this one back to life.
Lovely video. I have both Type I and Type II Curta calculators. The Type II was given to me by my FIL, his father was an engineer and bought it in the 1970s but then bought one of the first electronic calculators shortly thereafter. So my Type II is in immaculate condition with original case, box, manuals, etc. I use it often. My Type I was bought on eBay and is in very good condition, but I can feel that the lubricants are beginning to dry up. I have inquired multiple people who are said to service these mechanical marvels, but the ones who replied are no longer taking orders as they are swamped already - likely due to increased interest after the YT videos you mention! Nonetheless I am treasuring it and will get it serviced at some point. Thanks for this video which shows some of the mechanisms in action without the case on, quite nice to see. And props for performing such a difficult repair on an item that requires very specific and precise maintenance.
Really nice to hear from a dedicated Curta fan. It's an honour to learn about these first hand and be able to share the experience. Hopefully also providing useful information to others in the process.
The Curta is so wonderful, it’s fun to just sit there and turn the crank. It is a testament to the finest of craftsmanship. My dad was an engineer in the late 50s, and he bought it when he went to Switzerland, it cost him a week’s pay. It is a thing of beauty.
Im impressed of how modern it looks. You could tell me it was manifactured a month ago and I would belive you. Unlike the Abam's one witch looks vintage
Brave soul to open the device. 👏Stumbled upon my own Curta at a household auction, in a box mixed with a couple old Vivitar flashes and a plastic Dick Tracy camera. The box of miscellaneous stuff brought only one bidder, so I went home with a $1.00 Curta calculator.
I first heard about Curtas from the Gibson novel Pattern Recognition, where one of the secondary characters is a collector. This was early 2000s when just looking up an image quickly on the Internet wasn't a thing (we still had dial up at our home until 2005-ish.) I only had a mental image of a Curta from Gibson's description in the book until about 10 years ago, when I actually saw one in person.
Thank-you, your video has given me a very good view of a Curta. I’ve been dreaming of having one for years, and I’ve only seen one in my life, in a museum display case…
I dont understand how you have 55k subs yet so few views. I hope you get the good numbers you deserve. Awesome and insightful content as well. In the future, i hope you delve into content about symbian and how app installs worked on there
You are very kind, thank you. It's more important to me that the right people find and appreciate these videos, than just big numbers of viewers. But I won't be upset if things grow a bit more :)
I have three Curtas in my adding machine collection. Thankfully all in good shape. If I took one apart I'd surely never get it back together again. Amazing to see how damaged it was. That's pretty rare.
Amazing you were able to fix it and very fortunate that someone less capable didn't try to fix it before you. I have only seen one Kurta calculator. A co-worker had just bought one on eBay and brought it in to work to show me. Definitely a look but don't touch moment.
Thanks for showing the internal mechanism with such detail, this is a great video! This little machine fascinates me and it's awesome to see this one being brought back to working order.
@Janus Cycle - I found one of these weird devices in an accountants office clearance back in the early nineties, it was boxed and in pristine condition. I wasn't sure what it was or what it did, and eventually resold it on a boot sale, for a fraction of the value people put on these amazing mechanical calculators nowadays. Thanks for sharing.
Timewise Rally computers in the US offers Curta repair, I learned about Curtas years ago when I started as a ralliest, a good navigator with a Curta can do all the TSD calcs in a car running either a stock odo or a correctable odo with alarming accuracy and speed. personally I run with a dedicated TSD computer that keeps my + - null time up to date to the 1/100 of a minute.
For a machine of such underlying complexity in its function, it's amazing how serviceable and approachable the components are. Everything shown here really could be worked on as an amateur, assisted with good instructions and some basic tools. The parts are many but that's mostly down to repetition in the design, the number of unique parts isn't that many, and they aren't minuscule and fragile like watch pieces.
I agree these are easily fixable with the right abilities. The problem comes from being highly collectible. With many opinions on how they should be handled, fixed and valued. This is where it starts to get complicated.
When I was a kid I dropped my Father's Curta. It must have landed on the handle and its shaft is also very distinctly bent. I seem to remember that it was also jammed up but thankfully after some tapping it unjammed. I still have it and it is my most prized object... serial no 5254. Mine is the earlier baby version with just 6 significant digits. My favourite calculation when I demonstrate it is 111111x1111111 and the answer of course is 12345654321. And its easy to reverse the calculation and do the division. Its fantastic because the way the calculator stacks up the numbers the answer of 12345654321 is the only logical outcome.
So interesting to see one of these opened up. I have the same model Curta, but without the white arrow on the crank base. Everything works on it aside from subtraction. The mechanism is hard to turn and almost binds. Immediately stopped and never subtracted on it again. Love to have it operating 100% again. There’s probably just one rally company that still does repairs on these, but quite expensive the last I heard.
@@JanusCycleOh definitely! It’s a precision instrument and man handling one probably isn’t the best idea. I mostly keep it as a desk piece that I occasionally use for quick addition and multiplying. I had found it in a barn at an estate sale 4 years ago. Mostly went looking for film cameras and happened across the Curta. So it’s seen some dust, but no rust fortunately being in a desert dry climate. One day I’ll send it out for a proper service!
I managed to get hold of a working Kurta map to just this year. Unfortunately my vision is now so poor. I can’t actually read the results but it is wonderful just own such advice and the mechanism feels superb when you are using it. Since I have a history with Motoring, I am planning to show my device to a friend of mine, Ivan and Dutton, who you may know from shed racing RU-vid channel.
Very interesting video that brought back some memories of my days on holiday in Canada in 1967 when I worked for a few weeks for a contractor. This was before the age of computers and electronic calculators. I was taking off quantities off drawings of building and one of the guys there was responsible for pricing up the measured work. He used one of these small drum mechanical calculators and was incredibly quick. I just used an electro mechanical adding machine. The contractors were all East Europeans so I guess were well used to these machines. At college we either used log tables or slide rules. John
