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Recently I acquired a Curta type II. The small and wonderful calculating machine has barely been used, came in its original cardboard box and was accompanied by two original manuals.
The 'Amazing Curta' as it often is nicknamed, looks like a pepper grinder. It was invented by Curt Herzstark and developed in the concentration camp Buchenwald in 1943. The nazis facilitated the development of this mechanical calculating device. They intented to offer the very first Curta to the führer when he has won the war. Before that could happen Hitler received the first Curta, looked at it, played with it and got bored with it.
The Curta is a hand cranked, fully mechanical calculator. It performs additions, subtractions, divisions and multiplications and it also raises powers and extracts square roots. Production of Curta type I started in 1948 in a factory in Liechtenstein. Type II was introduced in 1954. It had 11 sliding setters for an 11 digit number and a 8-digit turns counter. The internal mechanism is based on the stepped reckoner invented by Gottfried Leibniz and implemented in the Arithmometer of Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar.
Operating the Curta is a joy. With ease numbers are set with the sliders on the circumference and transfered to the results counter by turning the crank. At the top of the machine the results are displayed in a result counter and the number of revolutions in a revolution counter. By pulling the crank and turning it in the same (clockwise) direction, subtractions and divIsions can be carried out. By turning the crank and doing calculations the hand can feel and the ear can hear the 'music' of many subtle mechanical operations inside this marvellous machine.
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