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Erschienen in:
2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel
13. The Curta
verfasst von : Herbert Bruderer
Erschienen in: Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
The chapter “The Curta” introduces still another technical marvel. The highly gifted Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark created a picture-perfect “pepper mill,” the tiniest mechanical calculating machine in the world. The design drawings were drafted in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The round-shaped calculator was manufactured in high numbers in Liechtenstein until the beginning of the 1970s. However, the inventor was cheated out of his life’s work. Only recently, high-quality drawings for the Multiple Curta, the world’s smallest mechanical parallel calculator, came to light. The University of Birmingham constructed a 12-fold Curta in 1953. The Curta is considered the crowning achievement of the 350-year history of mechanical calculating machines. The stepped drum devices remain completely functional to this day.