The Curta Mechanical Calculator

Curtas are lovely. I think that with our current knowledge we could produce a mechanical Von Neumann CPU in roughly the same number of parts in the same size cut to the same precision, but I haven't finished designing it yet. But then you need a few kilobytes of RAM, which is going to be several times larger.

But nowadays I think you can probably make things quite a bit smaller, even using conventional machining processes.

Curtas are great, I ran across them a few years ago and I've wanted one ever since.

I'm a huge fan of flight computers too - they're basically a circular slide rule with common units marked. A lot of people don't use them regularly now that we have electronic calculators, but an E6B never runs out of batteries in midair. They're very easy for quick conversions once you get the hang of it.

ASA makes a nice one in aluminum that I really like: http://www.amazon.com/ASA-E6B-Metal-Flight-Computer/dp/B003Z...

A lot of tech nerds seem to have an interest in older computation devices. All the patents on the Curta have expired, and manufacturing technology has improved greatly since it was last made--so where is the Kickstarter to make more of these? I'd pay $200-300 for one.

And while we are at it, where are replicas of the Antikythera mechanism?

Heck, even a good slide rule would be nice. Think Geek had a slide rule for sale a few years ago and I bought a couple, but they were poor quality.

A Curta has been in my "If I ever have way too much money and have already spread it everywhere else I could" dream-category for years. I would doubly love (and be willing to back) a revival of them (that way it wouldn't feel like I'm buying up a historical artifact for personal enjoyment).

When I read William Gibbson's "Pattern recognition" I googled a few items described in the book to better visualize the scene (e.g. the mine manual, Stetson, Rickson's jacket).

It did not occur to me to look Curta calculator up- they sure do look to be worth obsessing about :)

I had the privilege of holding one of these a few days ago. One of my co-workers owns one and was happy to demonstrate it to me. The 9's complement subtraction was interesting to watch.