To avoid a deep winter sleep of this forum I suggest an activation-thread:

Please post a picture or two of your Curta (or relating to your Curta), tell us your story behind... try to show us waht's so special with your Curta or maybe you can tell us the former usage of your Curta...
Open a unique thread if you think there will be a discussion or some other replies...

I hope this is in the sense of the current board moderators


start now!

It has finally happened! My Curta arrived by UPS this afternoon. I have been looking at these precision-engineered devices for a year now. Suddenly, on an eBay auction, this one was made available at a good price...not cheap, of course, but something I could handle. It's a Type II, and even though I have an HP-67 programmable, knowing that this is one of an original production sequence that no longer exists makes it all worth it. It is in mint shape. I understand that one of the original developers of modern GPS used this machine in his calculations. WOW! A piece of history in my hand. I'm a retired German teacher, so I can appreciate the history of the Curta.

As a retired German teacher, how 'bout translating that 'No present for the Fuhrer' book?

Just kidding. Congratulations on the purchase and WATCH OUT FOR THAT CLEARING RING WHEN YOU CLOSE THE CANISTER!

Hi, Pete!

"No gift for the Fuhrer" comes out as [ Kein Geschenk für den Führer! ] Interestingly enough, the word "das Gift" in German means "poison." How appropriate is that...?

Doug

Thank you for this contribution Alexdraque!
I hope that this will encourage some other contributors:-)

Congratulation to your Curta - for sure you will have a lot of joy with this unique calculator.
Maybe you will need some additional instructions, especially for the more advanced calcualtions... (Instructions for use of the CURTA)...

[ Besten Dank, murff, für die Anleitungen! Diejenigen helfen ohne Zweifel dem Anfänger. ] Thanks much, murff, for the links. Without a doubt, they help the beginner.

Doing division with the machine is still problematical (pun intended). I have to practice some more before I begin to feel at home with it. I find that the Curta is as much a conversation starter as it is useful.

[ Ich wünsche Ihnen ein Glückliches Neues Jahr! ] I wish you a Happy New Year!

Doug

PS: [ Sind Sie zu Hause irgendwo in Lichtenstein? ] Do you live somewhere in Lichtenstein?

Location: Switzerland ...but my web site is a real Liechtensteiner!



same wishes to you

I'm an owner of 2 Curtas. Unfortunately, I have no special story about how I came upon them.

One (the Type II) of them I purchased directly from Mr. Christensen.

The other (a Type I) was a typical eBay purchase. It came from the midwest USA (Minnesota), and was in need of a basic cleaning. The sliders were a bit gummed up and didn't move all that well. Also, the crank had some difficulty turning all the pinions throughout its rotation. So off it went to Mr. Christensen, and as one would expect, it arrived back working like silk.

Both are in, according to the accepted rating guide on Timewise, 'Excellent' condition, with the canisters being 'Excellent' (Type I) and 'Very Fine' (Type II).

I promise to post some pictures when I get around to uploading them.

EDIT:

As promised, here's my Type I:



Thanks for the thread, murff.

winter sleep, again?







no?

They had predicted a very severe winter for this portion of the Midwest (SE Lower Michigan near Detroit), but it seems that global warming has put the kibosh to that notion. A little snow, some cold winds, lots of clouds, but not like the Michigan winters I was used to as a kid some decades ago. / So now the Lionel electric trains have come out of storage. / The Curta comes out of hiding every now and then to give me lots of entertainment. It's in pristine condition and works like a charm. I'm not to the point where I balance the checkbook with it yet, but that day will come. / I have set up my own permanent eBay search for Curta machines, and there never ceases to be a good number of them along with their CDs, their schematics, their patents and their instruction books. The demand just never ends. Thanks for posting.

Hi Alexdraque, again...
here in Switzerland the winter will get colder and colder - for the next days they forecasted about 15°C below zero...

Quote:

The demand just never ends...

Yes, it's true!
Today I ordered a Curta Type II - in Lichtenstein... a very very very unique Curta... !
Maybe I will name it "the last one"



more later

murff wrote:

Today I ordered a Curta Type II - in Lichtenstein... a very very very unique Curta... ! Maybe I will name it "the last one" more later

Is it Later yet?

Sadly, I have no Curta yet, but that doesn't stop me from loving them from afar. Wow, now that I said it, it sounds kinda voyeurish.

I had mentioned in another post that the first time I saw one was 7th grade. There was a retired Mechanical Engineer that was invited in to speak to the class about science and being an engineer. It was all pretty boring and don't even remember what else he talked about or even the pretense under which he was there. All that change when he pulled a Type I from his pocket. I was riveted with the whole experience. It was that moment that truly planted the seeds for becoming an engineer, but I just hadn't known it yet at the time.

It wasn't until years later that I was trying to find out what that thing was even called after the experience popped back into my wandering mind while it was I driving to work the one day. It didn't take too long searching to find out the information I was looking for and then I saw the prices they were being sold for and had to shelve the idea that I'd own one any time soon. What I was able to do was entertain myself by trying to model one in SolidWorks after having a class on it. I figured it'd be a fun way to keep my skills from getting too rusty and I'd be doing something that no one else has yet. It turned out that the thing was far more difficult to get good information about than I had previously thought, so it's been a project that's been worked on off and on over the past couple years depending on time and information at hand.

After spending several years enlisted in the Army and then getting a medical discharge left me with the need to learn new skills and how to interact with the civilian world. Both have been extremely challenging. With a family of five, school for me, my kids and my wife has been interesting. So has being able to keep us all afloat at times, but that's life, I guess.

Long story short, even though I don't have one yet, I enjoy reading about the history and seeing all the pictures that get posted of Curta's that belong to others.

Simply amazing!

Well, my story is quite stale but I'll share it.

A few years back when I was unemployed, bored and surfing google.. I came across a mechanical computer that was used in WWII (something to do with the guns on fighter airplanes). After awhile, I ended up finding a picture of a Curta and knew that I had to get one. Fast forward to 2014 and I remembered the Curta when I saw it appear on the Pawn Stars TV show. I had some extra cash to burn, so I ended up with a Type 1 1962. So far it is the coolest thing I own so far and its the perfect graduation gift to myself.

Thanks for reading!

as noted earlier - I love the slow rhythm of this forum!

and... thanks for any story!

and...



why not post some Curta pictures (even blurred this machine is a beauty)

I think this machine is beautiful in all its forms.