The Curta.org Bulletin Board

[JBabcock]

Hello,

I saw my first Curta Calculator for the first time (online of course) a few months ago and fell in love with the complexity and wonder of this little machine. Being in the field of engineering I can appreciate the thought that went into making such a neat machine. I'd love to get one of these myself and even found some on e-bay that are very expensive. I'm not one who cares about model number or if the calculator comes with booklets/original box; however, I'd like to find one that is in working order. I think that it would be a great talking point and just a neat item to have on my desk.

I'm sure the very knowledgeable people I've come to read about on this forum may have some advice as to where I could find a working Curta or just a great place to keep an eye open for one. I've been to a couple of antique stores local to Atlanta, GA but no luck as of yet.

Thanks for all of your help

[Pete]

Frankly your best bet is to wait for one to come up on eBay and make an offer, that's how I got most of mine. The Frenchman who sells the expensive ones will only bid high enough to ensure he can resell at a profit, after all.

In terms of finding one at a garage sale or antique shop, that's the dream! Best I did was buy one from a guy who DID find one at a garage sale. He was happy with his 500 and I was happy with the machine. They're a little pricier now though

[JBabcock]

I couldn't stand it any more and found one on e-bay! I am now a proud owner of a Curta Type II calculator made in 1957 and I LOVE this thing! All weekend my cousin and I have been looking for things to calculate and been following the tutorials to find out sums of whole numbers, decimal numbers and even square roots. Wow is this time consuming but SOOOOO much more satisfying. I even found myself pulling up my calculator on the computer and thinking "wait a minute what the heck am I doing" followed by me promptly closing the program and finding my Curta for a simple addition problem.

I am still amazed that such a piece of machinery can do these tasks without a electrical components and I don't have to replace batteries. It has become one of my most cherished possessions and I'm happy to now be part of the club I can see how this can become addicting and I'll be keeping my eye out for a Type I.