I'm not at all surprised this mechanical marvel knows the answer to life, the universe and everything.

It is absolutely incredible how this design still looks absolutely modern.

This is from 1954, but the all black aesthetic making it look modern

The design of it and especially the font of the " C U R T A" logo look very modern.

It is amazing how modern this thing looks well over 70 years later, it looks like it could be released today

Even though the inside is amazing The exterior design was 70 years ahead of it's time

Never knew there were mechanical calculating machines that small, it really does look like an engineering marvel. BTW I love than that style of metallic precision-made machinery still looks modern to this day, I have a pair of soviet binoculars that are at least 50 years old yet the only thing that gives away their age is the wear on their leather case, the thing itself doesn't look antiquated or old at all and is still in mostly mint condition because my grandma barely used it.

I have the exact same Curta. It worked, but not flawless. I sent it to a Curta expert in Germany and had it serviced. This guy has a huge stack of original parts. It now works effortless and its a blast to calculate with it!

When driving a pin with a punch, try to support the other side. It avoids bending the shaft

You can really see why people were just as hyped for clockwork and precision-manufacturing in the decades preceding the 20th century, as we were about semiconductors at the turn of the 21st! As you say this specific device is postwar, but it’s conceptually a miniaturisation of a much older design of adding machine which has indeed been around for all that time. Hence why some compare it to a smartphone, and how they took a desktop computer into a pocket device. The sci-fi trope of a computer becoming so complex it becomes spontaneously self-aware started with stories about electro-mechanical telephone exchange switches! Which have a lot in common with these adding machines, and more fundamentally with mechanical clocks.

Superb. I have a Model 1 that was purchased new by my Grandfather in the 1950s. I take it out from time to time to give it some exercise. It always puts a smile on my face. I’ve never done a square root with mine, I’ll have to look into how it’s done. It’s good to know that there are still people capable of servicing these fascinating old machines. Carry on.

I may have emailed this to Adam Savages team. I imagine he'd get a huge kick out of seeing the insides in action.

Curta's getting dropped was a common thing to happen back in the 60's. The main shaft would get bent and this would stop them from working properly. Back then you could send them back to Curta to be repaired too, but it was always expensive. I've loved these things from the very first time I saw them and now get myself into trouble every time I buy another one.

As an engineer, I am in awe of this wonderful, and frankly beautiful calculator. The fact that it is somewhat long-winded to get your answer, has no bearing of the Curta type 2 calculator. Before calculators I was using a slide rule and mathematical formula reference books. Thank you for a most interesting post, I have a philosophy in life, and that is to never stop being inquisitive and to learn from ideas young and old. So again thank you.

wow a CURTA ... very nice

I saw my first Curta when I was in 6th grade. I've wanted one for years and ended up purchasing a model-1. It kind of amazes me that no one has taken up the call to make a modern replica.

The Curta has a very important array of jigs and fixtures for both assembly and disassembly and you really need them -- especially the tiny spring compressor-holders. I hope you can find a Curta repair specialist who either has these or has built his own.

I have always wanted to play with a math grenade since I heard about them from a William Gibson novel in my younger days.. What a super cool and special object

As a fellow Curta owner, I much appreciate this look inside the mechanism.

this channel is such a hidden gem in youtube 🥰

My father was a Civil Engineer and had the smaller unit. We used it for field surveying calculations. It was a mechanical work of art.

I can't believe it's a 40s product! The design of everything among the construction of it make it like a recent one product, very beautiful.

That's the longest Douglas Adams joke I've ever seen. Bravo.

I have never seen this machine, it's both beautiful and mind boggling but also a bit scary in how it actually works

That thing looks so modern. It's crazy.

Brave soul to open the device. 👏Stumbled upon my own Curta at a household auction, in a box mixed with a couple old Vivitar flashes and a plastic Dick Tracy camera. The box of miscellaneous stuff brought only one bidder, so I went home with a $1.00 Curta calculator.

I have a Curta from the early 1970s that served me well-a wonderful device!

I'm glad someone finally figured out what the question was

Im suprised this hasn't yet been rereleased as a novelty, the mechanism is just so interesting!

Of course the anwer is 42. But from a very small computer this time... Well done Janus!!

I would've loved to have met Curt, the pure genius behind these brilliant machines which have become real collector-items! May I suggest buying some circlip-pliers (mine are the inexpensive type with the interchangeable & reversible head sections, some of which I've modified the ends), small jewellers' pliers without teeth, and jewellers' parrallel pliers (a pair with & another without teeth) as these have a V-groove down the length of one jaw (good for gripping pins without marking). For punching out rivets & pins, I have a range of punches & rods (some brass, but mostly hardened steel collected from computer-drives, appliances, audio/video machines, etc., but what can also be handy is a gadget for removing pins from steel watch-strap links (careful tho, as the cheaper ones are too thin & weak)! Also the best lubricant would be minimal amounts of watchmakers oil!

absolutely beautiful machine

I blame William Gibson for my obsession with the Curta, and anytime I see a Curta show up on my KZfaq home page? I *will* watch that video. That sound is so unique and such a salve to my ears, I absolutely love the sound of it and would love to have one in hand. Thank you for bringing this one back to life.

I marvel at the mind of the person who devised this machine!

The design looks so stunning and modern

The sound the main shaft makes when turning is excellent

I can imagine that the people who bought this were are happy to have it as I was when I got my HP35.

wow, this thing is a marvelous device for it's age

Would love to see people make these again just for the novelty of it. Amazing job both with repairing it and showing us how it works!

Lovely video. I have both Type I and Type II Curta calculators. The Type II was given to me by my FIL, his father was an engineer and bought it in the 1970s but then bought one of the first electronic calculators shortly thereafter. So my Type II is in immaculate condition with original case, box, manuals, etc. I use it often. My Type I was bought on eBay and is in very good condition, but I can feel that the lubricants are beginning to dry up. I have inquired multiple people who are said to service these mechanical marvels, but the ones who replied are no longer taking orders as they are swamped already - likely due to increased interest after the YT videos you mention! Nonetheless I am treasuring it and will get it serviced at some point. Thanks for this video which shows some of the mechanisms in action without the case on, quite nice to see. And props for performing such a difficult repair on an item that requires very specific and precise maintenance.

I’ve just sold my Curta Type 2. The calculations I could use it for were, Adding, Subtract, multiply, divide, accumulate quotients, gear ratios,Sides of a triangle, heat insulation calculations, square roots, cube roots, fractional powers of numbers, quadratic equations and cubic equations, summation of squares, fractional powers of numbers, accumulation of products, evaluation of a polynomial or of a power series, evaluation of series, construction of a Nth order polynomial from Nth differences, and a few other things related to wages, percentages and amortisation of debts by annuities. I’m a retired Computer Scientist and these devices were (in my opinion) more accurate than some slide rules. At school in the late 1960’s early 70’s you could use a slide rule in mathematics exams, but you had to declare it was used at the end of your answer. Slide rules had a “cursor” and sometimes this landed between two value indicators, you had to estimate how much between each of the indicators the cursor was - so half way would be 0.5 extra on your answer, so an estimated final answer. The curta was far more accurate than that. My unit was serial number 515557, so there are websites for working out the manufacture date from the serial number. Mine was circa September 1960, so 62 years old and worked as smooth as butter. My unit sold for £930 on Mar 24 2023 on eBay. The first one I ever saw and used was as an amateur rally navigator for doing speed, time and distance between the rally checkpoints. Cars had to arrive at a fixed time. So the curta was used to tell the driver what speed he needed. Rally guys called curta units “pepper grinders” or “peppermill.”

Im impressed of how modern it looks. You could tell me it was manifactured a month ago and I would belive you. Unlike the Abam's one witch looks vintage

42, the answer to life, the universe, and everything 🥰. The video is amazing, but the pun got me a smile. Thanks!

I will always regret not buying one in the 70s when I had the chance.

Thank you. Came to the internet lost and unsure of what I was looking for. You and your Curta provided the answer!

The Curta is so wonderful, it’s fun to just sit there and turn the crank. It is a testament to the finest of craftsmanship. My dad was an engineer in the late 50s, and he bought it when he went to Switzerland, it cost him a week’s pay. It is a thing of beauty.

An absolutely gorgeous device!

love that the awnser on the question was 42

The engineering in this calculator is actually insane. And it looks amazing...

ah yes the meaning of life, 42, very clever mechanism knowing that

This is so beautifully made. It must have felt good to be involved with making something that is both beautiful and useful.

Looks insanely complicated, but insanely cool. 😎

By the time you got the answer, I had already forgotten the question!

Looks like it was manufactured yesterday. No dings or stretches and the font looks modern. I want one now.

How can something from the 50s look so modern even by today's standards.

It's even more beautiful inside than I would have guessed.

That's on another level, 42.

My dad had one of these while. Saving this to share with him.

I inherited my granddad's one of these. I used it to do my taxes for many years. Wonderful thing.

I used one of these daily outdoors while working as a cadastral surveyor in the Pacific islands of Micronesia in the late 1960's.

Looks like something you'd find in a modern day camera shop! Love the bang-up-to-date lettering on the side.

I dont understand how you have 55k subs yet so few views. I hope you get the good numbers you deserve. Awesome and insightful content as well. In the future, i hope you delve into content about symbian and how app installs worked on there

My school in Switzerland, about 50km from the factory, had some of these machines. We had to learn how to operate it in 1969 in the 11th grade. At that time, they were used by many Swiss institutions and companies. Of course, electronic calculators came along in the early 1970s, making the curtas obsolete.

Amazing you were able to fix it and very fortunate that someone less capable didn't try to fix it before you. I have only seen one Kurta calculator. A co-worker had just bought one on eBay and brought it in to work to show me. Definitely a look but don't touch moment.

I just love old complex mecanisems

It looks so modern!

Beautiful machine expertly presented. Thank you.

Wonderful photography presentation, wonderful restraint in exploring the mechanism. Thank you.

That thing is a genuine marvale of ingenuity

A work mate of mine had one of these on his desk. He would show it to anyone who asked. Amazing device.

What an amazing piece piece of engineering. Lovely video, thanks for creating.

The answer to the question of life... This looks so futuristic to me, despite being 70 years my Sr.

Thanks for showing the internal mechanism with such detail, this is a great video! This little machine fascinates me and it's awesome to see this one being brought back to working order.

This was so cool to see, thank you for making it!

That is absolutely remarkable. Thank you for showing this as I've never seen anything quite like it before, great video.

You calculated the meaning of life.

I've wanted one forever.

When I was a kid I dropped my Father's Curta. It must have landed on the handle and its shaft is also very distinctly bent. I seem to remember that it was also jammed up but thankfully after some tapping it unjammed. I still have it and it is my most prized object... serial no 5254. Mine is the earlier baby version with just 6 significant digits. My favourite calculation when I demonstrate it is 111111x1111111 and the answer of course is 12345654321. And its easy to reverse the calculation and do the division. Its fantastic because the way the calculator stacks up the numbers the answer of 12345654321 is the only logical outcome.

Janus Cycle is now my favorite channel on KZfaq - absolutely love you videos

I've enjoyed every second of this video!

Always grateful for the quality work from you. Keep it up and always remember not to sell out to nebula. Good job Mr Janus

I first heard about Curtas from the Gibson novel Pattern Recognition, where one of the secondary characters is a collector. This was early 2000s when just looking up an image quickly on the Internet wasn't a thing (we still had dial up at our home until 2005-ish.) I only had a mental image of a Curta from Gibson's description in the book until about 10 years ago, when I actually saw one in person.

Magnificent, thank you for showing it to us.

Lovely sound the machine has

Nice, now where did I put my towel?

I want one! It doesn’t have to be an original, just this well made.

@Janus Cycle - I found one of these weird devices in an accountants office clearance back in the early nineties, it was boxed and in pristine condition. I wasn't sure what it was or what it did, and eventually resold it on a boot sale, for a fraction of the value people put on these amazing mechanical calculators nowadays. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic video!

Timewise Rally computers in the US offers Curta repair, I learned about Curtas years ago when I started as a ralliest, a good navigator with a Curta can do all the TSD calcs in a car running either a stock odo or a correctable odo with alarming accuracy and speed. personally I run with a dedicated TSD computer that keeps my + - null time up to date to the 1/100 of a minute.

This gear set is the solution to all our transmissions

Interesting to look at it looks modern

That's immense patience on your side for fixing it, I would have just soaked it in WD-40 and called it a day.

Imagine designing this in prison and then manufacturing it once freed. Truly freeing the idea from your mind.

I have three Curtas in my adding machine collection. Thankfully all in good shape. If I took one apart I'd surely never get it back together again. Amazing to see how damaged it was. That's pretty rare.

The answer was 42!! If you know you know. If you don't, you don't. Nice touch.

42, I've been looking for that too!

I have one of these, a hand-me-downb from my grandfather who used it to do the accounting for his postwar dairy

"... do no harm..." 60 seconds later: HAMMER TIME!

Used one in the 60s. One of the guys used to hold one in his hand and sleep at his desk, when he heard the boss walk in he would whizz it around at random to show he was working

Me in elementary school imagining the pencil sharpener of the future 😂