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The history of "Kurta" deserves a separate article. Technically, this is not a calculator, but an adding machine, that is, a mechanical calculator that has enjoyed unprecedented popularity. The device was created back in 1938, although it entered the market only ten years later. The reason was the war and the difficult fate of the designer.
Authorship of the Curta adding machine belongs to the Austrian engineer Kurt Herzstark. In his youth, Kurt ran the family-owned high-precision device company Rechenmaschinenwerk AUSTRIA Herzstark & Co., owned by his father, but the Nazis disrupted the quiet life. After the annexation of Austria, Kurt was arrested as "an accomplice of the Jews." The hatred of the new government was aggravated by the fact that Kurt himself was a half-breed - a Jew on his paternal side.
However, the engineer managed to avoid immediate reprisals for the simple reason that his talent was irreplaceable. Kurt was sent to Peenemünde and forced to participate in the creation and production of the latest "weapon of retaliation" - the V-2 ballistic missiles, developed by the eminent designer Werner von Braun. After the war, Werner actually directed the technical side of the American space program, which reached its climax with the landing of astronauts on the moon, but the sediment remained: the achievements of the talented designer are very wittily summed up in the 1960 biopic I aim at the Stars through the mouth of the American press attaché: strives for the stars, but ends up in London. "
Kurt was just trying to survive, wasting time and sabotaging. Actually, for sabotage, namely the translation and distribution of English-language news, he was taken to a concentration camp, where he was forced to engage in the production of missiles and a "special important" project - the development of a unique version of the very same calculating machine specifically for the Fuehrer. Kurt was still lucky, because several of his accomplices paid with their lives. Of course, with the completion of the task, the engineer pulled the bloodthirsty dictator until his death, and presented his development on the market after the war. The success of a mechanical calculator is difficult to describe. Let's just say that it was widely used up to the 80s by rally racers-navigators who appreciated the unpretentious device for its convenience and durability on potholes and sharp turns.
It is possible to find original devices nowadays, but they will be very expensive - about a thousand dollars apiece. Fortunately, a maker named Markus Wu has shared the 3D printing files for the legendary adding machine. The design is as close to the original as possible, since Markus used the drawings presented in the Liechtenstein State Museum. You will have to work hard to recreate the replica, because it consists of 240 parts, and that is because Marcus has optimized the design by combining part of the parts into a single whole.
Real, vintage adding machines assembled from more than 600 parts. Of the non-printable parts, only bearings, springs and screws are needed. And don't be surprised at the cumbersomeness: for some reason, Marcus decided to triple the replica.
