Curta
- Date
- 1947 · confidence medium
- Place
- Vaduz, Liechtenstein
- Credited to
- Curt Herzstark
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A hand-held mechanical calculator shaped like a small cylinder that fits in the palm, nicknamed the "pepper grinder"; it was the best portable calculator available until electronic calculators took over in the 1970s.
Herzstark designed the mechanism while imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp; he manufactured it after the war in Liechtenstein.
What it led to
- The standard portable calculating tool before electronic calculators
- A collector's item among mechanical-instrument enthusiasts