Curta

The Curta is a tiny, hand-held calculator that fits right in your palm! It was made by a man named Curt Herzstark in Vienna, Austria, many years ago.

People loved the Curta because it could do hard math without needing electricity. It looked like a little pepper grinder, and some even called it a “peppermill.” Scientists, engineers, and math experts used it to solve problems.

Even pilots used the Curta to help with their calculations before electronic calculators became popular. Today, many people collect these old calculators, and they can be seen in museums around the world.

The Curta was inspired by earlier machines made by Gottfried Leibniz. It used special wheels and a stepped drum to do calculations. You could move slides on the side and turn a handle to add or subtract numbers.

There were two main types of Curta calculators. The Type I could handle eight-digit numbers, while the larger Type II could handle eleven-digit numbers. Both were very useful tools in their time.

The Curta is remembered as a clever invention from a time before computers. It shows how people solved math problems with clever machines long ago. You can still see Curtas in places like the Enter Museum in Solothurn, Switzerland.