Museum of Pocket Calculating Devices
81 points by ohjeez 21 hours ago | 17 comments
  • lapetitejort 19 hours ago |
    My dream is to one day own a Curta. I want to find an algorithm to approximate pi, one crank at a time. I had a chance to hold one at a vintage computer festival once. Smaller than I expected. Truly pocketable.

    I just had a thought. Why hasn't a Curta simulator come out for the Playdate? I guess I am cursed with creating it

    • tavavex 18 hours ago |
      The Curta is the ultimate calculator to own. I wish someone was still making modern replicas, but it seems that it's just too complex or at least too complex to bother with. So we're stuck with scavenging the ones that are still working off of individuals. I hope to buy one someday if there's still any supply of them left on the used market.
      • Miraste 13 hours ago |
        There is a wonderful teardown of it here:

        https://www.vcalc.net/CU-Disassembly/

        Scrolling through that makes me think it's extremely unlikely to be replicated commercially. I can't imagine how much machining all of those parts would cost.

      • bell-cot 11 hours ago |
        For those unfamiliar with the Curta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta
    • pugworthy 18 hours ago |
      I found a Thacher Cylindrical Slide Rule [1] in the garbage once at the university I worked at. I didn't have a holy grail list for such things, but it assumed that role when I found it.

      [1] https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_11312...

    • Hackbraten 16 hours ago |
      I'll buy it if you ever follow through!
  • cestith 18 hours ago |
    I have a few pocket computers not on that page. I guess I have a new option where to donate them if I ever decide to part with them.
  • idatum 18 hours ago |
    I have 2 listed: HP-35 and HP-41CX.

    Still use an HP-11c.

    Will die on that hill defending RPN!

  • zvr 17 hours ago |
    As the old joke goes:

    "For your birthday, I wanted to get you a pocket calculator ... but then I thought you'd already know how many pockets you have."

  • NetMageSCW 17 hours ago |
    I was really looking for watch calculators.
    • Analemma_ 15 hours ago |
      They have that on the page: https://www.calculators.de/

      Although one omission I was hoping to see is slide rule watches. It's unfortunate that these days mechanical watches are just status symbols for rich people, because back in the day slide rule watches like the Chronomat and Navitimer were tools that people really needed for their job. Navy test pilots said their Navitimers were indispensable.

  • gregsadetsky 16 hours ago |
    See also https://vcalc.net/
    • asdefghyk 15 hours ago |
      This website, thru one link and another lead me to (The rabit hole of ) "mechanical calculators". A mechanical marvel for me.
  • asdefghyk 16 hours ago |
    As someone whoose first calculator was a basic Sharp (I think) 4 function model in 1975 - I admired the scientific calculators that others could afford, at that time. This site bought back memories of the early era calculators.
  • maxy_etc 14 hours ago |
    this is the way websites should feel
  • TacticalCoder 13 hours ago |
    We had HP ones at school, lots of fun in math classes...

    But then I still have my Casio FX-850P, which I probably own since 1989 or something. Last time I put batteries in it (5 years ago?) it was still working. It's in TFA : )

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_FX-850P

    It's on my desk, always visible. Next to an Atari Portfolio (the same one young John Connor uses to hack doors in Terminator 2) and a totally beaten up ZX Spectrum. Remnants of a glorious past.

  • ofrzeta 7 hours ago |
    So the guy in Solingen/Germany (Gerhard Wenzel) is real and owns this collection but the museum is strictly online https://www.techbook.de/mobile-lifestyle/taschenrechner-samm...