Curta II - A Round Fellow
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2019
- Note that while the Curta is round, it does not do rounding. Any such activities should be done by hand.
It's been a while, due to various reasons (one major of them mentioned in the video). I always want to find some interesting or novel thing to share, so as to not waste anyone's time with a pointless video. Plus, finding new, interesting calculators is proving more and more difficult, as my collection has grown to include almost the full gamut of mechanical calculators, from the Odhner to the proverbial headstone of the era, the Facit CA2-16.
Hopefully you'll enjoy this video, regardless of the wait! 
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It is sad that his kids didn't want their dad's calculator, but at least he knows that you have it now and appreciate it for the amazing machine that it is. I'm sure he's happy that a person who loves the calculator got it in the end.
"The Curta II: The electric bugaloo"
Am I the only one that caught on to the joke? 😂
PS: Glad to see that your finger has healed, and welcome back!
Janay23 I’ve been adding “electric bugaloo“ on the end of sequel items for years. To my wife’s dismay, I can now prove that I’m not the only one in the world who makes that joke or would understand the reference. Thank you.
You're back! It's so good to see you again doing your thing
I love all these old mechanical devices. They’re so fascinatingly complex it always amazes me.
We've been waiting this for a looong time... Thank you.
Sorry about your finger, I'm glad you're alright SpyGuy. It is a joy to see another upload! (:
These old calculators are so complex it's fascinating. The brain power to come up with these devices is crazy; I'm in awe.
You have the greatest unintentional asmr channel of all time
This is truely a remarkable machine. Brilliant in design and a masterpiece of construction. And you, sir, are a joy to listen to. I think I speak for all those who subscribe to your channel when I say what a pleasure it is to hear your words as your share your passion for calculators. The Curta is a gem, and so are you. Bravo!
I am so happy to see another video from you. This literally made my day.
Thanks for sharing. It was especially nice to see the two Curta models side-by-side. I think the overview of your collection would be enjoyable. It's always fascinating to see how collections evolve and the logic (or lack there of) that went into the acquisitions.
So glad to see you again! I love your calculator videos. Sorry about your finger :(
Edit- And what a nice calculator to have as your come-back video! The curtas are SO cool, and you're right about how satisfying the sounds are.
Hey you’re back! Glad you’re fully recovered from your injury
Yay! You're back!!! What a cool machine.
glad to see you’re back!
though it is nice to have as many video’s possible, it’s definitely better to focus on making video’s on subjects you actually find interesting so the hiatus was no problem at all. As long as you enjoy making video’s we will enioy watching them! 😄
Very happy to see a new video of you! Hope the fracture is fully healed again.
Nice job. It was clearly presented and not rushed. Two things I learned that I did not know as that the clearing lever can be used to clear one register at a time rather than two. It was also much clearer than other videos that the switch on the side is a count reversing switch. Many videos are ambiguous about this. Also, in many videos, too much time is taken BSing and not getting to the point. Thank you for posting this, sir.
Welcome back! Truly a wonderful device
man do i miss this guy
love your videos, very interesting and you also have a very soothing voice
Even if you're doing the division right, it's not the way the Curta user guide explains you how to do this operation.
With a Curta, the "official" way to do a division is to begin by putting the divisor on the setting register, shifting the carriage at the highest position, then begin to add until the accumulator excesses your dividend. Then shifting one time and begin to subtract until the accumulator is under your dividend, shift again, and repeat until you catch the required precision, or the carriage has come back to its rest position.
The right result is when you're under but near your dividend.
You can optimize the number of turns by reverting the last operation if you cleverly observe the state of the dividend, as you do in your video, but not on a systematic basis.
With this method, you only input one of the two operands, and you avoid to use the inverter switch. The Curta could actually be used completely without it. You also reduce the numbers of subtraction, thus reducing the stress on the mecanism.
That's entirely sensible. I hadn't considered the machine wear as part of the equation.
That said, I do think the extra work involved in keeping an eye on the dividend offsets the extra addition required to put it in the accumulator to begin with, particularly for larger dividends.
Another downside with the official method is that the remainder is expressed as the difference between the actual input value and the target value, instead of purely a "remainder" value in the accumulator.
Regarding saving "reversal" turns, I believe that's what sets me apart from someone who used this machine for work. =) I'm sure with practice you'd see it without even thinking about it and move to the next register.
Even more next level is seeing the overdraft you'll make and perhaps deciding to "add it away" in the next position, in case the result is in the upper end of the scale.
Good to have you back!
Ooooooooh!! Yay! Been missing these! But we’d prefer you keep your fingers in tact good sir.
Love these videos keep them up!
Yay! A new video and about calculators.
By volume or weight it is not the smallest mechanical calculator.... but it is for sure the most remarkable and better looking one...
Awesome video! The brief explanation of how it works and what it does was spot on.
Really? I always thought the type 1 was the smallest by volume and weight. I know there's a Norwegian and Swiss contender in the tiny mechanical calculator segment.
Which one is the smallest by weight and volume?
@@1stSpyGuy Some with Addiator based mechanisms were really small (www.vintagecalculators.com/html/addiator.html). They were a lot simpler as well, working more like an abacus than like a proper mechanic marvel like Curta.
Aha. I've always mentally filed the addiator-style machines with adding machines like the Comptometer and the Borroughs, since they lack facilities for multiplication and division, rather than full-fledged four function calculators.
It would be nice to get my hands on an addiator at some point, though. They're very clever in their simplicity.
Welcome back, dude!
Please do the entire collection video you proposed. Would love to see the birth, life, and death of an entire line of machinery. Particularly ironic if the last machine is in fact “dead”.
love your videos
I really wanna get one of these.
The SpyGuy returneth! With a rotund boi!
Awesome video, having a Curta would be so cool. The prices are just insane, but its such a cool piece of engineering.
Do you have any recommendation on which cool mechanical-type calculator one would get if you wanted just one and didn't want to spend all your savings on it? I love the sounds and looks of the manual crank machines. I'm leaning towards trying to get an Original Odhner, it looks nice and the prices seem acceptable, what are your thoughts?
You really can't go wrong with an Original Odhner, it's the baseline for mechanical calculators. You could have a look at Tradera and search for "räknemaskin", they have one listed now. Facits are good too.
Another really good option - the Walther WSR-160, there's one on ebay.de right now. It has a few cool features the Odhners lack, as it's a more modern machine.
Look for a listing where the seller claims it works or ask before bidding. From pictures you can never really tell if the machine is blocked or not.
Expect prices around 500 SEK or up, depending on the condition. Anything below 400 is a steal.
Antique shops will overprice their machines, as a general rule. If you luck out with a flea market you can strike some real gold.
@@1stSpyGuy Awesome, thanks!
I'm just amazed by all these mechanical calculators. I feel like this might be a slippery slope towards becoming a collector. I'm probably gonna try to hold out for a listing where they say it works and the pictures are good, I'm not in a huge hurry to do some heavy calculations right now.
You're definitely right that it is a slippery slope. I started out with a Facit TK as a gift and look at me now.
Sitting with mouth open, and I forgot what I came to RUclips for...
I just bought a type 2 CURTA, the last digit of the output register moves indexes with the first digit of the rotation count register digit only when the 1’s multiplier is selected. Have you ever seen this or know the cause of this issue?
Use the pepper grinder to scale a recipe!
Welcome back
do you ever plan to do streaming again?
Hey, late answer: depends heavily on the game. What I found during my Hitman 2 stream was that my laptop is not quite up to snuff to encode a quality stream and run the game at the same time.
Since I don't want to waste people's time with rubbish, I'd need a better rig. If the game was more lightweight, I could certainly see myself streaming again.
How does such a discussion go that you tell your father you don't want his Curta? It's not like it takes up a lot of space. I have a Type II and it's a treasure and my son has quite an interest in it...I think if I offered that he could have it he'd jump at the opportunity. That said he's 12 years old so I think we'll be holding off...
Usually football players who break their phalanges usually never heal correctly. Some remain crooked.
I cannot see any sign of breakage. Whatever physician aided your finger, well, they're just great and I'm glad you're finger is doing better.
Yeah, I was really lucky to get to a fantastic clinic fast. I've been pretty determined to keep up the recovery exercises, too.
Hello 1stSpyGuy!
I am wondering, how much did you pay as a bid for the Curta II?
Thanks!
Hello! I recall paying around £1000 for it, plus shipping.
Yes
Dirty harry's favorite number is probably 44
Lort Harry gillade .44magnum, dvs .427" inte .357
Anybody watch this dude for asmr? I sure do
What happened to your ring?
Very perceptive. =)
Nothing overtly bad, thankfully. When I broke my finger, the one next to it was also slightly injured (plus it went into the cast) so it's been too swollen for a long time for me to wear the ring safely.
The last thing I want to do is have to cut the ring because I tried putting it back on too early.
@@1stSpyGuy glad everything is alright! I'm sorry I asked such a potentially painful question, I honestly didn't think of it's implications when I wrote it. I'm just glad you and your family is well!
I dont mean to be that guy but dirty harry used a .44 magnum S&W Model 29 revolver actually... he didnt use a .357... but I understand the confusion
Reading your comment was a d'oh moment for me. Of course it was a .44, that was his whole deal.
One day I hope to fire one of those beasts.
@@1stSpyGuy the biggest I have fired so far was the .357 magnum and SIG ammunition... but that was for pistols I've fired 308 rounds and those are nice... but yea man If you think the 44 is nice you should try shooting the .50 AE desert eagle
I have both of these in mint condition
Very nice. =)
@@1stSpyGuy not so long ago i let me nephew take one to school because his teacher said he needed a calculator. Later that day i was called to his school to explain why i has sent him so school with a pepper grinder which he was saying was a calculator. I arrived and laughed and said it is indeed a calculator and the teacher was amazed because she had never seen one
@@richcampoverde I love that story. It's so much fun to show these things to people who have never seen anything like it!
That said, you have a lot more faith in your nephew than I would ever put in mine!
@@1stSpyGuy many thanks for your kind words☺
He is old enough to understand its value and i might add he runs rings around me with the more complex calculations i knew it was in safe hands
You have really long fingers.
✌
Can u give me one