Curta Calculators ~ Vintage Mechanical Calculators for Sale on eBay ~ Value Worth

This 1969 Curta Calculator magainze print advertisement reads:

Miniature
All Purpose Calculator
(Curta Calculator picture)
Weighs only 8 oz.

THE CURTA IS A PRECISION CALCULATING MACHINE FOR ALL ARITHMETICAL OPERATIONS

Curta adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, square and cube roots, continuous multiplication, negative multiplication, standard deviations and all statistical calculations, squares and higher powers, co-ordinates and associated land survey formulae, and every other computation arising in science and commerce....Available on a trial basis.
Price $125.00. Write for literature.

Curta Company
Dept. SA-9 P.O. Box 3414
Van Nuys, California

Curta Mechanical Calculator photo by Jeff Keyzer

The placard behind this museum displayed
Curta Calculator reads:

Curta
The Curta mechanical calculator provided more accurate results than a slide rule. Numbers were entered in the "coffee grinder" by moving the small knobs on the side, the crank was turned, and the result was displayed in the silver area on top.

Curta Calculator History photo by Marshall Astor

Another museum placard reads:
Curta Calculator, 1948-1970, Mauren Contina Ltd., Liechtenstein

Austrian Curt Herzstark designed a calculator while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during WW II. Soon after the war, Herzstark established a factory in Liechtenstein that manufactured the calculators from 1948 until the early 1970s. The devide, a very small and highly sophisticated calculating machine, was based on Leibniz's stepped drum concept. The small Model I had eleven digits of accuracy, while the Model II had fifteen. Herzstark called his invention "Curta", a name he had wanted to give the daughter he never had.

Curta Calculator photo by Dan Zen

Curta Calculator Type I photo by Food Fetishist
The info reads Curta Calculator - Type I, Liechtenstein, c. 1947-1970

Curta Calculator Type II photo by Food Fetishist
This photo is obviously taken in a museum. The information in front of the calculator reads: "Curta Calculator - Type II, Liechtenstein, c. 1954-1970.

Curta Calculator photo by RobotSkirts

Curta Mechanical Calculator photo by Jon Callas
Curta hand calculator, Deutsches Museum, Munich

More about the Curta Calculator:
~ A interview with Curt Herzstark, inventor of the Curta Calculator (1987)
~ Curta Calculator Serial Numbers and Dates Produced
~ The Curious History of the First Pocket Calculator by Cliff Stoll, Scientific American Magazine, January 2004

Thanks for stopping by this Squidoo lens about the vintage Curta Calculators. I think the history behind the invention of these mechanical calculators is just amazing.

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