The 3D-Printed Curta Calculator

hey everybody its Adam from tested and we have a really cool unboxing today it is in this box and oh it makes me so excited but before I crack this show you what's inside I'm gonna do a little bit of history see humans have always been interested in numbers and quantifying their surroundings it's one of the ways in which we further understand the universe and we have invented some very clever methods for doing it in the beginning of course humans use things like an abacus abacus abacus abacus and abacus this they use things like this to do some fairly sophisticated calculations later on of course we move to things like the slide rule this very make and model is similar to what the scientist for the Apollo program used to get us to the moon and of course we're all familiar with digital calculators but this this is a special digital calculator because it was the first mass-market produced hand-held digital calculator and what Texas Instruments did with this was not only bring about a sea change in computation for the masses but they also killed they killed dead what may have been the most advanced mechanical calculator have her release to the public and that's where this story begins this is one of my favorite devices in all of the world and it's called a kurta computer invented by Kurt her stuck while imprisoned in a concentration camp in World War two I'm serious he came up with the idea for this calculator in the concentration camp and when the war ended he went and built a few hundred thousand of these over several decades this is a type one kurta computer it is a completely mechanical you set according to this register the numbers that you want to add subtract multiply and divide and then you turn this little crank the crank was the reason it was affectionately known as the coffee grinder calculator and the results come up here on top now this is a type 1 and this is a type 2 I am proud to own a pair of these in my collection because mechanically they're masterpieces there's over sick hundred pieces in this little baby and that's where the unboxing happens see what's in here is a very special kurta computer about a year and a half ago or so I became aware that there was this guy online named Marcus woo who had endeavored to make his own kurta on a 3d printer because the resolution of a 3d printer is fairly low he was making it large-scale a giant oversized kurta computer I think it's 3 X sized and I asked if I could purchase one from him and we worked out a deal and in this box right here is a three times normal sized 3d printed kurta computer from Marcus well you don't have to imagine because we're gonna open it right now what did he do oh my god there's a box Marcus is clearly an obsessive and amazing crafts person for even endeavoring to make a kurta computer but lo he has look at this I don't even know which way to oh I guess this is how right okay he's made an absolutely gorgeous doweled wooden box with a label here that says kurta and the original logo of the kurta computer I'm feeling a little emotional right about now okay here we go nice brass hardware now we actually have footage of Marcus assembling building this kurta computer for me and that will be part of this video because it's an insane endeavor to put one of these together there are so many tiny little parts even at 3x scale I'm certain there are some parts of surpassing tiny nough sand precision required without further ado let us see what Marcus hath oh my gosh look at this oh man Marcus you are a madman look at the finish on this thing holy I'm having trouble not using expletives I'm so excited maybe you just blur my mouth for a second holy ha there we go you know roughly what I said look at this thing it is he's replicated a three time sorry I was just about to tell you some facts about it but then I looked at the bottom and so on the bottom of a kurta computer this is what it says made in Lichtenstein etc etc etc and the serial number etc here's what Marcos has put on the bottom of his so full disclosure Marcus came out while I was out on tour this spring and we spent an evening going over one of the rough interim builds of this and I saw it and it was magnificent then but it doesn't even hold a candle to what this is the finish is just as beautiful as it looks upon the first glance here it's so pretty oh my god ok so I want to run it through some paces here let's see first there's right there's that that's the zeroing knob the registers set just like on a normal computer that is a long helical gear look okay so if we take let's say 55 550 and we turn the dial once it functions just like the real thing the number 55 comes up here Wow and then if I want to erase that watch this ready you can take a look at all these isn't that crazy I'm so terrified of breaking any part of this by moving it but it's so beautiful you know how much I love objects this is a truly magnificent object and Marcus I applaud your insanity your dedication your perseverance and your actual building and finishing techniques this is truly magnificent and I am so honored to add it to my collection thank you you

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 1,956,038

Keywords: tested, testedcom, adam savage, cave, makers, curta, curta computer, curta calculator, 3d printing, model, replica, build, 3d printed, mechanical calculator, 3d print, 3d printer, mechanical computer, 3d printed curta calculator, adam savage one day build, tested curta, 3d printed curta, adam savage tested, 3d prints, adam savage curta, 3d printing nerd, mechanical calculator asmr, mechanical calculator curta, mechanical calculator multiplication

Id: j9uRckJLqLk

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2017