Hands-On History

Learn even more!

Herbert Bruderer, “The World’s Smallest Mechanical Parallel Calculator,” In IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2016, doi.org/10.1007/978-....

Learn more!

Calculator history: www.vintagecalculators.com/html/the_poc... 

The CURTA Calculator Page: Vcalc.net. 

Chris Staecker on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChrisStaeck...

The Curta was a handheld mechanical calculator invented by Curt Herzstark while he was imprisoned by the Germans during WWII. It did addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division - no electricity needed! 🧮

Sources

Filipa Lopes et al.“Uranium Glass in Museum Collections.” Journal of Cultural Heritage 9, Supplement (2008): e64 – e68.

Ben Marks. “These People Love to Collect Radioactive Glass.” Collectors Weekly (2014). www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/these-people-love-to-collect-radioactive-glass/

A 2008 study published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage found that uranium class collections are not dangerous for the public or museum staff.

Uranium has been used to colour glass since the Roman Empire, but this iconic green, glowing glass was especially popular around the turn of the 20th century. During the Second World War, production halted in the USA so that uranium could be used for the development of nuclear weapons.