I acquired a nonfunctional Diehl VSR a while back, naïvely thinking I could bring it back to life.
Oh my goodness, I took the cover off and what I saw was jaw-dropping. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of the most densely packed metal levers and cams and gears one could ever imagine. Nearly all of which would have needed cleaning and lubrication. Getting this thing fully working could have taken a year or more, especially with no repair manuals, and all available information in German.
The respect I have for the designers of these machines, and the servicepeople who repaired them, is immeasurable.
They are also electrical death traps. Lots of exposed switch contacts carrying mains voltage.
If you're ever in Germany and are interested in that stuff, pay a visit to the Arithmeum in Bonn. It's a museum dedicated to the evolution of calculating machines from simple mechanics to current-day computers and they have a vast collection of those machines on display.
While we're talking about German museums, the Deutsches Museum in Munich [0] is ... astounding. They have Konrad Zuse's Z4 electromechanical computer [1] as well as a million other interesting things. Well worth a visit, but allow yourself plenty of time. Like a few days.
For folks who like a bit more detail, this site is a trove of old calculator pics and also a holdover from the old web: http://www.vintagecalculators.com/
I acquired a nonfunctional Diehl VSR a while back, naïvely thinking I could bring it back to life.
Oh my goodness, I took the cover off and what I saw was jaw-dropping. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of the most densely packed metal levers and cams and gears one could ever imagine. Nearly all of which would have needed cleaning and lubrication. Getting this thing fully working could have taken a year or more, especially with no repair manuals, and all available information in German.
The respect I have for the designers of these machines, and the servicepeople who repaired them, is immeasurable.
They are also electrical death traps. Lots of exposed switch contacts carrying mains voltage.
If you're ever in Germany and are interested in that stuff, pay a visit to the Arithmeum in Bonn. It's a museum dedicated to the evolution of calculating machines from simple mechanics to current-day computers and they have a vast collection of those machines on display.
https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/
https://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/en/collection/calculating-...
While we're talking about German museums, the Deutsches Museum in Munich [0] is ... astounding. They have Konrad Zuse's Z4 electromechanical computer [1] as well as a million other interesting things. Well worth a visit, but allow yourself plenty of time. Like a few days.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Museum
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z4_(computer)
For folks who like a bit more detail, this site is a trove of old calculator pics and also a holdover from the old web: http://www.vintagecalculators.com/
No Curta? This is the one I actually own.
It was not electro-mechanical and not from the 60s.
Chris Staecker’s YouTube channel is worth checking out if you’re interested in computing devices.
https://youtu.be/GIHKsRjg4R0
Most of what he covers is not electro-mechanical but still interesting and entertaining.
And the website itself is now also vintage: It was made twenty years ago.