[HN Gopher] Electromechanical Calculating Machines from the 1960's
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       Electromechanical Calculating Machines from the 1960's
        
       Author : Teever
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2025-09-24 18:41 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mortati.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mortati.com)
        
       | tdeck wrote:
       | 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/
        
       | xg15 wrote:
       | 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-...
        
         | dreamcompiler wrote:
         | 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)
        
       | cubefox wrote:
       | And the website itself is now also vintage: It was made twenty
       | years ago.
        
       | groos wrote:
       | No Curta? This is the one I actually own.
        
         | PessimalDecimal wrote:
         | It was not electro-mechanical and not from the 60s.
        
       | msarnoff wrote:
       | I acquired a nonfunctional Diehl VSR a while back, naively
       | 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.
        
       | mulmen wrote:
       | Chris Staecker's YouTube channel is worth checking out if you're
       | interested in mechanical computing devices.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/GIHKsRjg4R0
       | 
       | Most of what he covers is not electro-mechanical but still
       | interesting and entertaining.
        
       | NetMageSCW wrote:
       | Strange to see this come up now - when Accounting was cleaning
       | out some office space down the hall a couple of weeks ago, I
       | noticed a Friden electromechanical calculator, sadly without
       | power cord. I didn't think I needed more history stacked in my
       | house, and my boss "gave" it to our new CFO for budget time as a
       | joke. It is similar to the one used in the movie Hidden Figures.
       | Surprised not to see Friden mentioned at some of the other web
       | sites posted.
        
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       (page generated 2025-09-28 23:01 UTC)