A closer look
The Curta Type I mechanical calculator looks like a tiny, metallic pepper grinder, but twisting its crank actually performs complex mathematical wizardry. What is utterly insane is its origin story: Curt Herzstark, an Austrian engineer, finalized the intricate blueprints for this pocket-sized marvel while imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The SS allowed him to work on it as a potential gift to Hitler. Herzstark survived the camp, retrieved his blueprints, and unleashed the world's most impressive mechanical handheld calculator, dominating the engineering world until digital devices rudely murdered it in the 1970s.
