Quote:
Originally Posted by razark
I find old computational methods quite interesting. (...) Mechanical parts combined into a method of solving mathematical problems that most of us couldn't even begin to solve, and doing it in a continuous calculation to keep the firing solution up to date.
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Should anyone find this interesting, manual calculators (for the basic operations) exist since the 17th century!!! I am always humbled by the genius it took the inventors to develop machines that do math with nothing but dials and dented gears.
Gottfried Leibniz invented the Stepped Reckoner in 1694...
... also was the ARITHOMETER (1820)...
... and the most amazing, the CURTA, invented in 1948 by Curt Herzstark...
.... which is also portable.