At the age of the cellphones that have more computing power than entire universities had just a few decades ago it is easy to forgot that not that long ago we did not even have electronic calculating machines of any kind.
A Brunsviga mechanical calculator.
This particular calculator was actually used at the University of Szeged for scientific calculations (many decades ago, of course).
I have noticed this mechanical calculator sitting in someone’s office at the University of Szeged. Naturally it is a museum piece now, but it seemed to be still in a good working condition. Apparently when it was built it was expected to last a lot longer than an iPhone.
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Last updated: December 23, 2014