![Mechanical pocket calculator: A Curta Type II, constructed from 1953 onwards.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/curta-titel-300x225.jpg)
Numbers in a can: the ‘Curta’ handheld calculator
‘A sturdy, high-performance assistant for all four types of calculation, right there in your pocket’, promised the sales brochure. The world’s smallest handheld mechanical calculator was made in Liechtenstein.
![Bigger than the ‘Curta’ and designed to perform just one arithmetical operation: the ‘CONTO’ adding calculator, a Swiss product, around 1935.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/additionsrechenmaschine-dig-25168-lm-94246-300x188.jpg)
![Curt Herzstark at the age of 8 using an Austria Model III during the International Office Exhibition in Vienna in 1910.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/curt-herzstark-im-alter-von-8-jahren-264x300.jpg)
![Gate to Buchenwald concentration camp.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kz-buchenwald-tor-300x238.jpg)
![Curta Type II, constructed from 1953 onwards.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/curta-lm-1172151-208x300.jpg)
![Instruction manual for the ‘Curta’.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/211025-curta-manual-300x213.png)
![Disassembly instructions from the service manual for the ‘Curta’.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/211025-curta-servicehandbuch-300x204.png)
Tip: At the ENTER Museum of Computer and Consumer Electronics in Solothurn, along with original ‘Curta’ models you can also explore a wooden model that shows how the calculating machine worked.
How the ‘Curta’ works. YouTube