hey everybody its Adam from tested and
we have a really cool unboxing today it
is in this box and oh it makes me so
excited but before I crack this show you
what's inside I'm gonna do a little bit
of history see humans have always been
interested in numbers and quantifying
their surroundings it's one of the ways
in which we further understand the
universe and we have invented some very
clever methods for doing it in the
beginning of course humans use things
like an abacus abacus abacus abacus and
abacus this they use things like this to
do some fairly sophisticated
calculations later on of course we move
to things like the slide rule this very
make and model is similar to what the
scientist for the Apollo program used to
get us to the moon and of course we're
all familiar with digital calculators
but this this is a special digital
calculator because it was the first
mass-market produced hand-held
digital calculator and what Texas
Instruments did with this was not only
bring about a sea change in computation
for the masses but they also killed
they killed dead what may have been the
most advanced mechanical calculator have
her release to the public and that's
where this story begins this is one of
my favorite devices in all of the world
and it's called a kurta computer
invented by Kurt her stuck while
imprisoned in a concentration camp
in World War two I'm serious he came up
with the idea for this calculator in the
concentration camp and when the war
ended he went and built a few hundred
thousand of these over several decades
this is a type one kurta computer it is
a completely mechanical you set
according to this register the numbers
that you want to add subtract multiply
and divide and then you turn this little
crank the crank was the reason it was
affectionately known as the coffee
grinder calculator and the results come
up here on top now this is a type 1 and
this is a type 2 I am proud to own a
pair of these in my collection because
mechanically they're masterpieces
there's over sick
hundred pieces in this little baby and
that's where the unboxing happens see
what's in here is a very special kurta
computer about a year and a half ago or
so I became aware that there was this
guy online named Marcus woo who had
endeavored to make his own kurta on a 3d
printer because the resolution of a 3d
printer is fairly low he was making it
large-scale a giant oversized kurta
computer I think it's 3 X sized and I
asked if I could purchase one from him
and we worked out a deal and in this box
right here is a three times normal sized
3d printed kurta computer from Marcus
well you don't have to imagine because
we're gonna open it right now what did
he do oh my god there's a box
Marcus is clearly an obsessive and
amazing crafts person for even
endeavoring to make a kurta computer but
lo he has look at this I don't even know
which way to oh I guess this is how
right
okay he's made an absolutely gorgeous
doweled wooden box with a label here
that says kurta and the original logo of
the kurta computer I'm feeling a little
emotional right about now okay here we
go
nice brass hardware
now we actually have footage of Marcus
assembling building this kurta computer
for me and that will be part of this
video because it's an insane endeavor to
put one of these together there are so
many tiny little parts even at 3x scale
I'm certain there are some parts of
surpassing tiny nough sand precision
required without further ado let us see
what Marcus hath oh my gosh look at this
oh man Marcus you are a madman look at
the finish on this thing holy I'm having
trouble not using expletives I'm so
excited
maybe you just blur my mouth for a
second holy
ha there we go you know roughly what I
said look at this thing it is
he's replicated a three time sorry I was
just about to tell you some facts about
it but then I looked at the bottom and
so on the bottom of a kurta computer
this is what it says made in
Lichtenstein etc etc etc and the serial
number etc here's what Marcos has put on
the bottom of his so full disclosure
Marcus came out while I was out on tour
this spring and we spent an evening
going over one of the rough interim
builds of this and I saw it and it was
magnificent then but it doesn't even
hold a candle to what this is the finish
is just as beautiful as it looks upon
the first glance here it's so pretty
oh my god ok so I want to run it through
some paces here let's see first there's
right there's that that's the zeroing
knob the registers set just like on a
normal computer that is a long helical
gear look okay so if we take let's say
55 550 and we turn the dial once it
functions just like the real thing the
number 55 comes up here Wow and then if
I want to erase that watch this ready
you can take a look at all these
isn't that crazy I'm so terrified of
breaking any part of this by moving it
but it's so beautiful you know how much
I love objects this is a truly
magnificent object and Marcus I applaud
your insanity your dedication your
perseverance and your actual building
and finishing techniques this is truly
magnificent and I am so honored to add
it to my collection thank you
you
