Greetings:

While not a slide rule, it looks like a sighting of
another non-electronic calculator. Anybody know if
this is something real?

This is from William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition"
(Putnam's, 2003, ISBN 0-399-14986-4), page 28-29...

====================================================

"Miss?" The one in the shorts.

"Hello?" The grey-faced man, sharply, impatient.

She tells herself to run, but can't.

"Yes?"

"The Curtas." The blond one, stepping closer.

"It isn't her, you idiot. She's not bloody coming."
The gray one again, with mountin irritation.

The blond one blinks. "You haven't come about the
Curtas?"

"The what?"

"The calculators."

She can't resist, then, and steps closer to the car,
to see. "What are they?"

"Calculators." The tight plastic of the black man's
jacket creaking as he bends to pick up one of the
grenades. Turning to hand it to her. And then she is
holding it: heavy, ense, knurled for gripping. Tabs or
flantes that look as though meant to move in these
slots. Small round windows showing white numbers. At
the top something that looks like the crank on a
pepper mill, as executed by a small-arms manufacturer.

"I don't understant," she says, and imagines she'll
wake, just then, in Damien's bed, because it's gone
that dreamlike now. Automatically seeking a trademark,
she turns the thing over. And sees that it is made in
Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein?

"What is it?"

"It is a precision instrument," the black man says,
"performing calculations mechanically, employing
neither electricity nor electronic components. The
sensation of its operation is best likened to that of
winding a fine thirty-five-millimeter camera. It is
the smallest mechanical calculating machine ever
constructed." Voice deep and mellifluous. "It is the
invention of Curt Herzstark, an Austrian, who
developed it while a prisoner in Buchenwald. The camp
authorities actually encouraged his work, you see.
'Intelligence slave,' his title there. They wished his
calculator to be given to the Fuhrer, at the end of
the war. But Buchenwald was liberated in 1945 by the
Americans. Herzstark had survived." He gently take the
thin from her. Enormous hands. "He had his drawings."
Large fingers moving surely, gently, clicking the
black tabs into a different configuration. He grasps
the knurled cylinder in his left, gives the handle at
the top a twirl. Smoothly ratcheting a sum from its
interior. He raises it to see the resulting figure in
a tiny window. "Eight hundred pounds. Excellent
condition." Dropping an eyelid partially, to wait for
her response."

"It's beautiful," his offer finally giving her a
context for this baffling exchange: These men are
dealers, come here to do business in these things.
"But I wouldn't know what to do with it."

===================================================



=====
Fred Kiesche (FPK3)

"As for that downloading stuff, I think those guys who seriously consider that stuff are crazier than a sackful of rats."
--William Gibson

The world's slowest web log!!!! See: <http://ars.userfriendly.org/users/diary.cgi?id=FredKiesche>

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