[Leica] Re; Babbage Engine

[lrzeitlin at aol.com]

 Jim,
	Thanks for your comments on mechanical calculating machines. Those were the good old days that in retrospect were not that good. At various times I owned both Monroe and Marchant mechanical calculators that were reasonably reliable and needed repair only every few months. I did the calculations for a Ph.D thesis on a Facit handcranked machine that, as you said, had to have the carriage shifted manually. In the early 50’s, on a European trip,  I bought a Curta hand held machine, a complex thing of real beauty, that I used on auto rallies. It still functions flawlessly 65 years later. At the same time I picked up a Leica M3 with an f2 Summicron for a bit over $150 at a duty free shop. That still works too.
	But then I had an epiphany, I attended an IBM computer demonstration. The customer rep solicited problems to solve and I gave him the problem set that took three months to complete on the Facet. The IBM 1620 machine did it in 30 seconds. I was hooked.
	Now I even use simpler cameras. Olympus 4/3 models with my old Leica lenses. My kids will probably junk all the old mechanical hardware.


Regards,


Larry Z