Ever find yourself just needing to know how things work? Before electronic calculators, there were mechanical ones, like the Curta, the only handheld mechanical calculator ever made! I demo’d this at the last Festival of the Spoken Nerd show, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Join us at the Royal Institution, London, on March 2nd for more nerdy demos. Bring your nerdiest friends, they’ll love it. Link to tickets in comments! | Steve Mould

Can you guess what this “pepper grinder” really is? | Antiques Roadshow l PBS

Before the digital age, the Curta calculator reigned as the pinnacle of portable computing. Invented by Curt Herzstark in the 1940s, this cylindrical masterpiece packed astonishing mathematical power into a device small enough to fit in your hand. Known as the “pepper grinder” for its shape and operation, the Curta could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with remarkable accuracy—all through a system of gears, levers, and dials. Beloved by engineers, pilots, and mathemat