flâneur

How the sounds of a calculator ended up on Sublime's website

sublimeinternet.substack.com · 934 words · saved by 1 readers

The sounds that the calculator makes – crisp, decisive, mechanical sounds – we recorded them and used them as clicks on our website. You can hear them below: What’s all this have to do with Sublime? Nothing. And also everything. It’s hard to say when the story starts. But let’s say it begins here, with an Austrian engineer named Curt Herzstark. Calculators at this point are huge, like the size of a cash register huge. All anyone wants is a pocket-sized tiny calculator, but no one knows how to make one. Less than 100 years ago and no one in the entire world has a calculator that fits into their pocket. So Curt decides that rather than looking forward in time for a solution, he’ll imagine himself into a future where the calculator’s already invented, and he’ll look backwards: I thought to myself, I'll pretend that I have already invented everything. What does this kind of machine really have to look like, so that someone could use it? By 1938 he has a patent. Then WWII begins. Curt is se

This mechanical calculator was supposed to be a gift for Hitler. And that’s the least interesting thing about it. The sounds that the calculator makes – crisp, decisive, mechanical sounds – we recorded them and used them as clicks on our website. You can hear them below: 0:00 -0:00 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 0:00 -0:00 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 0:00 -0:02 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. What’s all this have to do with Sublime? Nothing. And also everything. It’s hard to…

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