The Curious History of the First Pocket Calculator

Stoll, Cliff

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0104-92

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The story of Curt Herzstark, inventor of the first pocket calculator, represents an extreme example of the unpredictability of the Nazi's strictly controlled science (see Stoll 2004). Thanks to his informational advantages, Curt Herzstark did not want to exert maximum effort to develop a tool that could be nationalized by the Nazi regime—and without a significant chance of obtaining a proper reward, especially because he was Jewish.…”

Section: The Credible Commitment Game Between Government and Scientistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Political Regimes, Bureaucracy, and Scientific Productivity

Lapuente

Fernández-Carro

2008

Politics & Policy

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Can a scientist trust that the government is going to pay him or her fairly? In the science–government relationship, an incumbent may be better off if he or she does not provide—or does not provide a fair pay to public scientists. We propose a simple game‐theoretic model for understanding the trust problem in the relationship between governments and scientists. The model shows how with reliable governments (democracies), bureaucratic contracts (e.g., secure tenure) are not optimal since they have low‐powered incentives (in contrast to the high‐powered private‐sector type of contracts) and run against scientists' responsiveness to government demands. However, with nonreliable governments (dictatorships), bureaucratic contracts are second‐best solutions because they protect scientists against the possibility of governments' misbehavior (i.e., ex post opportunistic defections, such as canceling research programs overnight). An empirical analysis confirms the predictions: bureaucratic contracts enhance scientific productivity with nonreliable governments (dictatorships) but hamper scientific productivity with reliable governments (democracies).

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Section: The Credible Commitment Game Between Government and Scientistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If it really functions, we will give it to the Führer as a present after we win the war. Then, surely, you will be made an Aryan” (Stoll 2004, 86). Herzstark was conscious that “if I can make this calculator, I can extend my life.…”

Section: The Credible Commitment Game Between Government and Scientistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Regimes, Bureaucracy, and Scientific Productivity

Lapuente

Fernández-Carro

2008

Politics & Policy

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“…Since their humble beginnings [1] pocket calculators have become ubiquitous accessories of everyday live. As mass products, they tend to be cheap and it is not usually considered sensible to build or to develop a calculator for a specifi c application.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Measuring Medical Pocket Calculator

Kompis

2008

Medical Equipment Insights

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A measuring medical pocket calculator is presented. The hardware is built around a BASIC-Stamp microcontroller and includes a keyboard, a liquid crystal display, a dual analogue-to-digital converter, digital outputs and a serial port for data exchange with a personal computer. The software is based on a generic programmable calculator and can be adapted to suit specifi c applications. As an example, a dedicated audiologic calculator is presented. It features one-key conversions between different measures of acoustic levels, a hearing aid battery tester, automated calculation of percent hearing loss, and frequency specifi c, age-corrected comparisons (percentiles) to hearing thresholds of the general population.

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The Curious History of the First Pocket Calculator

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Political Regimes, Bureaucracy, and Scientific Productivity

Political Regimes, Bureaucracy, and Scientific Productivity

A Measuring Medical Pocket Calculator

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