Engineering Hardcore PrOn...

[Gaspard de Coligny]

Ok, maybe more 20th century than 19th... but still a masterpiece:

http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm

[Dr. Oliver Cross]

I daresay, is that the bastard offspring of a fishing reel and a difference engine?

[Elijah Rush]

A product of the Space Age?  Hardly!

http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm#special

Still - I wish I had known about this...  It has the best features of Napier's Bones and cylindrical slide rules.

[Torvald_Faust]

Is it some kind of calculator?

[Mr. Consciousflesh]

Yes , it is a mechanical calculator . A very interesting one with even more interesting history behind it .
Recently I acquired something even better : a Buroughs Calculator from early twenties !  It uses a set of planetary gears to display the result instantly when the key is pressed . Here is a webpage describing this device : http://www.rechnerlexikon.de/en/artikel/Burroughs_Calculator_(Klasse_5) . The mechanical drawing  on this page is an engineering prOn in its purest form !  I will post the the pictures of my machine's interior soon .

[Torvald_Faust]

Perhaps I'll look all of it up when I have the time

[HAC]

Its a Curta..  I remember using them during a brief stint with rallying way back when.. (in a Volkswagen beetle, no less). I used to have a spare copy of the manual, I'll have to see if it has survived over the years...

Cheers
Harold

[Lucius Voltaic]

I have heard of these, but they're still awesome! I wish I owned one, but on eBay they're going for over $900, so not for a while. 

Lucius Voltaic

[Lurker]

The old Curta. That takes me back a decade. I used one when I was in the service. It was great for figuring out gun trajectories and calculating travel time to target. I should have kept it, but since I got it for making the 3 1/2 mile shot it was only fair to hand it over to the person who made the shot before I left. I tried looking for one a couple of years ago, but as some of you here have noticed...they're pricey!

I loved the device it was reliable, compact, and you never had to worry about it's batteries going out on you. It also added a touch of class when calculating indirect fire. Great tool and friend to those who use them.

[Mr. Boltneck]

Check out the history of the Curta sometime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta_calculator. Amazing. And anything which makes a guest appearance in a William Gibson novel is worth some extra attention on principle.
And to continue the literary vein, as it were, the Burroughs adding machine company was founded by an ancestor of William S. Burroughs, which explains the recurring references to adding machines in his writing ("...answer is always the same for given coordinates..."). Technology and weird writing go so well together, don't they?