Posted on 08/14/2004 3:01:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Antikythera mechanism was an arrangement of calibrated differential gears inscribed and configured to produce solar and lunar positions in synchronization with the calendar year. By rotating a shaft protruding from its now-disintegrated wooden case, its owner could read on its front and back dials the progressions of the lunar and synodic months over four-year cycles. He could predict the movement of heavenly bodies regardless of his local government's erratic calendar. From the accumulated inscriptions and the position of the gears and year-ring, Price deduced that the device was linked closely to Geminus of Rhodes, and had been built on that island off the southern coast of Asia Minor circa 87 B.C. Besides the inscriptions' near-identity to Geminus's surviving book, the presence of distinctive Rhodian amphorae among other items from the wreck supported Price's deduction and date once Virginia Grace had re-examined the pottery recovered in 1901.
(Excerpt) Read more at ccat.sas.upenn.edu ...
One is tempted to think that the Antikythera device is the very one seen by Cicero.Did the Ancient Greeks Make a Computer?[O]ne retired professor insisted that the device had to be a modern orrery -- of the kind he had seen as a child used to demonstrate the Copernican system -- which had somehow intruded on the wreck... Price persuaded the Greek authorities to let his collaborator, Dr. Karakalos, take gammalographs and x-radiographs of the fragments. These revealed so much detail, so clearly, that after analyzing them the two men could confidently relate the gear ratios to known astronomical and calendrical data... There is no mention of the Anrikythera device in ancient literature. But a similar mechanism was described by Cicero, and later by Ovid and others: this was an ingenious planetarium, simulating the movements of the sun, the moon, and five planets, that had been devised in the third century B.C. by Archimedes. Cicero, incidentally, was on Rhodes between 79 and 77 B.C., just when the Anrikythera mechanism was presumably lost at sea; while there he saw a geared planetarium that may have been built by Posidonios, a renowned geographer (among other things) who lectured in Rhodes. The Anrikythera device derives, then, from Archimedes, either by a gradual, unrecorded evolution or by the massive innovation of some unknown genius, perhaps of the school of Posidonios. If only for his use of the differential gear, "one of the greatest basic mechanical inventions of all time," its maker should, says Price, "be accorded the highest honors."
by Ormonde deKay Jr
and Richard Cravens
"Mysteries of the Past", p 156
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The Antikythera mechanismMichael Wright, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, has based his new analysis on detailed X-rays of the mechanism using a technique called linear tomography. This involves moving an X-ray source, the film and the object being investigated relative to one another, so that only features in a particular plane come into focus. Analysis of the resulting images, carried out in conjunction with Allan Bromley, a computer scientist at Sydney University, found the exact position of each gear, and suggested that Price was wrong in several respects... It also provides strong support for Price's theory. He believed that the mechanism was strongly suggestive of an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology which, transmitted via the Arab world, formed the basis of European clockmaking techniques. This fits with another, smaller device that was acquired in 1983 by the Science Museum, which models the motions of the sun and moon. Dating from the sixth century AD, it provides a previously missing link between the Antikythera mechanism and later Islamic calendar computers, such as the 13th century example at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. That device, in turn, uses techniques described in a manuscript written by al-Biruni, an Arab astronomer, around 1000AD.
The Economist
Sep 19th 2002
Coolbeans.
Pictures of a Mechanism
by Bill Casselman
Some of the most significant progress on chronometers was done by a single researcher, working alone in England. And Charles Babbage's "difference engine" dates back about two hundred years.
The mechanisms of both devices could have been produced anytime during the last four thousand years, indeed, over and over again -- and then, of course, lost again.
Careful measurement, and artful craftsmanship, which has been available since before the historical record began, is all that is required. And perhaps a gullible and tolerant patron...
Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer?
An Article | 1977 | Lionel Casson
Posted on 11/01/2003 9:21:03 AM PST by Holly_P
Rats.
Although not nearly as noteworthy for it's scientific ground breaking, for sheer beauty one should check out Giovanni deDondi's astronomical clock. I have a book which relates the historical development of clocks and it devotes a large section to someone who built a replica of this, based upon the original drawings and specifications. I don't remember if this is the one which is in the Smithsonian Institution or not, but I sure would like to see it in person.
Very interesting.
Regarding post #6, a little googling...
"John Harrison (March 1693 - March 24, 1776) was an English clock designer, who developed and built the world's first successful maritime clock, one whose accuracy was great enough to allow the determination of longitude over long distances."
Cool.
And a little more... (Regarding Charles Babbage)
"In 1821 Babbage invented an Engine to manufacture error-free mathematical tables, Difference Engine No.1, the world's first programmable automatic digital calculating machine, in which the only human intervention was the setting of the machine at the start of the production of a table and the turning of its handle."
"It was a machine embodying the mathematical principles of the Method of Differences using only mechanisms for addition repeated many times over."
It must be admitted, rather reluctantly, that this machine, and its later versions, never quite got into production in a way that made a significant impact on society -- but the mechanical design was correct in its application, and would have made an enormous "difference" in our histories had it been completed.
It was, literally, the first computer -- nearly two hundred years ago!!
Saw this on TV several weeks ago...fascinating. We only think we are smarter than man 2000 years ago because of our machines. Maybe something like this will force us to give up such silly notions.
In terms of IQ, we are identical to the first modern humans. I have no doubt we will find remarkable human achievements that were lost due to ice ages, pandemics, and other catastrophies.
I also believe that "mainstream" science down't think this way is that it is uncomfortable to contemplate a total collapse of our civilization, as others collapsed before us.
There is too much corroborating evidence to the contrary and an early date
Calculating longitude is one of the most difficult things to do in maritime navigation. Today we use accurate clocks and sun-sightings to know our position, when we don't want to just read it off an electronic device.
I have to wonder just how accurately one could know the longitude from the positions of major planets and star-sightings, which actually give more information than daytime sun and moon sightings. If the machine worked as I think it worked, day- and night-time readings would be set on the machine, and the output would be a navigational position in both longitude and latitude.
With the appropriate map-discs set up to display, it would be like our current dashboard location devices. The only thing hampering navigation then would be fog and rain, and lack of wind. Hence the newly realized importance of the lighthouse at Rhodes.
Need I also point out that such a device could easily show one's position anywhere on a globe, and thus one could theoretically circumnavigate Antarctica, and map its perimeter? (See the controversy regarding the Piri Reis(Sp?) Map.)
Or, in an appropriate vessel, sail to the new world?
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