The Antikythera Mechanism - 2D [non-embedded]
Posted on 01/11/2015 1:41:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv
"The amazing thing is the mechanical engineering aspect," says James Evans, a physicist and science historian at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. He is part of an international group working to crack the puzzle of the device's origins and purpose. Evans recently added a new twist with an analysis that suggests it dates to 205 B.C. -- as much as a century earlier than previously believed.
If he's right, it is more likely that the Antikythera Mechanism was inspired by the work of the legendary Greek mathematician Archimedes. It would also mean the device was built at time when scientific traditions from multiple cultures were coming together to create a new view of the cosmos...
Greek sponge divers stumbled across the wreck of the Roman galley in 1900, after being blown off course and taking shelter in the lee of the tiny island north of Crete. During underwater excavations the next year, they hauled up one of the richest bounties of Greek artifacts ever uncovered -- but one diver died and two others were crippled from working at depths of up to 200 feet.
French explorer Jacques Cousteau visited the site in the 1950s and 1970s, using an underwater vacuum to suck up sediment and reveal buried objects.
Scientists think the ship was a merchant vessel that foundered around 60 B.C.
Archaeologists eventually identified more than 80 corroded fragments believed to be part of the Antikythera Mechanism, including the shoebox-size piece with dials and gears clearly visible on the surface.
The real breakthrough in understanding came in 2005, when a team of scientists used X-ray tomography to peer through the encrusted metal and reveal the layers of gears inside. Digital techniques yielded the first sharp images of the inscriptions on the dials and casings.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
ping
Not lost. They're still here...IQ levels haven't changed appreciably in 10k years.
If not for the space-program, we may still be trying to figure out how to build a memory chip.
The space program bought the early 'very expensive' chips that kept the effort alive and spawned the chip-making industry we know today.
It would have eventually come...just later.
(BTW, I was already making chips when Intel started-up in 1968)
The Antikythera Mechanism - 2D [non-embedded]
It isn’t. The scale of that is tiny, and close-in, and there’s remnants of the medium used to lube the drill, as well as tailings.
The alternative is, other than pareidolia and the stufff sent from Earth, the only traces of intelligent activity on the nearly airless Mars are some tiny little tooling marks that just by coincidence match those left by the Earthlings’ rovers.
Okay, that is really remarkable.
The problem with that is, the Greeks were known for building gizmos and doodads of all kinds, as well as fine work found all over Europe from that time, and into Roman times (some of Julius Caesar’s opponents among the Gauls and Germans even used Greek-style phalanx tactics and weapons). Whatever skills were in Babylon seem to have been Greeks (because they were well-distributed across the Persian Empire even in Alexander’s time) or Jews (renowned for working with silver and gold).
I’m sure I reposted that later, but can’t seem to turn it up. Found yours later [blush].
It worked well enough to collect a paycheck, and be long gone after enough years passed to show the error. So, kudos to that ancient engineer! :’)
Travel in the Ancient WorldA gifted faker name Alexander founded an oracle in a backwater on the south shore of the Black Sea. Here, for stiff prices, a talking serpent he had rigged up answered questions for the local hayseeds... (p 135)
by Lionel Casson
Antikythera mechanism working model
No, the Tardis. ;’)
Graphic no load.
One of the things that people miss is the inability of people to pass information over a wide range before the printing press.
You could have invented Quantum Mechanics in Ur and no one outside of a small group in a small area would have ever known.
and to think all of this and a wheelbarrow wheel as well....
http://www.eeggs.com/images/items/3328.full.jpg
It showed up then since disappeared leaving an outline of itself. I’m telling you it’s aliens.
Excellent point.
I've read that the reason the American Indians know/knew so little of their history was that all the knowledge was kept and passed-down by the memory of the elders. The European diseases preceeded the advancement of western civilization by decades and these diseases usually killed the oldest and youngest first.
When the westerners arrived asking who built such and such...no-one knew. The elders had all died and the knowledge was lost.
Is that the main valve that turns on/off the water for the canals?
In the absence of C-clips, D-rings, and countersunk Phillips head machine screws, what held this thing together?
In the absence of modern machine tools, those have to be hand cut gears; or the wax blanks were, if they were cast. That many (~120-150 on that main one in the photo) fine teeth, on so many small gears, which have to mesh precisely, all made by hand, seems an incredible feat. IF it’s 128, then multiple bisections could be used to lay it out; otherwise how was it laid out? Brown & Sharpe weren’t born yet.
So, considering its complexity, relative accuracy, etc., it should be obvious that this was far from a first attempt.
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