Posted on 07/28/2013 4:57:18 PM PDT by Renfield
Elizabethan craftsmen developed advanced manufacturing technology that could match that of the 21st century, claim researchers from Birmingham City University who are analysing a 400-year-old hoard of jewellery.
The team from Birmingham City University have analysed the craftwork behind the famous Cheapside Hoard - the world's largest collection of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery discovered in a London cellar in 1912.
Among the historic find – which is being showcased by the Museum of London – is a Ferlite watch that dates back to the 1600s and is so technologically advanced it has been described as the "iPod of its day"....
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Ping
Except, unlike the ipod, it is beautiful as well as functional.
We have lost so much.
Just wondering if the author at phys.org might be native Chinese or something other than American english? Other than that, very interesting.
At present our youth find it amazing that people did anything without electricity or computers. Then one day when the juice goes out, they will be screwed.
Looks like the Antikythera mechanism.
In my opinion, an iPod is much more beautiful than a mass of needless decoration pointlessly plastered on the face of a supposedly functional device where such mindless decoration adds nothing but visual clutter.
In my opinion.
Gild brass verge watch, signed G. Ferlite. This watch has calendar indications, hour striking and an alarm. The gilded-brass case has an integral back and hinged lid. The band is pierced and engraved with a scrolling foliate design. Around the pendant is a radiating pattern similar to a sun-burst. In the middle of the back is an engraved flower, possibly a seeded rose. The pendant is badly corroded and the ring is missing. The case has suffered severe damage and in many areas the gilding has been worn off to reveal the underlying brass. At the top is a chapter ring with Roman hour numerals. Part of the Cheapside hoard.
“In my opinion, an iPod is much more beautiful than a mass of needless decoration pointlessly plastered on the face of a supposedly functional device where such mindless decoration adds nothing but visual clutter.
In my opinion.”
Luckily yours is not the only opinion, lol. You must be a form follows function type. I myself, being rather curvilinear in shape and thought, love the watch and believe it beautiful.
It shows craftsmanship. It doesn’t show why silly decorations are added to a watch. They add nothing.
Never DID understand the day/night feature ... stick your stupid head out the window !
Fascinating!
That works fine until you travel longitudinally and want to know what time it is ‘back home.’
“It shows craftsmanship. It doesn’t show why silly decorations are added to a watch. They add nothing.”
You sir, have no taste, no offense, but you are like a lot of men of a certain sort.
And unlike the ipod it was so expensive that only one person in the world had one.
and there are so many of them
Then you wouldn't like the Sistine Chapel ceiling on which Michelangelo crammed his art to every square inch of the plain plaster.....i.e., hundreds of male and female figures, flora and fauna of many kinds, geometric designs, angels, pillars, cherubs and crowd scenes, just to name a few of the products of his inspired brain.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's true, but I find the decorations adorning the ancient watch pictured above to be not silly at all.....but as beautiful and inspired in its own way as is the magnificent art in St. Peter's.
Leni
I have no taste? You sir are the sort that would buy furniture with carved scallop shells adorning the hardwood and call it art.
Yeah, the scribblings on that watch are indistinguishable from Michelangelo.
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