Posted on 05/24/2020 6:22:58 PM PDT by bitt
115 years ago, divers found a hunk of bronze off a Greek island. It changed our understanding of human history.
One hundred fifteen years ago, an archeologist was sifting through objects found in the wreck of a 2,000-year-old vessel off the Greek island Antikythera. Among the wreck’s treasures — beautiful vases and pots, jewelry, a bronze statue of an ancient philosopher — was the most peculiar thing: a series of brass gears and dials mounted in a case the size of a mantel clock. Archeologists dubbed the instrument the Antikythera mechanism. The genius — and mystery — of this piece of ancient Greek technology, arguably the world’s first computer, is why Google is highlighting it today in a Google Doodle.
What is the Antikythera mechanism? At first glance, the piece of brass found near the wreck looks like something you might find in a junkyard or hanging on the wall of a maritime-themed dive bar. What remains of the mechanism is a set of rusted brass gears sandwiched into a rotting wooden box.
But if you look into the machine, you see evidence of at least two dozen gears, laid neatly on top of one another, calibrated with the precision of a master-crafted Swiss watch. This was a level of technology that archeologists would usually date to the 16th century, not well before the first.
But a mystery remained: What was this contraption used for?
The world’s first mechanical computer? To archeologists, it was immediately apparent that the mechanism was some sort of clock, calendar, or calculating device. But they had no idea what it was for. For decades, they debated: Was the Antikythera a toy model of the planets? Or perhaps it was an early astrolabe (a device to calculate latitude)?
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Thanks for the ping.
My husband got me onto Fox News when it first came out. My husband was very conservative and told me about BILL O'REILLY. "You gotta hear him." So I did.
I still remember O'Reilly saying that we could ALL "opine." We just had to include your name and town, name and town, name and town, name and town.
Fox News and Bill O'Reilly were the DEATH of the uber liberal written and televised news. God bless him!
I gotta be honest here, that schematic doesn’t look all that complicated. Also once the concept of gears came along, ratios and their usefulness would have popped pretty quickly into more than one mind.
I'd bought it at a yard sale...
Heron’s automata, also made about 2000 years ago, are also astonishing. He constructed a programmable, automated 10-minute-long puppet show, complete with drums and thunder, among other wonders. He seemed to be on the verge of discovering steam engines. But he had no one to pass the baton to, apparently.
http://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=10
This Just In: CNN says Ancient Greek Computer predicts Biden win in November!
Made me grin,
Wasn’t that from Jason and the Argonauts?
Clash of the Titans, 1981.
Classic movie!
I’ve considered that, too. However they did find writing on it in ancient Greek.
There is/was some suggestion that it was made for this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus
He was smart and vicious.
“It’s my understanding that it is hard to date metal and rock.”
one of the ways ancient metal is dated is to analyze micro-impurities that can be matched up with known ancient source mines of the metals ...
I’ve got a No Spin Zone door mat at my office. .....I love it. ...helps me gauge new clients based on their reaction to the mat. Bill is still out there. https://www.billoreilly.com/
Hannity is good except he never lets his expert guest speak without him cutting them off. ...his radio show is a little better but not by much.....
I’m not sure how you calibrate gears, either.
Stories like this make me think of sci-fi novels like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lest_Darkness_Fall
Freegards
Found “near the wreck”. I’m not convinced it comes from the wreck’s time period.
Clash of the Titans.
... and down is in the direction facing your feet ...
Beating the bleeding obvious - for at least a quarter of a century.
Still, I guess, for those Shirpas who never heard...
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