Posted on 11/29/2006 11:41:47 AM PST by Alter Kaker
A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.
But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.
The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”
The researchers, led by Tony Freeth and Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting the results of their study in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The best thing about that computer...didn't require re-booting once a day... aka; no MS Windows.
Rambaldi? Anybody here watch Alias? (Or watched)
Rome was okay, until they became dependent on Chinese parts.
MS DOS was already obsolescent during the Punic Wars?
Roman? It's Greek to me...........
No 'blue screen of death", eh?
The NYT is truly incompetent.
The Antikythera Mechanism is being reported as Greek by Reuters today, the History Channel identifies it as Greek.
Perhaps the NYT likes extinct empires.
Ancient times PING!
Per the article, it was on a Roman ship, but reading it again the computer was probably Greek.
please! it was greek!
Maybe It was invented by Steveus Jobbus.........
See #11. I labeled it as Roman, probably misreading the article (it was on a Roman ship).
Dang! Windows BC
The device markings were in Greek, but the ship was probably Roman. They don't know if it was a part of the ship's navigation or was a piece of cargo? Whatever it was, only a rich merchant or traveler could have owned it.......
LOL!!!!
NYT incomptence at work.
They can't event get an ANCIENT story correct.
Good. Really Good. LOL
"unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”
They seem surprised. They shouldn't be surprised. It's a fact. Their theories never did explain the facts.
Once again, scientists have to revise their ideas on something.
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