The Antikythera Mechanism (Computer - 56BC)

Economist ^ | 9-19-2002

[blam]

I'll look around for some more pictures.

[Williams]

The existence of "modern" metal gears at that time seems strange.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Reconstruction

[ClearCase_guy]

The History Channel did a good job on this. "Gears from the Greeks" by De Solla Price is a fascinating book, even if he didn't get it quite right.

[Socratic]

I know, call me a flip-flopper but where I was once Antikythera, I am now Prokythera. A person can grow, can't he?

[308MBR]

Where's the keyboard and monitor? How do you plug it in?

They find some ancient royal Greek geek's music box (Ipod) and these freaks call it a computer?

[blam]

A link to many pictures here.

[TASMANIANRED]

You don't have to plug it in. Was steam driven.

You fire it up.

[308MBR]

In all seriousness, I saw the show and still think it was either a music box or a device for animating some sort of statue or display, whether the mainspring rotted away or it was steam powered is no matter.

That being said, on anything short of a modern CNC machine the manufacturing of gears is still quite touchy. At least with the CNC, you can make scrap faster!

Go to the AGMA. That's the American Gear Manufacturing Association.

[Right Wing Assault]

It looks like a watt-hour meter. Did the guy find any TVs and radios?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. Two similar topics:

Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer?
An Article | 1977 | Lionel Casson
Posted on 11/01/2003 12:21:03 PM EST by Holly_P
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1012790/posts

The Antikythera Mechanism: Physical and Intellectual Salvage from the 1st Century B.C.
USNA Eleventh Naval History Symposium | 1995 | Rob S. Rice
Posted on 08/14/2004 6:01:21 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1191651/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. A ping, because it has been a while, and perhaps 200 people have joined since then.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Antikythera search:

Google

[A. Pole]

Amazing

[Slump Tester]

It's not mentioned here but in 1900 there was speculation that it could have been tossed off of a much more modern ship, and just happened to "land" among the Antikythera wreckage.

[Nachoman]

Since so little of the mechanism survives, some guesswork is unavoidable

This never seems to bother anthropologists.

[Southack]

It's not entirely surprising. For one thing, Archimedes built some amazing mechanical weapons back then (as well as calculated mass and put "leverage" into scientific context).

For another, there is a **reason** that our language calls them planetary gears, historically.

[blam]

"For another, there is a **reason** that our language calls them planetary gears, historically."

Neat. Hadn't thought of that.

[dodger]

Ah, Derek DeSolla Price ... back, so my cousin says, when the Ivy League was on top of it's game and before the PC-digressions. Derek was, I am told, a true gentleman scholar (and here, not entirely wrong).

[knews_hound]

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