Antikythera Mechanism Article

[Kim323]

I had to start a new thread for this! There's a heck of a good article in The New Yorker magazine within the last two months (tops, if I remember right), so there should be back issues at your library if you don't subscribe. A superb article, and it gets interestingly into the social dynamics among the various researchers. There's evidently been some scholarly envy and appropriation of academic territory concerning research into the device, and the article explores this as an intriguing parallel story. But it gets into the workings of the device itself and has photos of the latest x-rays of the mechanism. A great article. Kim

 

[Aaron LeClair]

I recall some people thinking that that was a particle accelerator. I was far from convinced.

 

[schticknz]

The Antikythera Mechanism was one of the first things that made me question our history and what we've been told about it in the past.

The scientist who spent 20 years or so deciphering the mechanism, the cogs, their movements etc was on Terry Jones' Barbarians documentary series (BBC). He had a reproduction of what he thought the original mechanism looked like and show how it worked, and what it was used for.

Partially, and this was speculation on the scientists part, it was used for the creation of people's horoscopes. But whatever it was truly used for it really is a wonder of the ancient world, in my not so humble opinion.

See wikipedia for more on the Antikytheria Mechanism here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

 

[Astroboy]

Here is a great video about the Antikythera Mechanism.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/699732/first_computer_ever_made/

Those ancient people were pretty damn smart and great craftsmen.

It's another great example of how knowledge and technology can be lost.

Here is another incredible ancient astronomical calculator nearly 1,000 years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Song

We didn't invent a lot of things. We just reinvented them.

 

[Frootloop]

Thanks for the links, its an interesting piece of history thats for sure.

You have to wonder though what else may be burried around the world...... Afterall, if this shipwreck hadnt been discovered, the Antikythera mechanism may never have been found.

Im sure that this cannot be justa single fluke, one of a kind of this level of technology. If it is one of a kind, and that level of sophistication wasnt reached again until the 18th centuary, you really have to question its true origin or at least the origin of the technology used.

 

[Astroboy]

Im sure that this cannot be justa single fluke, one of a kind of this level of technology. If it is one of a kind, and that level of sophistication wasnt reached again until the 18th centuary, you really have to question its true origin or at least the origin of the technology used.

I don't believe it's a one of a kind object. It was probably just the one rare surviving evidence of one. Machines of this sophistication would have been extremely difficult and expensive to build. Only a few must have had the skills to build it. People who knew how to build it were unlikely to share their secret knowledge with competitors. There probably were more than one but not mass produced.

In ancient times devices like this were probably limited to the very rich or for special institutions.