Thursday, July 31, 2008

Awesome Thing of the Week No. 1: Suspect Device


The BBC has this report, today, on the Antikythera Mechanism. The Antikythera Mechanism, in addition to being an awesome band name and potential X-Files episode, is the first known mechanical computer. Various sources say that a devices of similar complexity did not start appearing for another thousand years.


from Wikipedia
The mechanism is the oldest known complex scientific instrument. It has several accurate scales, and is essentially an analog computer made with gears. It is based on theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Persian and Egyptian astronomers. Based on the shape of the Egyptian letters used in the manual of the instrument, it is estimated that it was constructed around 150 to 100 BC...Consensus among scholars is that the mechanism itself was made in Greece. All the instructions of the mechanism are written in Greek.


Per the BBC article, a sophisticated X-ray system has allowed researchers to map out the device's 29 surviving gears. High resolution imaging has aided in reading the devices inscriptions... apparently it used the Olympic (pan-Hellenic) games as a reference point.


"The Olympiad cycle was a very simple, four-year cycle and you don't need a sophisticated instrument like this to calculate it. It took us by huge surprise when we saw this.

"But the Games were of such cultural and social importance that it's not unnatural to have it in the Mechanism."

-Tony Freeth, of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

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