A Device That Was High-Tech In 100 B.C.

New York Times: A Device That Was High-Tech In 100 B.C.

After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, on Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with Archimedes.

Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse and died in 212 B.C., invented a planetarium calculating motions of the Moon and the known planets and wrote a lost manuscript on astronomical mechanisms. Some evidence had previously linked the complex device of gears and dials to the island of Rhodes and the astronomer Hipparchos, who had made a study of irregularities in the Moon’s orbital course.

The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C.

Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar....

Comments

[Alan Wilkerson]

That is soooo cool. Thanks for the link.
Alan

[Michael W. Kruse]

Nice to find someone who shares my appreciation of technological history. :)

[ZZMike]

There was an article some decades back in Scientific American (it was on the cover). I wonder why it's suddenly popped up again. I can't find that old one on their site, but there are two recent ones (2006 and 2008).

One question is, who used it?

Looking at the mechanism, I'm drawn to the conclusion that it had to be powered - you can't just pick it up and crank dials. Maybe if you knew the date, you could set that and read off all the other info.

We didn't come close to that until the Strasburg Cathedral Clock (built about 1350, rebuilt 1547, rebuilt again 1838). It's a perpetual clock, telling the dates of Easter for the next few millennia, along with eclipses, planetary positions, &c, &c.

If the parts don't wear out, and people remember to reset the weights, it'll keep accurate time forever.

[Michael W. Kruse]

I think the newsworthiness is the use of new technologies to decipher the gadget.

Part of what stories like this reveal at that there have been great technological leaps in the past but technology alone is insufficient for societal transformation.

"One question is, who used it? "

I guessing it was Greek at all. It was left behind by accident by space aliens on their way through a star gate. :)