The Antikythera Mechanism
Discussion
I have seen an interesting documentary last sunday about a fascinating piece of historic engineering,
a 2000 year old analogue astronomic computer called "The Antikythera Mechanism".
The film was on german/french culture TV "ARTE" but was directed by an englishman,
so you might see it sometimes in a similar channel.
More info about the machine on wiki, youtube and here, watch company Hublot tries a model recreation :
http://www.gizmag.com/hublot-antikythera-mechanism...
link to the film (sorry french or german only) here :
http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/die_wundermaschine...
It totally amazed me that humans were capable of doing such brainwork and handcraft 2000 years ago,
and most of both were only "discovered" again hundreds of years later on.
Is this piece of (Archimedic?) genius generally known in PH science circles ?
a 2000 year old analogue astronomic computer called "The Antikythera Mechanism".
The film was on german/french culture TV "ARTE" but was directed by an englishman,
so you might see it sometimes in a similar channel.
More info about the machine on wiki, youtube and here, watch company Hublot tries a model recreation :
http://www.gizmag.com/hublot-antikythera-mechanism...
link to the film (sorry french or german only) here :
http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/die_wundermaschine...
It totally amazed me that humans were capable of doing such brainwork and handcraft 2000 years ago,
and most of both were only "discovered" again hundreds of years later on.
Is this piece of (Archimedic?) genius generally known in PH science circles ?
Really is a staggering achievement for that era - assuming it ever worked!
Babbage really struggled to manufacture his difference engine nearly 2,000 years later (although admittedly a more challenging build..)
So much so, that I find myself being sceptical that it is actually from the period it is assumed to be from since it is so far (technoligically speaking) ahead of its time.
Presume all the required tests have been carried out to ensure provenance of age..
And why would anyone want to build it in the first place!
Babbage really struggled to manufacture his difference engine nearly 2,000 years later (although admittedly a more challenging build..)
So much so, that I find myself being sceptical that it is actually from the period it is assumed to be from since it is so far (technoligically speaking) ahead of its time.
Presume all the required tests have been carried out to ensure provenance of age..
And why would anyone want to build it in the first place!
Ali G said:
Really is a staggering achievement for that era - assuming it ever worked!
Babbage really struggled to manufacture his difference engine nearly 2,000 years later (although admittedly a more challenging build..)
So much so, that I find myself being sceptical that it is actually from the period it is assumed to be from since it is so far (technoligically speaking) ahead of its time.
Presume all the required tests have been carried out to ensure provenance of age..
And why would anyone want to build it in the first place!
Is it really that staggering? Only if you believe what some history books advise on history, that it rigidly linear. They are many great achievements from the ancient world, and history is cyclical. The great pyramid, the sewage system of ancient Minoa, Skara Brae. People from the ancient past weren't dummies.Babbage really struggled to manufacture his difference engine nearly 2,000 years later (although admittedly a more challenging build..)
So much so, that I find myself being sceptical that it is actually from the period it is assumed to be from since it is so far (technoligically speaking) ahead of its time.
Presume all the required tests have been carried out to ensure provenance of age..
And why would anyone want to build it in the first place!
I think the most interesting thing about the mechanism is that it was travelling by sea, which would logically seem to indicate that it wasn't precious enough not to move.
Simpo Two said:
Or was on its way to be sold for a vast sum, or had been stolen...?
As I remember from the film, the mechanism was found in a shipwreck that was full of other precious objects,leading to the conclusion it was part of a bounty after one nation had defeated another one,
the winning nation´s troops looted and were planning to get it home by -sunken- ship.
I think the mechanism was unique, nothing even remotely similar has ever been found.
"It is unlikely that any one of these machines was the Antikythera mechanism found in the shipwreck because both the devices fabricated by Archimedes and mentioned by Cicero were located in Rome at least 30 years later than the estimated date of the shipwreck and the third one was almost certainly in the hands of Posidonius by that date. So we know of at least four such devices. The modern scientists who have reconstructed the Antikythera mechanism also agree that it was too sophisticated to have been a unique device.
It is probable that the Antikythera mechanism was not unique, as shown by Cicero's references to such mechanisms. This adds support to the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology that was later, at least in part, transmitted to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds, where mechanical devices which were complex, albeit simpler than the Antikythera mechanism, were built during the Middle Ages. Fragments of a geared calendar attached to a sundial, from the 5th or 6th century Byzantine Empire, have been found; the calendar may have been used to assist in telling time. In the Islamic world, Banū Mūsā's Kitab al-Hiyal, or Book of Ingenious Devices, was commissioned by the Caliph of Baghdad in the early 9th century AD. This text described over a hundred mechanical devices, some of which may date back to ancient Greek texts preserved in monasteries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism...
It is probable that the Antikythera mechanism was not unique, as shown by Cicero's references to such mechanisms. This adds support to the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology that was later, at least in part, transmitted to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds, where mechanical devices which were complex, albeit simpler than the Antikythera mechanism, were built during the Middle Ages. Fragments of a geared calendar attached to a sundial, from the 5th or 6th century Byzantine Empire, have been found; the calendar may have been used to assist in telling time. In the Islamic world, Banū Mūsā's Kitab al-Hiyal, or Book of Ingenious Devices, was commissioned by the Caliph of Baghdad in the early 9th century AD. This text described over a hundred mechanical devices, some of which may date back to ancient Greek texts preserved in monasteries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism...
Zad said:
Not as ancient as the Antikythera Mechanism, but if Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine had been built, it would have been a Turing-complete computer by the mid 1840s, a century before Colossus and ENIAC.
But how would it have fared against Enigma? Is the computing power of Babbage's Engine known?Oh it would have been quite slow. The only quote I have seen is the multiplication of two 20 digit numbers in 3 minutes. I suspect that, had it been made, it would have been accelerated quite considerably. The Colossus was optimised to do a specific job and could compare about 1000 characters per second. Having said that, Babbage did build a certain amount of parallelism into the analytical engine, and was inherently modular.
We will find out, there is a project underway to build one. http://plan28.org/
As with any CPU, only the parts which are currently active will require power. I don't see that it would requite massively more power than the Difference Engine, which is hand cranked.
As with any CPU, only the parts which are currently active will require power. I don't see that it would requite massively more power than the Difference Engine, which is hand cranked.
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