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  • Author Author: cstanton
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The ancient 'computer' that simply shouldn't exist - The Antikythera Mechanism

cstanton

If you like archaeology, ancient history and the greeks, this may take your interest. The first is more of an introduction to the mechanism found on a ship by the BBC, and the second is a very detailed, academic look into it:

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Wasn't sure that I would be able to find this clip, but here it is, the conditional arm explained:

    Calculating Ada - The Countess of Computing
    https://youtu.be/QgUVrzkQgds?t=1172
    (skip to 19:30 into the video) 

    Skip back to see the London Science Museum difference engine in operation:
    https://youtu.be/QgUVrzkQgds?t=660
    (skip to 11:00 into the video)

  • in reply to Andrew J

    It was the former curator of mechanical engineering at the London Science Museum (Michael T. Wright) that created one of the early reconstructions of the Antikythera mechanism. 

    "...I can’t get my head around how a machine of rods and gears can calculate differentials and integrals..."

    Take away the modern layers of abstraction and you will likely find that it is  the same way that a modern machine does it, just that it is mechanical rather than electrical and based upon decimal rather than binary number system.

    I seem to recall that it was the inclusion of the conditional branching mechanism in the analytical engine design that took things to the next level. A simple mechanism based on the principles used in the earlier Jacquard machines almost a century earlier.

    "...I love the complexity, scale and beauty of such machines..."

    Yes, the sight and sound of all the mechanisms all moving together is something that is lost from today's silicon based technology. Although you probably don't miss the hand-cranking that was involved.

  • in reply to dougw

    You’d have to go to watch and clock makers I suspect.  In London’s Science Museum they have a differential engine, originally deployed at UCLA, which is fascinating.  I can’t get my head around how a machine of rods and gears can calculate differentials and integrals, but I love the complexity, scale and beauty of such machines,  `They were first devised in The Victorian era so have been around a while but still…someone had to have the notion that it was possible for a machine to do it (I don’t necessarily mean Babbage)

    The ancient Greeks were good mathematicians and probably had a good understanding of gearing,

  • in reply to dougw

    Not one for Project 14 then ? Slight smile

    Brief demonstration of the 53 tooth gear being made old-school in this documentary:

    Antikythera Mechanism. The 2'000 Year Old Computer. BBC, 2012
    https://youtu.be/3T1n7RjCMfQ?t=1438
    (approx. 24min into the video)

    "...about half an hour to make that..." at the time according to Michael Wright.

    ...50... 51... 52... fifty-oh-darn-it...   1...2...

    Mechanisms and linkages appear to be a bit of a dying art these days and today's attitude appears to be more of a stick a servo or stepper motor on it and control it with a microcontroller. Forty years ago and I recall about every hobbyist project had at least one mechanical linkage involved and rarely required batteries.

  • I'm not sure you would find anybody today that had the knowledge and the skill needed to build one of these, even with all the fancy tools and accumulated knowledge available today.

    It would take a dedicated team with a bunch of different skills and many months to design and build one of these.