Posts Tagged 'Antikythera mechanism'
"What mysterious time and place don't we know?"*…
Several years ago we considered the "Antikythera mechanism" ("A Connecticut Yankee in King Agamemnon's Court?…" and again in "Leggo My Lego…"), an ancient Greek device considered then to be 1,500 years ahead of its time.
In June of 2016, an international team of experts revealed new information derived from tiny inscriptions on the devices parts in ancient Greek that had been too tiny to read—some of its characters are just 1/20th of an inch wide—until cutting-edge imaging technology allowed it to be more clearly seen. They've now read about 35,00 characters explaining the device…
The full story at "An Ancient Device Too Advanced to Be Real Gives Up Its Secrets at Last."
* Ken Kesey
As we re-gauge our sense of history, we might spare a thought for Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily; he died on this date in 1250. Frederick considered himself a direct successor to the Roman Emperors; he battled with the papacy, but otherwise practiced religious tolerance, and interacted with learned Jews, Muslims, and Christians.)
A multilingual man of learning, he corresponded with and patronized scholars. His interests spanned the sciences, but were especially acute in natural history. He kept a menagerie which at various times had not only monkeys and camels, but also a giraffe and an elephant. His notable contribution to scientific ornithology was with a six-volume work, De arte venandi cum avibus (c.1244-48). In addition to some treatment of falconry, he presented his own observations (rather than perpetuating accepted hearsay knowledge) with remarks on hundreds of kinds of birds, with generalizations on their behavior, anatomy and physiology.
Frederick II and his falcon. From his book De arte venandi cum avibus
Tagged with Antikythera mechanism, astronomy, De arte venandi cum avibus, Frederick II, Greece, history, natural history, Ornithology
Leggo my Lego…
Readers will recall The Antikythera Mechanism ("A Connecticut Yankee in King Agamemnon's Court?…"), the oldest known scientific computer, which was built in Greece probably around 100 BCE. It was recovered from a shipwreck in 1900; but its purpose remained a mystery for over a century, until archeologists and scientists realized its ingenious intent: it's an extraordinarily-accurate astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies– an analog computer with over 100 gears and 7 differential gearboxes– accurate to a day or two over its range.
Andrew Carol has rebuilt the device… in Lego:
Read the story and see photos here. And for extra fun, check out Carol's Lego homage to Charles Babbage's Difference Engine. As he says of his work,
Having always loved complex mechanical devices, and never having fully outgrown LEGO, I decided to explore where computational mechanics and LEGO meet. This is not LEGO as toy, art, or even the MindStorms® fusion of LEGO and digital electronics. This is almost where Steampunk and LEGO meet. Hand cranked devices that perform complex mechanical tasks.
[TotH to Universe Today]
As we revel in the satisfaction of making round pegs fit, we might recall that it was on this date in 1271 that Genghis Khan's grandson and Coleridge's celebratee Kublai Khan renamed his empire "Yuan," officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China. By 1279, the Yuan army had defeated the last resistance forces of the Song Dynasty, which it succeeded.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree
Tagged with ancient astronomical clock, Andrew Carol, Antikythera, Antikythera mechanism, astronomical clock, Charles Babbage, China, Chinese history, Coleridge, Difference Engine, Genghis Khan, Greek history, Kublai Khan, Lego, Mongolia, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Song Dynasty, Yuan, Yuan Dynasty
A Connecticut Yankee in King Agamemnon's Court?…
Long-time (pre-blog) readers will remember the "Antikythera mechanism"… In 1900, divers found the wreck of a Roman vessel off the Greek island of Antikythera. Among the other treasures remanded to the Greek government was an unassuming corroded lump. Some time later, the lump fell apart, revealing a damaged machine of unknown purpose, with some large gears and many smaller cogs, plus a few engraved words in Greek. At last writing, it appeared to be some sort of astronomical time-keeping device…
Recent studies, using advanced imaging techniques have unlocked the story of the device– and what a story it is: the rough equivalent of finding a fully-functional Ford buried in a medieval ruin. As io9 reports:
The findings, published in Nature, are probably best described as "mind blowing." Devices with this level of complexity were not seen again for almost 1,500 years, and the Antikythera mechanism's compactness actually bests the later designs. Probably built around 150 B.C., the Antikythera mechanism can perform a number of functions just by turning a crank on the side.
Using nothing but an ingenious system of gears, the mechanism could be used to predict the month, day and hour of an eclipse, and even accounted for leap years. It could also predict the positions of the sun and moon against the zodiac, and has a gear train that turns a black and white stone to show the moon's phase on a given date. It is possible that it could also show the astronomical positions of the planets known to the ancients: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
The Antikythera mechanism wasn't just a scientific tool – it also had a social purpose. The Greeks held major athletic competitions (such as the Olympics) every two or four years. A small dial within the Metonic dial showed the dates of these important events.
The true genius of the mechanism goes beyond even the complex calculations and craftsmanship of a mechanical calendar. For example, the ancients didn't know that the moon has an elliptical orbit, so they didn't know why it sometimes slowed or sped up as it moved through the zodiac. The mechanism's creator used epicyclic gears, also known as planetary gears, with a "pin-and-slot" mechanism that mimicked this apparent shifting in the moon's movement. This use of epicyclic gears is far ahead of what anyone suspected ancient technology was capable of. Scientific American has a two-part video about the mechanism and the imaging techniques used in the research.
It's still unclear who built the extraordinary device. Cicero's writings link it to Archimedes, though he was dead by the time that this specimen was built. Researchers theorize that the Antikythera mechanism may be based on an Archimedian design, and might have been built by a workshop carrying on his technological tradition.
But if the design was "industrialized" in that way, why has there never been another one found like it? Perhaps it's the consequence of the turmoil of the period. Indeed, the upheavals of war and natural disasters over 2,000 years have probably caused us to lose many more works and wonders that we will simply have to keep trying to find.
Though this is April Fool's Day, the Antikythera mechanism is absolutely for real. More information here.
As we recalibrate our assumptions about antiquity, we might recall that it was on this date in 1891 that the William Wrigley Jr. Company was founded. Originally focused and making and selling soap and baking powder, Wrigley included chewing gum with each can of baking powder. As the gum's popularity eclipsed that of the powder, the company shifted its focus; today it sells Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, and other sticky treats in over 180 countries (one of which is not Singapore, where the import and sale of any chewing gum that does not have explicit therapeutic purpose has been banned since 2004).
Tagged with Ancient Greece. Greece, ancient Greek technology, Antikythera, Antikythera mechanism, Archimedes, Cicero, Doublemint, Greek technology, Juicy Fruit, metonic calendar, Singapore, William Wrigley Jr. Company, Wrigley's gum