Antikythera Mechanism : New-ish findings

Sadly, most of the technology was made from organic materials which have failed to survive the millenia except in some special, usually anaerobic, circumstances. When I visited Flag Fear Peterborough the thing that impressed me most was the shears, but not the article itself. It was the nicely made box the shears were kept in. These people had "stuff" just like us - probably kept on a sideboard which has long rotted away.

Similarly they had pumps and machines made from wood and leather and, a bit later, iron which also largely disappears over time. Flag Fen also preserved the oldest wheel found in the UK from about 1000 years BCE. I think we have to careful not to underestimate the past - it didn't all a happen in the UK in the 18th and 19th centuries!

Stay well,

Rod

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 02/03/2021 12:45:35

Whoops editing problems

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 02/03/2021 12:47:15

Right now, your image appears to have rotted away!

Some time ago I found a Solidworks 3D model of the Antikythera and managed to translate it so that anyone who uses Onshape (free) can access it here:

Antikythera model

Hope that works.

Russell

A new report to keep up your enthusiasm!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w

Matt

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Just like the Antikythera mechanism ... we’re going round in circles

No harm in that, Matt ... but your link is the very report referenced in the concurrent thread.

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=171769&p=1

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 13/03/2021 10:53:20

My guess is the maker on his way to sell it to someone very rich went to the bottom with the ship and his greatest work.

Unless someone finds another one!

Michael, apologies - I hadn't seen the other thread. Always seems a shame that information get diluted like this.

Matt

Look on the bright side, Matt

We're adopting the LOCKSS principle:

Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe

MichaelG.

I know very little about the Antikythera device but I realise that its discovery and study is very well documented. What worries me is the sophistication, maths and construction, of the device. It appears to be far more advanced than anything else of the period. The only thing that approaches it is Hero's steam engine (which may have been later). I have always been suspicious of "proof" based on reconstruction using tools of the time. Just because it can be done it does not mean it was done.

To me it has the appearence of the Piltdown skull. OK, call me a sceptic.

JA

Well, JA, do you really think that were the Piltdown Skull to be put before a bunch of modern scientists and anatomists, armed as they are with modern understandings, modern analytical kit, etc, they would have failed to detect the signs of a fake? If so, you might care to explain why a fake would have been made? Perhaps by a Greek museum needing to attract visitors? And how exactly, would the museum have acquired the astronomic, as well as the metalwork, and then the corrosion science skills, without anyone else finding out? You might even try to make, or have made, something which could sit alongside the possibly ancient device, and not be distinguishable from it in terms of mechanical complexity, or corrosion effects?

I'm not saying you are wrong. I would just like you to support your hypothesis with a bit of rigour. That is how science works. So, over to you ...

Cheers, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 13/03/2021 18:30:30

Tim

I do not have a hypothesis, just doubts.

The Piltdown skull was examined with all the scientific rigour of the time and was generally accepted. There were doubters but the science held until modern chemical analysis showed it was a hoax in the 1940s.

JA

I have been subscribed to Chris youtube site for quite some time. Initially I wondered what he was up to, then soon realised that the objective was to make to a certain degree an as accurate as possible replica. Using those methods most likely available in those days. Even making files, drills etc. Such a great journey. My biggest question has often been, why did they not make lathes with gear cutting capabilities until something like 1500 odd years later.