Antikythera mechanism

I was watching a fascinating film on the discovery of this ancient Greek instrument, albeit on French ARTE tv channel. It may be of interest to some of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Follow the link to Michael Wright who re-constructed a model of this clock and with his knowledge helped archeologists and scientists understand what they had found. The investigative methods used to unravel the mystery were truly amazing.

Hope you enjoy the link

BobH

Edited By Speedy Builder5 on 26/01/2014 09:13:52

Like it says in the wiki link - there was a documentary on the BBC in 2012. I've seen it and it's very interesting. Also, I have noticed that it has been repeated on at least one occasion on, I think, BBC4. It might be possible to view it on iPlayer for those who have access to this facility.

John

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Try these

... ingnoring the ones that self-reference this thread

MichaelG.

It has no moving parts but it is as fascinating, if not more, as the Greek one. Niko.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disk

Is anyone following along and making this project now that "Clickspring" is well into his construction with videos, etc?

Far too complex and precise for me, but I am now following this - another of his superb series of videos - in total awe of his skills.

What I want to know, is how did they manage to make something as precise as they did? Where files and forms of lathes common place at that time? What steel tools were available at that time? Did they use forms of ceramic tools back then?

Neil

I had the chance to see the Antikythera Mechanism today at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Truly amazing, especially considering the size, and it was not in one piece - in such a large wreck - and had been under water for 2,000 years!

Also amazing is the genius of those who worked out what it was, and made replicas!

By some chance has there been a construction article in Model Engineer?

Alan.

It must have been left here by aliens.

Mike

[This posting has been removed]

ME is one of the oldest hobby magazines on the planet, but it isn't quite that old!

N.

They say it uses Babylonian arithmetic, not Greek trigonometry.

Link

Although some of the contributors may be.

I must have been there a couple of days before you alan, took a couple of photos

There's a nice story in one of Richard Feynman's books about visiting the museum, probably in the 1950s and seeing the mechanism, and being gobsmacked by it. Apparently he asked one of the curators what it was, who replied, oh it's just a bit of ancient Greek clockwork.... That was before people like Wright and de Solla Price took X-ray tomography to it. Of course they didn't have machine tools then, though of course any Super-Adepts would have rusted away completely...

.

You will probably find those diagrams here: **LINK**

http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/

... and much, much, more

MichaelG.

They had Myfords then surely

I am, Gawd help me, having a go at this following Clickspring's videos. I'm expecting and open to the 'neither am I joke' *. I'm giving myself two years. Seeing him working I waver between inspiration - maybe I could do that - and despair. Trying to follow inspiration at the mo!

Robin.

* I think the origin of the joke was in the fertile mind of Peter Cook - "I'm writing a novel, funny you should say that, neither am I" , but I have a dim recollection that it was was transplanted from the park bench to the clubhouse in an MEW article about grinders '"I''m making a Quorn..." Tony Jeffery possibly?

They may well have had some form of very simple lathe, even if the motive power was an assistant turning a handle, or it was perhaps a pole lathe.

The basic concept of turning, in wood, seems to have been used by the Ancient Egyptians; with an assistant revolving the work-piece directly. The Romans used simple, probably pole-, lathes for furniture making.

As for tools, did the Ancient Greeks have iron? Or could they have used knapped flints in suitable holders to cut the relatively soft bronze? (Flint is silica, I think harder than tungsten-carbide!)

Artefacts from the Bronze Age often show engraved patterns and other examples of cut work, so having discovered how to make the alloys in the first place, the ancients don't seem to have taken too long (historically) to develop methods of working them into items often both functional and aesthetically beautiful.