The Antikythera Mechanism (aka astrolabe and the Antikythera Antikythera Mechanism) is an ancient artifact believed to be a computer engineer and instrument of astronomical observations, which resembles a complex clock mechanism.
Discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island Antikythera between Kythera and Crete. Under the form of Greek inscription dated between 150 BC and 100 BC, well before the date of the wreck, which may have occurred between 87 BC and 63 BC. It could have been made up half a century before the wreck.
The wreck was discovered in 1900 at a depth of approximately 40 to 64 meters and many treasures, statues and other objects were retrieved from Symiot sponge and are now at National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
On May 17, 1902, the archaeologist and director of the Museum Valerios Stais noticed that one of the findings had a gear wheel embedded and visible signs of astronomical terms.
The ancient shipwreck visited again in 1978 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his team invited Calypso by EOT [14]. The mission has turned into a documentary titled "Diving for Roman Plunder".
The mechanism is the oldest surviving order gear. It is made of brass on a wooden frame and has puzzled and fascinated many historians of science and technology after it was discovered. The most accepted theory about the functioning of the claims that it was an analog computer designed to calculate the movements of celestial bodies.Recent reconstructions of the operating device supports this analysis.Recent surveys shot down the theory that includes a differential gear, but discovered the mechanism of motion of the Moon is even more impressive, since allows variable angular speed shaft that drives the moon (second law Kepler).
Professor Derek de Solla Pryce (Derek De Solla Price), physicist and science historian who worked at Yale University, published an article about this mechanism in the magazine Scientific American in June 1959 when the facility has not yet been fully studied. In 1973 or 1974 published a monograph titled "Gears from the Greeks", based on scanning mechanism with gamma rays made by the physicist of the NCSR "Demokritos" Harry Caracalla. The Pryce claimed that this device could be built by the School of Apollonius of Rhodes. His conclusions were not accepted by the experts of the time, who believed that the Ancient Greeks had the theoretical knowledge but no practical technology required for such construction.
The study continued by Greek and British specialists at Cardiff University, Athens, Thessaloniki and the National Archaeological Museum and the National Bank Cultural Foundation, an interuniversity team. Current research is supported by the latest technology to help large companies with innovative programs in digital imaging and a special scanner, which was built specially for the investigation of the Antikythera mechanism. The results of the investigation confirmed that the mechanism has 30 gears which rotate around the axis 10. The operation of the facility resulted in at least 5 dial, with one or more indicators for each. Using the scanner has read several of the inscriptions that were on the plates and rotating disks, which include astronomical and mechanical conditions, and characterized by experts as a kind of "user manual" of the instrument.
This mechanism gave at the prevailing modern view, the position of the sun and moon and the phases of the moon. Could display the sun and moon eclipses based on the Babylonian Saros cycle. The dial also displays at least two calendars, one based on the Greek Meton cycle and an Egyptian, who was the common "scientific" journal of the Hellenistic era.
Older views have been presented (especially before the Second World War) for possible use with this instrument are: astrolabe, or log, the reference clock, or planetarium or astronomical clock or navy ploognomonas of antiquity. All these uses are not mutually exclusive.
http://helleniclegion.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post_6879.html
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