[LINK] Ancient computer was 1,000 yrs ahead of its time

[Kim Holburn]

Ancient computer was 1,000 yrs ahead of its time
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1801051.htm

> Last Update: Thursday, November 30, 2006. 1:26pm (AEDT)
> Ancient computer was 1,000 yrs ahead of its time
>
> An ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd  
> century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any  
> instrument for the next 1,000 years, according to scientists.
>
> The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain  
> an intricate set of gear wheels.
>
> It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of  
> Antikythera in 1901 but until now what it was used for has been a  
> mystery.
>
> Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists  
> from Britain, Greece and the United States have reconstructed a  
> model of it using high-resolution X-ray tomography.
>
> They believe their findings could force a rethink of the  
> technological potential of the ancient Greeks.
>
> "It could be described as the first known calculator," said  
> Professor Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff  
> University in Wales.
>
> "Our recent work has applied very modern techniques that we believe  
> have now revealed what its actual functions were."
>
> The calculator could add, multiply, divide and subtract.
>
> It was also able to align the number of lunar months with years and  
> display where the sun and the moon were in the zodiac.
>
> Professor Edmunds and his colleagues discovered it had a dial that  
> predicted when there was a likely to be a lunar or solar eclipse.
>
> It also took into account the elliptical orbit of the moon.
>
> "The actual astronomy is perfect for the period," Professor Edmunds  
> told Reuters.
>
> "What is extraordinary about the thing is that they were able to  
> make such a sophisticated technological device and to be able to  
> put that into metal."
>
> The model of the calculator shows 37 gear wheels housed in a wooden  
> case with inscriptions on the cover that related to the planetary  
> movements.
>
> Francois Charette, of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich,  
> Germany, said the findings, reported in the journal Nature, provide  
> a wealth of data for future research.
>
> "Newly deciphered inscriptions that relate to the planetary  
> movements make it plausible that the mechanism originally also had  
> gearings to predict the motion of the planets," he said in a  
> commentary.
>
> Professor Edmunds described the instrument as unique, saying there  
> is nothing like it in the history of astronomy.
>
> Similar complicated mechanisms were not been seen until the  
> appearance of medieval cathedral clocks much later.
>
> "What was not quite so apparent before was quite how beautifully  
> designed this was," he said.
>
> "That beauty of design in this mechanical thing forces you to say,  
> 'Well gosh, if they can do that what else could they do?'"
>
> -Reuters


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961