Is the Antikythera Mechanism the World’s First Analog Computer ?

In 1901, divers exploring the remains of an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, northwest of Crete, recovered a bizarre-looking mechanical object that baffled the international scientific community.

The mysterious device, found in 82 fragments heavily encrusted with corrosion, is composed of 30 bronze gear wheels covered with Greek inscriptions. Decades of scientific examination revealed that the ancient device, called the Antikythera mechanism, is an analog computer—the world’s first—designed to calculate the position of heavenly bodies, predict eclipses, and even pinpoint the dates of the Olympic Games.

In 2014, James Evans, professor of physics at the University of Puget Sound, and Christián Carman, history of science professor at the University of Quilmes, Argentina, published an article in the Archive for History of Exact Science claiming that the mechanism was timed to begin in 205 B.C.E., establishing the device to be as many as 100 years older than most researchers thought. The incredibly complex machine was engineered and built by ancient Greeks, although “it’s probably safer not to try to hang it on any one particular famous person,” according to Evans. The researchers believe the mechanism was designed on Babylonian arithmetic principles adopted by the Greeks.

The front dial of the mechanism features two concentric scales that represent the movement of the twelve zodiac constellations in the sky. The outer ring is marked with the months of the 365- day Egyptian calendar in Greek letters, while the inner ring is marked with the Greek symbols of the zodiac. The rear face of the mechanism includes numerous dials believed to predict lunar and solar eclipses. The mechanism was operated by turning a small crank that was linked to the largest Near on the front dial.

In 2012, in an exhaustive study of the Antikythera mechanism, researchers Tony Freeth and Alexander Jones concluded that the device is “the sole witness to a lost history of brilliant engineering, a conception of pure genius, one of the great wonders of the ancient world—but it didn’t really work very well!” The researchers attributed the mechanism’s lack of exactness to its imprecise mechanical engineering and the inaccurate mathematical and celestial theories of the time. To date, no other ancient machine like the Antikythera mechanism has been found. The story behind this ancient marvel of engineering has been long lost to.

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