Secrets of the Time Machine
By Lynne Sheppeard
It sounds like a story out of Dan Brown novel; the secrets of a bizarre mechanical device fashioned by the ancients are finally being revealed, a century after it was found.
A hundred years ago, Greek divers discovered a strange bronze device: the ‘Antikythera Mechanism’. It’s an intricate machine comprising hand-cut, toothed gearwheels and other interesting bits and pieces, all packaged together to make some kind of clock. It was manufactured in Greece sometime around 150-100 BC. Tentatively linked with the mathematician and astronomer Hipparchos, it’s only now that technological advances have enabled scientists to delve beneath the encrusted bronze surface and divine its true function.
The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ was a rudimentary computer that plotted the Metonic cycle (moon phases); predicted solar and lunar eclipses; observed the Callippic cycle (which reconciles the solar and lunar years); and acted as a star almanac and a 365 day calendar, including an allowance for leap years. It even accounted for the altering speed the moon at different places in its elliptical orbit – an anomaly that had Newton puzzling over it more than 800 years later.
These new insights into the clock’s functions were made possible due to the use of state-of -the-art technology. An international team of researchers used three-dimensional X-ray computation tomography and high-resolution surface imaging to see inside the rusted mechanisms and even read the engravings on the bronze – just imagine how impressed Hipparchos would be! The team leader, Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University, suggests that the device is so advanced in its mathematics and technology that the history of ancient Greece may have to be rewritten.
Whoever popped that in his hand-luggage with his togas might have had some explaining to do down at Athens International!
There are some good images of the device to be found here.
A hundred years ago, Greek divers discovered a strange bronze device: the ‘Antikythera Mechanism’. It’s an intricate machine comprising hand-cut, toothed gearwheels and other interesting bits and pieces, all packaged together to make some kind of clock. It was manufactured in Greece sometime around 150-100 BC. Tentatively linked with the mathematician and astronomer Hipparchos, it’s only now that technological advances have enabled scientists to delve beneath the encrusted bronze surface and divine its true function.
The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ was a rudimentary computer that plotted the Metonic cycle (moon phases); predicted solar and lunar eclipses; observed the Callippic cycle (which reconciles the solar and lunar years); and acted as a star almanac and a 365 day calendar, including an allowance for leap years. It even accounted for the altering speed the moon at different places in its elliptical orbit – an anomaly that had Newton puzzling over it more than 800 years later.
These new insights into the clock’s functions were made possible due to the use of state-of -the-art technology. An international team of researchers used three-dimensional X-ray computation tomography and high-resolution surface imaging to see inside the rusted mechanisms and even read the engravings on the bronze – just imagine how impressed Hipparchos would be! The team leader, Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University, suggests that the device is so advanced in its mathematics and technology that the history of ancient Greece may have to be rewritten.
Whoever popped that in his hand-luggage with his togas might have had some explaining to do down at Athens International!
There are some good images of the device to be found here.
Image: DLee
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