The Antikythera Mechanism

Illustration Source: Wikipedia (Public Domain)

Scenographia systematis mvndani Ptolemaici

(Scenography of the Ptolemaic cosmography)

by J. van (Johannes) Loon, 1660

If you needed a great opening scene for a movie...

... (Slightly blurred soft focus view of a book-laden study, the papers of research strewn over a busy desk) Several wizened gray-haired professors mull over ancient texts, trying to explain the many enigmatic references to a wondrous device, perhaps created by Archimedes himself, employing technology centuries ahead of its time, its blueprints lost forever in the conflagration of the Library of Alexandria in 48 BC. What was it? Could it provide a vital clue to many unsolved antediluvian mysteries? Why have we never found one? (Fade out)

(Flashback to circa 85-60 BC) An ancient Roman merchant ship carrying the spoils of war from conquered Greece tosses in the heaving Aegean Sea. In its hold, among the large statues, coins and precious jewels, sits a simple crate, containing what the crew no doubt considers nothing more than a mere mechanical plaything valued more for its bronze content than anything else. The raging tempest and the heavy freight prove a deadly combination for the vessel’s 100 year-old timber and the transport, its cargo and all hands perish into the realm of Neptune. (Fade out into the rain)

(Dissolve into the rain of 1901 AD) Another storm brews on the horizon, but this time the ship’s captain shows patience, deciding to wait for more favorable weather. Instead, he and his crew spend their idle time using modern diving suits to plunge for sponges. In the process, they discover an antiquated wreck of unknown origin filled with precious treasure – and one box of encrusted machine parts. They toss the box aside and delve into the priceless trinkets. (Fade out amid jubilant sailors.)

(Return to modern times) Scientists now believe the Antikythera Mechanism may represent the world’s first analog computer. The machine contains dozens of triangular teethed gears and appears to perform extraordinarily accurate calculations to determine the position of the sun, moon, possibly the planets and even the stars. It not only predicted solar eclipses, but also divided the calendar into the four-year cycles of the Olympiad. Most curiously, the Antikythera Mechanism mimics the complexity of clockwork not designed in Western Europe until a millennium later. What did the ancient Greeks use this object for? Sorry, but you’ll have to wait for the sequel. Scientists have yet to identify its true use with any certainty.

The Antikythera Mechanism has been nominated on AstronomyTop100.com under the Ancients category as a candidate for one of the Top 100 Greatest Images and Imaginations in Astronomy and Space Exploration. If you’d like to make a nomination, you can do so for free on AstronomyTop100.com.

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The Mariner's Astrolabe

Illustration Source: (Public Domain)

The Story of the Barbary Corsairs

by Stanley Lane-Poole and Lieut. J. D. Jerrold Kelley,

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, 1890

The Age of Exploration might not have happened if...

...sailors did not look to the heavens for guidance. And we don’t mean spiritual guidance, we mean real navigational guidance. The Mariner’s Astrolabe, the smaller and relatively more modern brother of those large, unwieldy ancient astronomical calculators known as planispheric astrolabes, allowed sea-going vessels stay the course once they lost sight of land. Using a recognizable star, usually Polaris (the North Star) at night and the Sun during the day, the navigator would point the Astrolabe’s arm (the “Alidade”) at the star to determine the ship’s position (well, at least its latitude). Needless to say, without a mariner’s astrolabe (and not too many rainy days), east-west travel might have proved more dangerous (and less popular among a certain set of Pilgrims) during the Age of Exploration. Who knows where the world would be today without this small, but ingeniously practical, tool?

The Mariner’s Astrolabe has been nominated on AstronomyTop100.com under the Engineering category as a candidate for one of the Top 100 Greatest Images and Imaginations in Astronomy and Space Exploration. If you’d like to make a nomination, you can do so for free on AstronomyTop100.com.

Just interested in keeping tabs on everything about AstronomyTop100.com and astronomy in general? Then follow it on Twitter (@AstronomyTop100).

Explore the unexplored. Discover the undiscovered. Know the unknown. AstronomyTop100.com