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The First Computer
Back in 1900 around Easter time a boat with Greek sponge fishermen were on their way home from their traditional fishing grounds off North Africa to their home on the island of Syme, near Rhodes when they encountered a storm.
They were blown off course and eventually reached shelter on the rocky islet of Antikythera, northeast of Crete. While there they decided to try some sponge fishing. They were amazed when they discovered the wreck of a large ship. The most interesting items they found, at least to them, was a large number of brass and marble statues. They reported the discovery to the authorities and returned with archaelogical advisers in November 1900, where they continued working on the wreck until September 1901. About eight months after bringing the wrecks cargo to the surface, the process of cleaning the concretion off the items found in the wreck was being done. During the work some tiny pieces of bronze with an inscription in Greek were spotted. Eventually more pieces were discovered until a whole series of gearwheels, several with writing was discovered. Right from the start this find was controversial as some archaeologists insisted that the mechanism was far too complicated to have belonged to the wreck. Judging by the pottery found it was established as being from the first century B.C. Furthermore there were two distinct groups of experts with different opinions. One group argued that the remains came from an astrolabe, an instrument for calculating altitudes while the other were equally convinced that they were from a planetarium , a device used to show the motions and orbits of the planets. Because neither group would give in, the Antikythera mechanism was left as an obscure, unsolved puzzle. This all changed in 1951, when a Professor de Solla Price, of Yale University began a study of the Antkythera mystery. He spent the next twenty years in long hours of minute examination of the objects, with the aid of X-ray photography. His research finally enabled him to reassemble the surviving pieces and to discover the device's true purpose. The Antikythera mechanism turned out to be a complex computer for calculating the calenders of the sun and moon. One rotation of the main wheel represented a solar year, while smaller wheels showed the position of the sun, moon and of the rising of the most important stars. The Roman lawyer, Cicero (106-43 B.C.), wrote that the great Archimedes has devised a machine that "imitated the motions of the heavenly bodies". It has even been suggested that it was the very machine made by Archimedes that was found in the shipwreck. There were a number of other machines built in that period which were similar in function to the Antikythera mechanism but those and others that might have been built didn't survive. Luckily this one did. If you think it's hard to figure out the computer today imagine what it would have been like twenty one hundred years ago. |
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