Made in Greece

   Friday Greetings from Joe McDonnell.

   On this day in 1902 a Greek archaeologist identified a heavily corroded 2,000 year old piece of bronze as the earliest example of an analogue computer. The mechanism had been found two years earlier by sponge divers on an ancient shipwreck off the coast of the Aegean island of Antikythera. The diver at first thought he was seeing corpses on the sea floor, but they turned out to be bronze and marble statues.
   The divers went off to another area looking for sponges, and returned to the wreck at the end of the season. They retrieved several artifacts and forwarded them to the authorities. The archaeologists in Athens got considerably more excited than the sponge divers had been and sent the Greek Navy down to retrieve more artifacts.
   The following year while examining this curious hunk of bronze, the  archeologist Valerios Stais discovered that it contained a geared wheel. He theorized that it had been part of an astronomical clock.  Fellow scholars said such a device would have been too complex for the technology of the time and investigations were set aside for half a century.

Main gear, one of 30 or so, all hand made.

   In 1951 a curious British historian pulled the mechanism out of the back room and studies recommenced. In 1971 a Greek physicist made gamma-ray images that revealed the true complexity of the mechanism. More recent scans have been able to read the tiny script on the device which seems to be part of the device's instruction manual. By tuning a crank, the movement of the moon and the five known planets could be predicted on various dials. It even accounted for the changing speed of the moon in its orbit. It also showed the phases of the moon, predicted solar eclipses, and, for the sports fan, told when the next Olympic Games would start. All this was packed in a box 13 inches by 7 inches by 3.5 inches.
   The device was being transported to Rome around 80 B.C. when the ship broke up and sank, probably in a storm. Rome had conquered Greece seventy years previously and the ship's cargo could have been plunder. Or the Romans may have paid for it. We don't know. Based on it's complexity, there must have been several other devices like it at the time. None have survived from antiquity. Bronze was a valuable metal back then, and once the device's purpose was forgotten by later owners who may not have had any interest in the movements of Jupiter or Saturn, the thing could be melted down to make fish hooks or spear heads.
   The mechanism is in Greece's National Archeological Museum. In 2013, there was a special exhibition of the finds from the Antikythera wreck, and the mechanism was put on display. Teresa and I happened to be in Athens at the time and our Greek friend Alex and his wife Nancy took us to see the exhibit. The mechanism didn't look like much. Had it been for sale at an antique shop down the street I would not have known enough to buy it and take it home. Just as well since Customs frowns on taking antiquities out of the country.

Also in the wreck.
 The jockey got a lot more attention at first than an old computer.