The Antikythera Mechanism
(credit: Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, as seen in the New York Times)
If you’d like to know why The Cabinet of Wonders has so many mechanical devices in it, just take a look at that image. It’s awesome. How can I not love cool clockworky little machines like this? The brass device, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, was found in a shipwreck off Greece, probably dates to about 150-100 B.C., and has been called the world’s first known mechanical computer. It has three main dials and is inscribed with an ancient calendar, but scholars aren’t totally sure what, exactly, the device could do. Check out its wikipedia entry.
Today, the New York Times published an article saying that scientists believe that the device could predict solar eclipses and was also a kind of calendar for the Olympiad (which today we call the Olympic Games). But what else the device might have been able to do is still a mystery.
Do you watch “Lost” at all? Because the first thing that reminded me of was this: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Wheel
Funny, today’s dinosaur comics was about the coso artifact…
John: Whoa, the island can MOVE? Because of a machine? Awesome! I did watch a few episodes of season 1 of Lost when I was living in London. Really enjoyed it, but somehow never picked it back up when in the states.
Mordicai: what’s the coso artifact?
They found a sparkplug in a geode! Or well, in a rock. It is usually falsely reported as in a geode, which would have been awesome!