Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism, the First Analog Computer : History of Antikythera Mechanism





 If people knew about the solar system based on the sun, then what is the reason for the drama of Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno in the Middle Ages? How did the skillful science of Antikythera suddenly disappear and give birth to medieval ignorance?
That is a total of 17 cm. as wide as But all of a sudden, all tiger scientists were confused by this 17 cm mystery . No one had seen such a device before .  No one could say its name. But word of mouth everyone started calling it Antikythera Mechanism after the name of the island. 


Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism, the First Analog Computer : History of Antikythera Mechanism

History of Antikythera  Mechanism 

antikythera mechanism


About 117 years ago today. A heavy storm is blowing in the Aegean Sea. Then a ship moves along this path with the storm. The captain of the ship was a Greek named Demetrius.
 
He has a reputation for indomitable bravery. Apart from a few crew, a handful of sponge divers (divers who collect sponge species) there is no one on board. The captain is pacing the deck solemnly. His eyes and mouth are narrowed in an effort to find the right decision with the help of his long experience. Just then a sailor shouted “Captain! Captain!” His concentration was interrupted by a snort. 


He ran off, following the direction of the scream. There the young sailor Araginus stands, wet and alone in the gusts of water and wind, panting with a telescope. As the captain came to stand beside him, he pointed to the ground a little far away.

The captain looked at it.

An island is visible in the distance. He was not mistaken. He knows the island well. Called the senior sailor close and said, "They have stopped their journey like tonight." That island in front of the break point.”

Senior Sailor Rudolph looked ahead. The island in front of his eyes was now much clearer. He was not mistaken in recognizing the island. “Antikythera Island!” he muttered.

The shipwreck of Antikythera


On that night in 1900, the ship was caught in a storm and sheltered in the middle of that island. Everyone spent the night waiting. Just as the sun first peeked in the eastern sky in the early morning, the storm suddenly stopped. But the captain of the ship did not set sail immediately. 

The island is known as a mine of marine animals called sponges. So the diver Staditis fell into the sea at dawn. After going as deep as 45 meters, he saw something like a pile at one place. 

Then he came back upstairs. He came and told the captain about the pile he saw. The captain himself became curious after hearing this.

He himself fell into the sea with some others. After a few minutes they came back. Comes with a Roman statue made of bronze. What they thought was a stack was actually a sunken ship.

That's it! While searching for sponges, they find an ancient ship. Using the word 'recent' to refer to the age of the ship would not only be wrong, it would be criminal. Such a ship was not used by Demetrius' paternal grandfather, not even his great-grandfather.

The captain returned to Greece. There he informed the navy of Helena about this. The Navy rushed there with one of their units.

The event has not yet become so important. Many valuable antiquities were found from the ship. The search continued for 2 years.

Whatever was found was being prepared to go to museums under government supervision.

The Greek archaeologist Valerius Stys was surprised when he suddenly picked up a large stone in his hand. He was surprised to notice that a round medium-sized gear was embedded in the stone.

Stice had a rather thin idea of ​​machinery.

But he couldn't tell exactly what part of the gear he was looking at.

He set the stone aside. After some more research on that stone, he realized that it is a part of a very complicated device and it is not possible for him alone to unravel the mystery of this device. He presented it to the world through a seminar.

Know more : 



In a moment, it created a stir among all the scientists and engineers of the world.

Scientists noticed that the lightweight device was very thin.

That is a total of 17 cm. as wide as But all of a sudden, all tiger scientists were confused by this 17 cm mystery.

No one had seen such a device before .  No one could say its name. But word of mouth everyone started calling it Antikythera Mechanism after the name of the island.


Antikythera mechanism 


piece of the puzzling Antikythera mechanism



A basic stone from 1900 is still a center of wonder 100 years later. Even the best team of scientists working together could not solve even one drop of this mystery for 75 years.

But when the computer revolution has just started on earth, the British historian Derek Price claims it as the oldest computer in the world. Price's article was selected as the most read article in Scientific American.

The discovery of this device is considered one of the best discoveries in history.

One of the reasons for such slow progress with this device is the lack of technology. At the beginning of the 20th century, humans did not have the technology to recreate this device and unlock its secrets.

But from the beginning, scientists have been able to answer a question in people's minds. That is 'when and by whom' this device was invented.

In an interview given to the Daily Telegraph, Edmonds, professor of astronomy at Cardiff University, said that at first, their research suggested that the instrument was made sometime between 300 BC and 500 AD.

X-RAY  Antikythera Mechanism


It has been recently confirmed by modern technology that it was built around 150 BC. And the ship sank around 60 BC.

In response to the question of who made this instrument, almost everyone identifies it as part of the Greek civilization. Archaeologist Alexander Jones, after examining its inner hinge, declared that its maker was probably from the island of Rhodes.

Can you imagine? A craftsman enlightened by the light of that little science in BC has created this extraordinarily complex computer! It took centuries of sweat for modern scientists to figure it out.


Research progress



Around 1970, the technicians of the time decided to rebuild the device. They created a prototype of this through X-ray imaging.


Then the scientist Daniken suddenly claimed that this machine was not made by the earth. 
Everyone turns to look. Why? On what grounds?

He then pointed out that the users of these devices knew that the sun was at the center of the solar system! But one and a half thousand years after the birth of this instrument, Copernicus presented the idea of ​​the first solar system based on the sun.

The scientific community became active again.

Then another group of scientists exploded the bomb again.

They published CTscan results of the device around 2006. Through this, many more detailed information about the device came out. Interestingly, an ancient manual written in Greek was also discovered on the device, which gave the tired scientists new work.

It is not reasonable to dismiss Daniken's theory now. If you want to know the truth about it, you need to know everything about it. Everyone started reading the manual.

As late as 2006, Greek historians and linguists announced that they had deciphered about 95 percent of the writings.

In this case, the Greeks have to be praised.

In just a few months, they deciphered the 2,000-year-old complex Greek script through inhuman effort.

Now they are tired and handing over the baton of progress to scientists and watching the end of the drama with interest.

Scientists first made a complete design of the whole machine after calculating from the manual.

Then the workload fell on the engineers.

A replica of the Labyrinth of Antikythera was meticulously constructed.

In 2007, Massimo Mogi Vicenti, the head of the construction team, announced the completion of the replica. Scientists gathered around it in amazement. Everyone is fascinated by the beauty of the computer of 150 BC. From all sides, the words are floating, "Beautiful!


And what we found out: 



The researchers who were crazy about the mystery did not stop with making replicas. They more carefully set about demystifying the text and replicas of the manual together.

Some facts were already assumed. Some of them proved to be wrong and some proved to be right. And with that comes more exciting information. I am highlighting some significant aspects of which:

.  The device looks like a small watch. There are numerous dials and forks in between. The dials indicate the moon, sun and five planets. There are also several numbered blocks in between, through which more complex calculations can be done easily.

. Through this, the movement of moon and sun, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse could be accurately calculated.

. This machine is also capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and equation calculation.

. This instrument is incredibly perfect as the ancient Olympic calendar and the timing of major festivals. Greek scientists claim that it can also calculate the seasons.

. This instrument is capable of indicating the movement of the planets with 95% accuracy for the next 500 years from the time of its creation.

. It is accurate in determining the Julian calendar, Egyptian calendar, Sathic and Kalipian cycles.

. Around 2016, scientists provided new information that fortune-telling can be done through it.


Research is not over, still ongoing. Even now divers explore the island of Antikythera for research purposes. The possibility of two or three more such Antikythera instruments cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Enthusiasts also occasionally flock to Antikythera  websites. There, the research team is gradually recording the progress of this research.

It is a strange device that has been hailed as the 'oldest analog computer', single-handedly changing our entire understanding of ancient science. Such complex mechanical hinges, which were thousands of years ahead of their time, reveal a huge black hole between history and reality as we know it.

Again, no one is laughing at Daniken's proposal. If people knew about the solar system based on the sun, then what is the reason for the drama of Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno in the Middle Ages? How did the skillful science of Antikythera suddenly disappear and give birth to medieval ignorance? Or really this device is a toy lost on this small planet by the mind of some other unseen creature in the universe! 













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