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| Subject: The Antikythera calculating machine Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:29 pm | |
| In 80 BC an amazing instrument, unique in the history of worldwide technology from every point of view, was invented in Rhodes, by the School of Apollonius. It is the well-known «Antikythera calculating machine», a mechanism which, along with other important finds, was discovered in the Antikythera shipwreck; the wreck was pulled up in 1901 by spongefishers from Symi, Dodecanese. The mechanism comprises a total of 30 different handmade gears, put in use by a shaft at one side of the mechanism. The gears indicated the movements of the sun and the moon in the Zodiac Cycle. This amazing instrument consists the topmost of the tradition in constructing mechanisms with gears, as developed during the hellenistic era. Archimedes’ armillary sphere is considered to be its predecessor. Unfortunately, we do not know who the constructor was. Nevertheless, according to Arthur Clarke, had the evolution of knowledge as demonstrated by the Antikythera calculating machine not been stopped, the science would have made a progress of at least 1.000 years! | |
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