In 1901, Grecian sea divers found a number of artifacts off the coast of the Greek isle of Anthikythera . One of which, over a hundred years later, still confounds scientists at the level of mechanical complexity. What was found was histories first known example of a computing mechanism, being from approximately from 150BCE. This type of mechanical computing was previously thought to be an invention of the 1500s. Clocks with slip-pin mechanisms were constructed to predict elliptical movements of celestial bodies. This eventually led to the conceptualization of the difference engine in 1786, which Charles Babbage later developed into a mechanical device to calculate derivatives of polynomial functions. Generally, Babbage is considered the grand-father of what we know now as modern computing. What would today be like if we would of had this kind of computing during the 1st and 2nd centuries? There is still much speculation on what the Antikythera Mechanism was for and who is responsible for it's creation. A plausible theory is that Archimedes was responsible for the design, having developed many innovations during about that time, including siege engines, and calculation of limits similar to what is used in integral calculus. Above: From a project at HP to scan all the parts of the original Antikythera Mechanism, which they invite the public to download
and view with a special high-resolution freeware program
available for Windows and Linux.
Short Link: http://bit.ly/Antikythera
