Function and Purpose

Function and Purpose
The Antikythera mechanism, as it is now known, was originally housed in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox, with dials on the outside and a complex assembly of bronze gear wheels within. X-ray photographs of the fragments, in which around 30 separate gears can be distinguished, led the late Derek Price, a science historian at Yale University, to conclude that the device was an astronomical computer capable of predicting the positions of the sun and moon in the zodiac on any given date. A new analysis, though, suggests that the device was cleverer than Price thought, and reinforces the evidence for his theory of an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology.

Michael Wright, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, has based his new analysis on detailed X-rays of the mechanism using a technique called linear tomography. This involves moving an X-ray source, the film and the object being investigated relative to one another, so that only features in a particular plane come into focus. Analysis of the resulting images, carried out in conjunction with Allan Bromley, a computer scientist at Sydney University, found the exact position of each gear, and suggested that Price was wrong in several respects.

Antikythera mechanism is one of the world's oldest known geared devices. It has puzzled and intrigued historians of science and technology since its discovery. Following decades of work in order to clean the device, systematic investigations were undertaken in 1951 by British Derek J. de Solla Price, professor of history of science at Yale University at that time.

In June 1959, in a front-page article in Scientific American titled "An ancient Greek computer", he brought forth the theory that the Antikythera mechanism was a device for calculating the motions of stars and planets, which would make the device the first analog computer. Up until that time the function of the Antikythera mechanism was largely unknown, though it had been correctly identified as an astronomical device, perhaps being an astrolabe.

In 1971 the Greek nuclear research center "DEMOKRITOS" performed gamma-ray scans of the mechanism. In 1972 Price teamed up with Greek nuclear physicist Christoforos Karakalos to carry out X-ray analysis of the mechanism, in this way revealing critical information concerning the device's interior configuration.

In 1974 he authored "Gears from the Greeks: the Antikythera mechanism - a calendar computer from ca. 80 B.C.", where he presented a model of how the mechanism could have functioned. Recent research breakthroughs seem to give credence to Price's theory.