Ancient Gadgetry:The World's First Computer

A 2,000 year old computer?

Over the past 100 years scientist have been puzzled by a bronze artifact that was found in the waters between Crete and Kythera. In fact, in that time more than eighty fragments have been found. Of these, over thirty are hand cut gears. The largest gear has nearly thirty cogs, all covered with Greek text.

Recently these researchers feel that they have found the answer. A computer. Not just a computer, but an intricate analog computer that they believe was used to plot the movement of the stars. It may have been the advanced cousin of the astrolabe, a technology that was somehow lost over the centuries. It has been dubbed the Antikythera Mechanism.

The machine was built around 150 B.C and thought to be lost in 76 B.C. on a Roman cargo ship that sunk off of Crete. The mechanism was developed in Greece, so the theory is that the reason it was on the Roman ship was that it was part of a collection of items captured from the Greeks by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.

Until this was discovered, historians did not believe that this type of technology was in use prior to the 1500s. The device seems to have been powered by a hand crank, however scientist are unsure of that as well. It was probably enclosed in a wooden box, with facings of some metal that displayed the data.

The interior workings are a complex, mathematical model which apparently tracked the movements of the planets and stars, and used sub mechanisms to account for variations in their rotation. One of the dials featured the Greek zodiac as well as an Egyptian calendar.

Researchers found two dials on the back that tracked the moon's cycles, as well as the sun's. It could easily foretell the dates of eclipses. In addition, by winding a knob on its side, the positions of the sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn could be determined for any chosen date.

All the metal parts of the computer were seemingly cut from a single sheet of low-tin bronze. All the gear wheels were made with teeth at the same, exact 60 degree angle and size, so that each of the wheels would mesh with any other wheel. Apparently the machine was repaired at least twice. A spoke of the driving wheel was mended, and a broken tooth in a small wheel was replaced. This means that the machine was in actual use, and used enough that it broke and needed to be fixed.

It is fascinating to think that computers were around so many eons ago, and interesting to contemplate why the technology was forgotten. This is one of the most fascinating ancient gadgets in the world, and still holds many secrets for the scientists that are studying it.