[HN Gopher] The Antikythera mechanism - 254:19 ratio
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The Antikythera mechanism - 254:19 ratio
Author : 082349872349872
Score : 64 points
Date : 2024-12-15 18:46 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (leancrew.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (leancrew.com)
| zefhous wrote:
| I'm just here to fulfill the Hacker News rule that any post
| mentioning the Antikythera Mechanism must have a comment linking
| the excellent Clickspring build videos.
|
| https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4R...
| beeforpork wrote:
| Thank you! I was waiting for it so I could click on it again.
| :-)
| sgt101 wrote:
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024x0g
|
| Up to date and with a very good discussion of the 254:19 gearing.
|
| Also much more detail on the history of the mechanism.
| Alex3917 wrote:
| If you're in Athens, the Herakleidon museum has not only an
| exhibit about this, but about all sorts of other advanced Greek
| technology: coin-operated vending machines, drink-serving robots,
| water-powered telegraphs, etc. While this specific device may (or
| may not) have been a one-off, it's undeniable that ancient Greece
| was basically the real-life version of a Steampunk-based society.
| (With the caveat that ancient Persia probably had similar
| technology at one point also, but most of that has since been
| destroyed by the British and others throughout history.)
| hyhconito wrote:
| Oh damn it. Missed that one entirely. I will have to come back
| again.
| jcims wrote:
| Same!!!
|
| I just asked chatgpt "Based on what you know about me, what
| do you think I would be interested in seeing in Athens?"
|
| The Herakleidon Museum was third on the list. May have to try
| this again in the future.
| hyhconito wrote:
| Never thought of using it for that.
|
| Annoyingly I'm in Athens right now but flying back tomorrow
| way too early to sneak a visit in :(
| Terr_ wrote:
| > water-powered telegraphs
|
| This phrasing oversells it a bit too much: The water wasn't a
| power source and there was no long distance movement of it.
|
| They signaled between users with the light of a burning
| handheld torch, and the duration of the light corresponded to
| predefined messages.
|
| Water was used at each end for independent stopwatches, to
| measure the duration of the light. It's easy to imagine an
| equivalent system using sand hourglasses.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph#Greek_hy...
| hyhconito wrote:
| Ha literally just saw that this morning in the National
| Archaeological Museum in Athens! Lurking here paid off. A good
| read.
| meew0 wrote:
| > I've always liked blogging about calendrical things, but I
| don't remember doing anything on the Metonic cycle before. If I
| had written faster, I could've published it on Friday the 13th.
| Too bad.
|
| On the other hand, you published it during a full moon. That's at
| least slightly appropriate given the subject matter :)
| casenmgreen wrote:
| I was living in Athens, and visiting the museums, and I had no
| idea - I walked around a corner in the National and pow - the
| Mechanism, _THE_ Mechanism, was there, _right in front of me_.
|
| _WOW_.
|
| Also, Elgin marbles need to be returned. Parthenon is defaced by
| their absence.
| sneak wrote:
| They're not putting them outside again; they'd be inside in the
| Acropolis museum. The Parthenon (blown up as it is) would still
| be missing them.
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