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Monday, April 13, 2020

Analog or Digital Mechanisms of the Past

Excellent summary of what is known to date about of the Antikythera Mechanism, a 'computer' found in an ancient Greek shipwreck, over 2000 years old.  Not technical, but a favorite topic of interest.

The Antikythera Mechanism    By Herbert Bruderer
Communications of the ACM, April 2020, Vol. 63 No. 4, Pages 108-115  10.1145/3368855

 Until the discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism, astrolabes were often considered the earliest analog mathematical devices. Such complex gearwork as in this astronomical calculator, however, only appeared (again) much later, especially in medieval clockworks. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) knew gears, as his drawings show. Heron of Alexandria (1st century) used cogwheels for his pantograph. The construction of analog measuring and drawing instruments (for example, sectors, proportional dividers, compasses) and logarithmic circular and cylindrical slide rules was comparatively simple. Planimeters and (mechanical) differential analyzers were sophisticated. The first mechanical calculating machines were invented in the 17th century (Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz). These digital devices required stepped drums, pinwheels, and accumulators. In the second half of the 20th century there was a competition between electronic analog computers and electronic digital computers.  ... ' 

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