Welcome to the 35th episode, which is another 10-minute installment of Psycho Bob Says, What's the Antikythera Mechanism? 

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The Antikythera mechanism is generally referred to as the first known analogue computer.

 

The story starts with the discovery of a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900. When sponge divers investigated the shipwreck, they found the kind of items often associated with such discoveries, including marble statues, pottery, jewelry, and coins, but they also discovered a strange object, the likes of which nobody had ever seen.

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After decades of study, it has been determined that the Antikythera mechanism is an Ancient Greek hand-powered mechanical model of the of the solar system. It was a mechanical computer of bronze gears that used ground-breaking technology to make astronomical predictions, by mechanizing astronomical cycles and theories. I used two main sources for the information for this episode, the book “The Antikythera Mechanism: The History and Mystery of the Ancient World’s Most Famous Astronomical Device” as well as the article, “A Model of the Cosmos in the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism” published in Nature magazine on March 12, 2021. To see the article, click here.