<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Hello Henry -</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I knew about the existence of the mechanism, but when I first read about it no one had yet figured out what it was for.  It was assumed</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>to be some type of navigational instrument (which perhaps it is) but was not restored enough to make a guess at how it worked.  That</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>was 30 or so years ago.  It shows up in National Geographic from time to time in articles on excavations at Thera since it makes for </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>a nice </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>photo of something more unusual than marble statuary and ruins.  The existence of the mechanism in conjunction with a major</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>volcanic eruption is one of the reasons some </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>people </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>think Thera was the original "Atlantis" in the old stories</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=707010217-12122005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Kathe</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left> <HR tabIndex=-1> <FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org [mailto:scc_active-bounces@computerhistory.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>H.M. Gladney<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 11, 2005 7:53 PM<BR><B>To:</B> SCC at CHM<BR><B>Subject:</B> [SCC_Active_Members] The Antikythira Machine: ancient Greek computer<BR></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=702374403-12122005>Sometimes we even learn something new from "the idiot box."  New to me, at least, and potentially of CHM interest.  Possibly known to most listeners on this list-serve.  In case you did not see the program today on the History Channel, there follows some material dredged up after we saw it.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=702374403-12122005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=702374403-12122005>Apparently the ancient Greeks had a machine that anticipated and outdid the Babbage machine, although the Greek version was exclusively geared for astronomical calculations.  Called the Antikithira Machine (after the village in whose harbor its remains were discovered in 1901), it is described in the attached MS Word file and in Web pages that you can link from that.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=702374403-12122005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=702374403-12122005>I am curious--had any CHM worker known of this machine, and is there anything in the collection about it?</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best wishes, Henry</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>H.M. Gladney, Ph.D.     </FONT><A href="http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/"><FONT face=Arial size=2>http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2> <SPAN class=702374403-12122005>   </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>HMG Consulting</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>