Analog Computer

The Gearwork Prophets: Mechanical Minds Before the Machine Age 1 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 1: The Antikythera Mechanism: The First Analog Computer 2 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 2: South-Pointing Chariot: The Inertial Guidance System 3 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 3: Heron’s Automation: Steam Engines & Holy Water Vending Machines 4 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 4: Archimedes' Mechanical Planetariums 5 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 5: Zhang Heng’s Seismoscope: The First Earthquake Detector ← Series Home The Clockwork Universe Found in Corroded Bronze In 1900, sponge divers working off a Greek island retrieved a lump of corroded bronze from an ancient Roman shipwreck. For decades, this unassuming mass sat unrecognized in museum storage, its true nature concealed by fragile, hardened layers of decay. Only when researchers began painstaking analysis, employing advanced techniques like CT scanning, did the staggering truth emerge: this was not scrap metal, but a complex clockwork device of profound ingenuity. Dating to approximately 100 BCE, this artifact, now known as the Antikythera Mechanism, housed an internal mechanical mind that physically simulated the cosmos. Its very existence forces modern historians to fundamentally reassess the technological ceiling of the ancient world. ...

The Gearwork Prophets: Mechanical Minds Before the Machine Age 1 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 1: The Antikythera Mechanism: The First Analog Computer 2 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 2: South-Pointing Chariot: The Inertial Guidance System 3 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 3: Heron’s Automation: Steam Engines & Holy Water Vending Machines 4 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 4: Archimedes' Mechanical Planetariums 5 The Gearwork Prophets - Part 5: Zhang Heng’s Seismoscope: The First Earthquake Detector ← Series Home Encoded Knowledge in Spinning Bronze Archimedes, the celebrated mathematician and philosopher of Syracuse, was legendary for feats of military engineering, but his ingenuity also reached into the realm of pure calculation. He was credited with constructing intricate mechanical minds: self-contained models of the heavens. These devices were far more than simple decorative globes; they were analog computers built to demonstrate the complex, non-uniform movements of celestial bodies. The core of this technology utilized mechanical principles that were centuries ahead of their time, effectively preserving astronomical knowledge in durable bronze rather than fragile scrolls. ...