5 ms·
> It is indeed a mystery how they did it,” said Stocker. How about using a Pantograph? > The ancient Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria described pantographs i
by ffhhj 5y ago
> It is indeed a mystery how they did it,” said Stocker.
How about using a Pantograph?
> The ancient Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria described pantographs in his work Mechanics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph
- happytoexplain 5y agoI have no idea if they could have used a pantograph, but the Hero of Alexandria apparently lived 1500 years after this artist.
- ffhhj 5y agoA simple device that could have been rediscovered over and over by technologists.
- ch4s3 5y agoProbably not, it has depth and is carved into agate. If you've never tried to carve stone, it is quite difficult.
- ffhhj 5y agoA 3D pantograph could be constructed with 2 of these mechanisms. Such device would make a task like this a little easier. Simpler answer than optics or photolithography.
- ch4s3 5y agoMaybe? It seems like building something like that to hold a carving tool and applying the necessary pressure to the other apparatus would be pretty tricky. The idea that it was done by someone with exceptional eyesight seems more plausible to me. It could have even been done in a workshop by multiple people. Maybe they could have used a crude convex brass mirror to aid the process.
- samstave 5y agoIf they can achieve this level of fine detail, I would err on the side of assuming any mirror they chose to fashion would be anything but crude. I wonder what Eric Schmidt's robotic submarine project is upto - it would be wonderful to see lidar / ground radar along all sea-shelves/continental-shelves... to see submerged coastal cities.
- ffhhj 5y agoHope they find another piece or fragment to (dis)prove whether they used some mechanical assisted method by superimposing the details.
- Someone 5y agoAgate has about the same hardness of quartz (6½-7 on the Mohs scale). I expect patience may have helped. If they did the carving with a slightly harder stone, it may have taken months to make (almost by keeping scratching it, rather than carving it), but it also would have been hard to mess up the work in a few seconds.