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Do we know anything at all about the creators of this device, other than that they were Greek? Where was it made? What kind of tools did they use to do the mach
by voldacar 5y ago
Do we know anything at all about the creators of this device, other than that they were Greek? Where was it made? What kind of tools did they use to do the machining? How large was the workshop or factory where it was manufactured? Who was the target customer, how much did it cost?
Since we have only one device like this and it was found under rare circumstances (shipwreck), it seems like you could do a Bayesian analysis to get a rough order of magnitude estimate of how many of these were built.
- forinti 5y agoIt was probably made by Archimedes: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-ancient-greek-astronomical-calculation-machine-reveals-new-secrets/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-ancient-greek-...
- voldacar 5y agoThanks, that's an excellent article. I'm still not really convinced that Archimedes made it, as it would be a massive coincidence for the only device we found to be the same one described in a book by some notable figure. It seems plausible that Archimedes may have created the original design, though. I assume that the average person who encountered one would have been very impressed, so I find it really surprising that we don't have more texts that at least mention the existence of these devices.
- upsidesinclude 5y agoYour assumption about average people might be giving undue credit. Average people werent literate. They might not have any use for a calendar or know about astronomy if they even believed in the constellations as something other than godly. Very few people were in the circles of the highly educated. With many other intricate, rare instruments throughout history, the case is that they were commissioned by the extraordinarily wealthy from the most notable scholars and inventors
- voldacar 5y agoSorry, I meant the average educated person who might write a book. It just seems strange that we have only one reference to the device in all surviving classical literature
- dmurray 5y agoOnly circumstantially: we can guess that it was made by Greeks and we know a fair bit about their economy and bronze working ability from other historical sources. But if this had never been discovered, a reasonable guess for how many mechanisms of this sophistication existed would be zero.
- q3k 5y ago> Do we know anything at all about the creators of this device? Where was it made? What kind of tools did they use to do the machining? How large was the workshop or factory where it was manufactured? Who was the target customer, how much did it cost? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBDKmFG90U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBDKmFG90U
- gus_massa 5y ago> What kind of tools did they use to do the machining? There is a nice serie of videos by Clickpring partially building a copy. He used tools that he guess were available at that time. It's more a good guess by a current expert than a 100% accurate historically based list of tools, but it looks like a good guess. Main part, building the device: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0... More details about the tools: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsGnUXuZScwn6Ackf6LGILCa https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsGnUXuZScwn...
- robonerd 5y agoCicero wrote of similar devices and attributed them to Archimedes. However, maybe that attribution is similar to attributing the light bulb to Edison. We don't know who Archimedes might have been working with, who's shoulders he might have been standing on, etc.