Napoli Computers

# Wright, M T., "Il meccanismo di Anticitera: l'antica tradizione dei meccanismi ad ingranaggio" (The Antikythera Mechanism: evidence for an ancient tradition of the making of geared instruments), in: E. Lo Sardo (ed.), Eureka! Il genio degli antichi, Naples, July 2005 – January 2006), Electa Napoli 2005, pp. 241 – 244.

# ^ Wright, M T. (2004). "Il meccanismo di Anticitera: l'antica tradizione dei meccanismi ad ingranaggio (The Antikythera Mechanism: evidence for an ancient tradition of the making of geared instruments)". Αρχαιολογία & Τέχνες 95 (June 2005): 54–60.

# ^ Wright, M T. (2005). "Ο Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων (The Antikythera Mechanism)". Αρχαιολογία & Τέχνες 95 (June 2005): 54–60.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org

Planetarium Computers

# a b Wright, M T. (July 2002). "In the Steps of the Master Mechanic". Proc. Conf. Η Αρχαία Ελλάδα και ο Σύγχρονος Κόσμος (Ancient Greece and the Modern World). Ancient Olympiai. pp. 86–97. University of Patras 2003.

# ^ Wright, M T. (2002). "A Planetarium Display for the Antikythera Mechanism (a)". Horological Journal 144 (5 (May 2002)): 169–173.

# ^ Wright, M T. (2002). "A Planetarium Display for the Antikythera Mechanism (b)". Horological Journal 144 (6 (June 2002)): 193.

# ^ a b Wright, M T. (2005). "The Antikythera Mechanism and the early history of the Moon Phase Display". Antiquarian Horology 29 (3 (March 2006)): 319 – 329.

Mathematical Computers

Wright, M T.; Bromley, A. G., & Magkou, E (1995). "Simple X-ray Tomography and the Antikythera Mechanism". PACT (Revue du groupe européen d'études pour les techniques physiques, chimiques, biologiques et mathématiques appliquées à l'archéologie or Journal of the European Study Group on Physical, Chemical, Biological and Mathematical Techniques Applied to Archaeology) 45: 531–543.

HISPANIA COMPUTERS

On 30 November 2006, the science journal Nature published a new reconstruction of the mechanism by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, based on the high resolution X-ray tomography described above.[49] This work doubled the amount of readable text, corrected prior transcriptions, and provided a new translation. The inscriptions led to a dating of the mechanism to around 100 BC. It is evident that they contain a manual with an astronomical, mechanical and geographical section. The name HISPANIA (ΙΣΠΑΝΙΑ, Spain in Greek) in these texts is the oldest reference to the Iberian Peninsula under this form, as opposed to Iberia.

The new discoveries confirm that the mechanism is an astronomical analog calculator or orrery used to predict the positions of celestial bodies. This work proposes that the mechanism possessed 37 gears, of which 30 survive, and was used for prediction of the position of the Sun and the Moon. Based on the inscriptions, which mention the stationary points of the planets, the authors speculate that planetary motions may also have been indicated.

London Computers

Michael Wright, formerly Curator of Mechanical Engineering at The London Science Museum and now of Imperial College, London, made a completely new study of the original fragments together with Allan George Bromley. They used a technique called linear X-ray tomography which was suggested by retired consultant radiologist, Alan Partridge. For this, Wright designed and made an apparatus for linear tomography, allowing the generation of sectional 2D radiographic images.[29] Early results of this survey were presented in 1997, which showed that Price's reconstruction was fundamentally flawed.[30]

Further study of the new imagery allowed Wright to advance a number of proposals. Firstly he developed the idea, suggested by Price in "Gears from the Greeks", that the mechanism could have served as a planetarium. Wright's planetarium not only modelled the motion of the Sun and Moon, but also the Inferior Planets (Mercury and Venus), and the Superior Planets (Mars, Jupiter and Saturn).[31][32]

Wright proposed that the Sun and Moon could have moved in accordance with the theories of Hipparchus and the five known planets moved according to the simple epicyclic theory suggested by the theorem of Apollonios. In order to prove that this was possible using the level of technology apparent in the mechanism, Wright produced a working model of such a planetarium.[33][34]

Clock Computers

Following decades of work cleaning the device, in 1951 British science historian Derek J. de Solla Price undertook systematic investigation of the mechanism.

Price published several papers on "Clockwork before the Clock".[24][25] and "On the Origin of Clockwork",[26] before the first major publication in June 1959 on the mechanism: "An Ancient Greek Computer".[27] This was the lead article in Scientific American and appears to have been initially published at the prompting of Arthur C. Clarke, according to the book Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (see end of chapter 3). In "An Ancient Greek Computer" Price advanced the theory that the Antikythera mechanism was a device for calculating the motions of stars and planets, which would make the device the first known analog computer. Until that time, the Antikythera mechanism's function was largely unknown, though it had been correctly identified as an astronomical device, perhaps being an astrolabe.

Roman Computers

a 1st century BC philosophical dialogue, mentions two machines that some modern authors consider as some kind of planetarium or orrery, predicting the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known at that time. They were both built by Archimedes and brought to Rome by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus after the death of Archimedes at the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Marcellus had a high respect for Archimedes and one of these machines was the only item he kept from the siege (the second was offered to the temple of Virtus). The device was kept as a family heirloom, and Cicero has Philus (one of the participants in a conversation that Cicero imagined had taken place in a villa belonging to Scipio Aemilianus in the year 129 BC) saying that Caius Sulpicius Gallus (consul with Marcellus' nephew in 166 BC, and credited by Pliny the Elder as the first Roman to have written a book explaining solar and lunar eclipses) gave a 'learned explanation' of it and demonstrated it working.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/