Rebuilding the First Computer
- Posted by: Nikhil Swaminathan
- on December 16, 2008 at 8:00 pm
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This video from New Scientist shows a curator at London’s Science Museum using what’s being referred to as “the world’s oldest computer”–a 2,00o year-old Greek device made of interlocking dials and driven by a knob. The curator pieced together the so-called Antikythera machine, which was found in 81 parts in a shipwreck in 1902.
According to the accompanying feature article: “It turns out that it was a hand-wound clockwork device used to calculate the motions of the sun, moon and planets as seen from Earth, as well as to predict solar and lunar eclipses.”
Oh, by the way, it was apparently also made entirely from recycled parts. That’s right, the machine is green. And you thought the new MacBooks were cool.
