From an ancient Greek computer to the jet engine, San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design explores how great ideas are put in action
“It is a bit frightening to know that just before the fall of their great civilization the ancient Greeks had come so close to our age, not only in their thought, but also in their scientific technology,” wrote the science historian Derek J. de Solla Price in the June 1959 issue of. The source of Price's awe and anxiety was a peculiar 2,000-year-old device known as the Antikythera mechanism.
World War II era C1 Pitch/Roll Gyroscope manufactured by Honeywell Corporation, used as part of the autopilot in a B-17 Flying Fortress. Image courtesy David ColePrice predicted that the mechanism, which was found in an ancient treasure hoard off the coast of Antikythera in the year 1900, was not unique, because any technology that advanced could not emerge without precedent. Well over a century has passed and nothing like it has been found.
One possible criterion, represented by items such as the Norden bombsight, is fitness to purpose. Combining a mechanical calculator with precision optics, the sight was designed for accurate aim at high altitude and speed. It was invented in the 1920s. The military was still using it during the Korean War.
Other devices stand out for the simple elegance with which they solve a problem. In addition to the wheel and ball bearing, the oil burner nozzle falls into this category. Working on the principle that combustion efficiency increases when a fuel has greater surface area, the nozzle produces a fine mist that can be adjusted with a basic screw action.The standardized bolt represents a third approach.
The Antikythera mechanism does not obviously fit any of these categories or criteria. With only one example of it, we have no idea about standardization, let alone what problem it set out to solve or how fit it was to that purpose. It can't even be meaningfully compared to the Jacquard loom – another apparatus selected by– arguably the first programmable device and a direct inspiration for the computer.
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