human civilization has come a long way. over the past two and a half thousand years we live in a modern computer age get amazing the ancient greeks created a type of computer precise mechanical clocks and attack your measuring device over 2,000 years ago these devices have been hidden for thousands of years but are now
uncovered on modern marvels into discoveries one in ancient discoveries we will travel back in time to discover the amazing ancient roots of technologies we like to think of as modern new research is beginning to suggest that many of the inventions of the last 200 years may in fact have already been
known the ancient greeks and romans much of what we have recently discovered we may in fact have just rediscovered the greeks and romans were also intensely practical people many of the things which they devise plan that invented preceded by 2,000 years things that we like to think of as modern at
the heart of this story of ancient achievement lies a mysterious and arcane machine one so complex that many have refused to believe it could have been built by the ancient greeks hidden for centuries beneath the mediterranean sea in case in thick corrosion it remained an enigma until 20th century science glimpse inside
what they saw inside astonished them a massive gears and cogs a machine but what was it for and who had created for a hundred years it has been a written which intrigued but baffled those who tried to understand the mysterious object known as the antikythera mechanism
but now finally its story can be told that story began just over 100 years ago in the ear 1900 it was early spring when captain condos and his crew of sponge divers found themselves sheltering from a storm miles off course by the little greek island of antikythera as the weather cleared the captain decided to make the most of his unplanned stop by
diving in the deep clear waters off the island that's you the water was deep some 200 feet but then deep water was where the best sponges were found but so far down there always is the danger a diver might return to the surface with the notorious ben's once in the water the diver started his first descent
look what awaited him on the bottom were not sponges as he looked around he saw what appeared to be dead bodies scattered in all directions terrified he quickly signal to be pulled back to the boat some thought the diver was mad perhaps he had the bends but the truth was far far stranger than that
two thousand years ago another ship had sailed these waters on its way from roads to deliver a precious cargo to a wealthy roman citizen oh just like the sponge divers this ship that also been caught in a storm she too was driven far off course to the island of antikythera
but this ship was not destined to survive here she sunk and here she still lay captain condo sent another diver to investigate the wild story of the bodies what had first appeared to be dead bodies were in fact the most beautiful marble and bronze statues imaginable the remnants of that ancient wreck
along with the statues other treasures such as decorated greek causes and jewelry were winched to the surface it was the find of the decade perhaps the century and the breathtaking statues made front page news one of the most perfect bronzes recovered was named the antikythera youth the piece was universally acknowledged as a work of
genius but the greatest work of genius from the wreck still lay unrecognized this rusting lump of corrosion held the key to one of the greatest periods in human history the hellenistic period and perhaps the greatest achievement of that time two-and-a-half thousand years ago the
mediterranean was a place where science philosophy and art flourished the greeks known as he leans were living in what many regard as a golden age they had invented democracy opened up the fields of mathematics and science and introduced the world to philosophy they were inquisitive and invention no different in many ways from us today
in trying to understand their world they had created this strange machine all their 21st century descendants had to do was work out what they had created it for part of that answer late far from antikythera in a london museum display case 20 years ago michael wright curator of engineering at the science museum in london came upon another mysterious
ancient mechanical device although much less complex there were similarities with the antikythera mechanism we call this the presentaion sundial calendar we think it takes from about 500 ad it was a mechanical calendar which shows the passing of days indicated by the age of the moon within the month the gear wheels look
surprisingly modern complicated mathematics and a detailed knowledge of astronomy would have been necessary to create such an object michael wright decided to build a model of the device to explore how it would have worked the model shows the position of the sun and moon within the zodiac at any given date as well as the age of the moon
this instrument is is much more simple from the antikythera mechanism but what's exciting about it is to have found another instrument very obviously in the hellenistic tradition because of the the greek lettering and also having gear wheels so now we have not just one mechanism that tells us the greeks had gears we have to
we've doubled the evidence although similar it is estimated that the sundial calendar only had eight gearwheels where the antikythera device had at least 29 and perhaps up to 70 allowing for much more complicated calculations could the antikythera mechanism also be a mechanical calendar one many times more complicated than the
byzantine machine yet over 600 years older who in the ancient world had the ability to design such a complex device the question is baffled expert sentence discovery but there is one legendary figure who could have been its creator the remains of the antikythera mechanism are on display at the national
archaeological museum in athens greece but its original shape or dimension still cannot be determined modern marvels will continue in a moment the inventor of the antikythera mechanism would have to have been an expert in both mathematics and engineering a genius centuries perhaps even millennia ahead of his time
one man who fit that description was archimedes archimedes lived during the hellenistic period in the greek city-state of syracuse on what is today's sicily off the coast of italy during his lifetime the mediterranean was a turbulent war-torn place a world in which his talent for military
invention was put to good use by both his fellow greeks and the aggressive new power of rome that was slowly spreading its tentacles across the mediterranean today he is perhaps best remembered for the revolutionary invention known as the archimedean screw used to move water or seeds uphill but archimedes was also fascinated by
other difficult mechanical problems such as how to accurately measure distances the greatest challenge of all however was to solve the puzzle of what caused the rising and setting of the sun the changing seasons and the strange movements of the moon and planets what in short with the mechanics of time many years earlier archimedes had
traveled across the mediterranean to the most important cultural center of the hellenistic world alexandria egypt alexandria was the most sophisticated place on earth founded by alexander the great it was now ruled by the descendants of one of his generals greek soldiers who had
risen to become pharaohs it was a unique place the meeting point of the age old civilizations of the mediterranean a city of egyptians greeks romans and persians here they combine the wisdom of the pharaohs with the brilliance of greek philosophy to create the intellectual powerhouse of the ancient world and it
was here that the young archimedes would be inspired by the work of a mechanical genius called to cbs he would have a simple but brilliant idea that would literally change time forever to cbs was fortunate to be born in alexandria the place where all the knowledge of the ancient classical world was held in one vast library
a place where the great thinkers of antiquity studied and we're shelf upon shelf held thousands of scrolls recording their work the library was such a famous institution that people came here from all over the world to learn and invent it was here that to see these his revolutionary invention was recorded
and where the young archimedes may first have read of his work cbs is a figure who is often forgotten history yet his work paved the way for a technical revolution the measurement of yes to cbs came from humble beginnings he was the son of a simple barber as a young man he had worked in his father's barbershop in alexandria
inventing simple gadgets such as adjustable mirrors and here he was surrounded by the constant dripping of water which would inspire his great invention to cbs knew that for thousands of years the egyptian had used ordinary water timers to mark the hours of the day the famous karnak water clock is one example
it is a vessel which was filled with water and as it drained out through a spout at the bottom the time could be read as the level dropped markings inside showed the passing hours and allowed the ancient egyptians to measure the passing of time during the day or night but this was still only a timer known in greek times as a club sara not
a constant clock as the water level dropped the water came out more slowly to cbs however saw the solution he realized that if the vessel was always full then the water pressure outflow would always be the same if he could master that he knew he could create an accurate device which would change the world
this then was the challenge he decided to set himself serious saw that the way to simplify the egyptian etc was not to utilized outflow water but to try and update a uniform inflow of water the challenge was to keep the reservoir of the club sidra full at all times and this is how to cbs did it first he added another water tank above the main
reservoir this poured water into the top faster than it could flow out meaning the reservoir was always full and any excess water could just run off into an overflow container the water would always come out of the reservoir at the same speed now to cbs just had to measure it to do this he decided to put another water tank under
the constant outflow in this container he placed a float with a point on top and a scale next to it when the level of the water rose the point of rows at a constant speed it was a stroke of genius to cbs had created the world's first mechanical clock thanks to the dripping water in a barbershop
he had harnessed the power of water and in the process he had become the master of time but measuring hours and minutes was only the start what else could this unique water clock do the answer to that was kept here in the great library of alexandria anyone in the ancient world wanting to
understand time could come here and read to see abuses books which describe the wonderful machines he was now building and a whole new subject he had invented hydraulics before long his clocks were not just dripping taps ornate machines decorated with gilded figures of gods and animals and their mechanics were yet more elaborate to he devised a complex
scale for the hours shown here in white for the day and blue for the night the increasingly complicated series of gear wheels also allowed the scale to rotate very slowly to indicate the days within each month of the year this clock was also now a calendar and automatic day and night month a year cuckoo clock
archimedes was clearly fascinated by to cvs his creations he studied his clocks and used his own genius for invention to continue the work and arabic translation of archimedes work dating back over a thousand years we can see a tantalizing glimpse of his additions to save uses water clock this modern reconstruction shows
archimedes elaborations to the to cvs clock he added a bird who dropped a small stone onto a bell making a clock chimes on the hour the woman is a gorgon with snakes for hair when the bell chimes you look up to see her eyes change color indicating the alexandria today is a busy modern port a new building now stands in place of the
famous library tragically the original library was burned to the ground and with it was lost nearly all the knowledge of the ancient world only a very few ancient texts remain which mentioned to cbs his work we may never know what else he invented has not one single page of his own work survives
so much information has been lost that the cbs has been largely forgotten however there is one legacy of his work one clue which is still standing could this small greek tower hold the key to an ancient secret the dive in which the antikythera mechanism was discovered happen more than 40 years before modern day scuba gear was
invented modern marvels will continue in a moment this unassuming tower tucked away in a corner of athens is one of the best preserved buildings from antiquity its survival almost untouched is a miracle and one due to the fact that for centuries it was believed to be the tomb of the philosopher's socrates and plato but this isn't a tomb carved on its
eight phases are a clue to its real use on each side of warren sculpture of each of the eight wins can still be seen along with a sundial it was actually built finest stronger around 200 years after the death of too serious but is a monument to his genius this building now known as the tower of the winds was the public clock of
ancient athens inside this collar there once stood a huge and complex water clock based on a to cvs design this clock was fed by a constant stream of water which ran from a spring on the acropolis from which the whole population of happens could tell the but this was more than just a clock or even a calendar
some believe this strange building house device that even charted the movements of the sun and moon in relation to the constellations of the zodiac we know the greeks were measuring hours days and months during the time of too serious could it be that they had also started to look above and measure the heavens one man believe the answer may lie in
the cogs and wheels of the antikythera mechanism in 1951 and english physicist derek to solar price decided to find out for himself and examine the mechanism in detail for the first time the solar price travel to happens to look at the mechanism the pieces had lain largely untouched since its
discovery 50 years earlier the device had disintegrated further exposing pieces of the gears which he was able to study he became determined to crack the secrets of the antikythera mechanism the solar price spent much of his time at the national museum of grease in athens probing the secrets of this
ancient enigma something told him that these fragments were the real treasure from the antikythera wreck using new developments in x-ray technology he could now see what its discoverers 50 years before could not looking through the corrosion she was amazed a machine so complex it could
almost be modern he had to know what it was for his meticulous studies of the cogs gear ratios and inscriptions gave him close to the possible purpose of the mechanism remnants of a wooden box which held the device also had greek writing which gave further tantalizing hints using this information to solar price
developed a theory and put together a model of how he believed the antikythera mechanism could have worked he realized the mechanism was an extremely sophisticated device for calculating the relative movements of the sun and moon it also seemed to show the days of the month as lunar phases this all the price had established its
mechanical complexity and knew that the knowledge required to create such a machine was immense he believed that at the front of the mechanism of bronze dial showed the date and positions of the sun and moon a dial at the back would indicate the month possibly within a 12-month year another dial at the back seam to show either a
cycle of 47 months or four years the solar price called the mechanism a calendar computer for anyone in the ancient world such a device would have been invaluable to understand the movement of the sun and moon within the heavens was to look into the minds of the gods many believed then as some do today that
the positions of the sun moon and stars at the time of someone's earth may influence there later life what complex horoscope software does today the antikythera mechanism may have done over two millennia earlier to the priest n astrologers of the day this extraordinary machine could have been a window on the gods but where
could such a divisive come from the solar prize at an extraordinary theory what if machines like the antikythera mechanism were part of municipal clocks powered by the very water clocks that the cds had invented what if they were commonplace in the hellenistic world was this the secret of the tower of the winds not just a sundial or even o'clock
but an automatic model of the movements of the sun and move within the universe the solar price also suggested that the antikythera mechanism was a later copy of one of archimedes machines lost to the world since the destruction of the great library at alexandria this was an intriguing theory which could lead others to try to reveal the
truth about the antikythera mechanism in 1953 jacques cousteau and the crew of the calypso explore the antikythera wreck side when they return in 1973 they found previously undiscovered gold bars modern marvels will continue in a moment the antikythera mechanism mystery continued one man was to read the solar prices work and was to spend the next 30
years pondering his theory when michael right from the science museum first read the paper he was immediately fascinated by the notion that the ancient greeks had complex engineering right decided to go to athens himself to examine and reacts ray the mechanism we got this view with several of the pieces put together and
it helps me to build up a more complete picture of just how the gear wheels were arranged inside the box before it all fell apart although intrigued by the solar prices theory of the antikythera mechanism right believe there was more to the device and the solar price had realized i went back and read gifts from the
greeks again and started to find problems with prices account that's when i resolved i really have to look at things myself but for michael right to understand this strange device he knew he needed to do more than just look at it he needed to try to build one for himself after the solar prices publication many
academic simply refused to admit that the mechanism could be so old the complex gearing seemed to modern how could ancient peoples have calculated and precisely cut the fine teeth on each wheel they asked surely this was either a fake or a later machine that just happened to be lost on the site of the ancient wreck so right
set to work determined to prove them wrong using only tools similar to those available in the ancient world with the greeks knowledge of geometry he set out to copy these elaborate gears in his workshop measuring and cutting gears with only a pair of compasses a metal file and a good eye for detail was not
going to be easy but it was possible after many hours of practice right prove beyond doubt that with patience and skill it could be done you can't deny the evidence that the antikythera mechanism exists when you look at it closely it's very accomplished work both in design and execution
why shouldn't the ancient greeks have done it we know from translations of his work that archimedes was familiar with these types of cards and now it was the study of these gears that was to help solve yet another mystery involving one of his other mechanical marvel's the mystery of the odometer we all use odometers every time we get
in a car it's the device which measures the distance we've traveled but remarkably this device was in use long long the four cars and was crucial to the development of the roman empire odometer was said to have been invented by archimedes while he was working for the roman army it had been decreed that every road should be marked each mile
with a milestone but roman road stretched hundreds of miles so how could they be accurately measured by creating a cart that would accurately calculate distance archimedes solve the problem and the milestones could be laid out this accurate measurement of distance would prove crucial in planning troop
movements and that gave them the edge on her enemies archimedes had set the romans on the path to empire and started a train of events that would ironically lead to his own death today the most famous of roman roads the appian way is still marked in places by the milestones that archimedes machine laid out
but there is a problem with this apparently simple story one that professor andres lee's week from grand engine in holland would eventually solve with the aid of the ghostly x-ray images of the antikythera mechanism as no original survive the only clues to how the odometer worked are a few faded drawings in a renaissance book based on
a description of an odometer by a roman author called the truth eous the drawings look fine on paper the problem is when you try to build them they don't work even leonardo davinci attempted these are his sketches of an odometer which he attempted but could not successfully build
professor sleaze week started to make simple models to see if he could crack the odometer puzzle this was then developed into a quarter sized model and this was a model with a difference where even leonardo had failed please weeks model worked the mechanics are simple as the wheels turn when the vehicle travels a gear
with a single dude pushes around a huge gear with 400 teeth every time the large wheel turns once a small stone would be automatically dropped into a box below the device this allowed miles to be marked after the first punic war by decision of the senate of rome milestones had to be placed a long major bridge and that also
gives an idea who d-santa might have been in this case it means so what was lee's week secret the answer was in the shape of the teeth on the gears while davinci and others had assumed they were square sleaze we could actually seen the pointed teeth on x-rays of the antikythera mechanism changing the shape of those teeth made all the difference
archimedes odometer for so long thought of as just an impossible dream was back and working just as the great man had intended all thanks to that most mysterious of ancient objects the antikythera a device whose true secrets were yet to come to light in may nineteen eighty-three an italian stamp was issued
to honor our communities however the image printed was actually that of our kodama the third a king of sparta from 3rd century bc modern marvels will continue in a moment back in london michael wright was building his working antikythera mechanism model using ancient techniques far more complex than the odometer but
using similar gears this would be the most complete model of the antikythera mechanism ever built as each gear slotted into place it soon became clear to solar price may have got the details wrong but his theory was right the antikythera mechanism was an automated calculating device perhaps even a type of computer
you could call this thing a computer in the sense that you put in some data and it gives you out related data an ancient computer is a difficult concept to imagine yet in many ways that is exactly what the antikythera mechanism is it is astounding to compare it with the machine designed by charles babbage in
the eighteen thirties which is often cited as the world's first computer and the machine which led to our modern high-tech age this was the first modern device which could make automatic calculations the technology is startlingly similar to the antikythera mechanism yet there is two thousand years difference between the
two right believes that the antikythera mechanism was more complex than the solar price imagined and most importantly also showed the changing positions of the planets as well as the sun and moon over time in rights model of the mechanism a knob is turned to set the days and months intricate gearing then moves a series of indicators which
represent the sun moon and levels the knob could be turned every day so the position of the planets could be monitored throughout the year or it could be set to a specific date to show their positions at that time it is in effect a mechanical model of the greek universe today astrologers need a complex computer
program to carry out exactly the function of the antikythera mechanism so good this machine have been created by archimedes himself we know from ancient texts that he built planet area but could he have designed this one is difficult to make a direct connection between the antikythera mechanism and archimedes what we can say
with certainty was the revolution but archimedes pioneered in mathematics and geometry was necessary for those who then invented the antikythera mechanism without archimedes and his advances is difficult to think that the antikythera mechanism could have been invented at all archimedes own life was cut short before
he could finish his revolutionary work on mathematics and mechanics during the roman sacking of his home city of syracuse it is said a roman soldier was sent to find him and bring him back alive and archimedes refused to leave his work the soldier became angry and killed him it was an ironic and for a man who had
done so much to make rome such a formidable fighting force his death marked the beginning of the end of the hellenistic tradition of great invention and science his work however was preserved stored on the endless shells of the great library of alexandria a treasure greater than any the romans
looted from syracuse but even that legacy was not to last the library itself fell victim to war and destruction being burned to the ground several times over the following 800 years eventually most of the collection including much of archimedes work was lost or destroyed in the fires if only the library had survived we may have
inherited the insights of such great thinkers without them we have been forced to reinvent much that we are only now realizing was already known over 2,000 years ago if we had not lost this ancient wisdom how much more advanced might science and technology be today and what else may still lie hidden or
lost from that time without that sudden storm all those centuries ago that each ship might not have foundered taking her cargo of statues pottery and that incredible machine to the bottom of the mediterranean sea if a group of sponge divers had not stumbled upon the rec 2,000 years later the antikythera mechanism might be lying there today
slowly corroding and what other technological marvels from that time might still be awaiting discovery i think that these mentions we have in the literature and this one instrument are just the tips of icebergs showing that there was a great deal more to this tradition the term that between haven't heard about 2,000 years ago there was a
world more advanced and we had dared to believe and more secrets from that time they still live waiting to be discovered ancient discoveries we are only just beginning to understand you can feel it when you go to work when you go to church when you pay your taxes it is the world that has been pulled
over your eyes to blind you from what truth what
