Decoding the Heavens

by Decoding the Heavens- Solving the Mystery of the World's First Computer (retail) (epub)

  Koehler, Carolyn G., ‘Virginia Randolph Grace, 1901–1994’, in American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 100, pp. 153–155 (1996)

  Yalouris, N., ‘The shipwreck of Antikythera: New evidence of its date after supplementary investigation’, in Jean Paul Descoeudres, (ed.) Eumousia: Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou, pp. 135–136 (Sydney: Meditarch, 1990)

  Chapter 4

  Books:

  McAleer, Neil, Odyssey: The Authorised Biography of Arthur C. Clarke (Victor Gollancz, 1992)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, Little Science, Big Science (Columbia University Press, 1963)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, Little Science, Big Science . . . and Beyond, Foreword by Robert K. Merton and Eugene Garfield (Columbia University Press, 1986)

  Price, D.J.D., The Equatorie of the Planetis (Cambridge University Press, 1955)

  Welfare, Simon and John Fairley, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World (Fontana, 1980)

  Papers:

  Drachmann, A. G., ‘The plane astrolabe and the anaphoric clock’, in Centaurus, vol. 3, p. 183 (1954)

  Garfield, Eugene, ‘A tribute to Derek John de Solla Price: A bold, iconoclastic historian of science’, in Essays of an Information Scientist, vol. 7, pp. 213–217 (1984)

  Garfield, Eugene, ‘Derek Price and the practical world of scientometrics’, in Science, Technology and Human Values 13 (3/4), pp. 349–50 (1988)

  Garfield, Eugene, ‘In memoriam’, in Essays of an Information Scientist, vol. 6, p. 645 (1983)

  Landels, J. G., ‘Water clocks and time measurement in classical antiquity’, in Endeavour, New Series vol. 3, no. 1 (1979)

  Morris, Robert L., ‘Derek de Solla Price and the Antikythera mechanism: An appreciation’, in IEEE Micro, pp. 15–21 (Feb 1984)

  Needham, J., W. Ling and D.J.D. Price, ‘Chinese astronomical clockwork’, in Nature, vol. 177, pp. 600–2 (1956)

  Noble, Joseph V. and Derek J. de Solla Price, ‘The water clock in the Tower of the Winds’, in American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 72 no. 4, pp. 345–355 (Oct 1968)

  Price, Derek, ‘Editorial statements’, in Scientometrics, vol. 1, pp. 3–8 (Sept 1978)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, ‘Clockwork before the clock’, in Horological Journal (5 Oct 1955)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, ‘An Ancient Greek computer’, in Scientific American, pp. 60–67 (1959)

  Price, D.J.D., ‘The equatorium of the planetis’, in Bull. Brit. Soc. Hist. Sci., vol. 1, pp. 223–6 (1953)

  Price, D.J.D., ‘Networks of scientific papers’, in Science, vol. 149, pp. 510–5 (1965)

  Price, Derek J., ‘The prehistory of the clock’, in Discovery, pp. 153–157 (April 1956)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, ‘The tower of the winds: Piecing together an ancient puzzle’, in National Geographic, pp. 586–596 (April 1967)

  Chapter 5

  Books:

  Däniken, Erich von, Chariots of the Gods? Memories of the Future Unsolved Mysteries of the Past (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969)

  Däniken, Erich von, Odyssey of the Gods: The Alien History of Ancient Greece (Vega, 2002)

  Feynman, Richard, What Do You Care What Other People Think? (Unwin Hyman, 1989)

  Neugebauer, Otto, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (Springer, 1975)

  Papers:

  Beaver, Donald deB., ‘Eloge: Derek John de Solla Price’, in Isis, vol. 76, issue 3, pp. 371–374 (1985)

  ‘Interview: Derek de Solla Price’, in Omni, pp. 89–102, 136 (1982)

  MacKay, Alan, ‘Derek John de Solla Price: An appreciation’, in Social Studies of Science, vol. 14, pp. 315–20 (1984)

  Miller, F.J., E.V. Sayre and B. Keisch, ‘Isotopic methods of examination and authentication in art and archaeology’, in Oak Ridge National Laboratory IIC-21 (Oak Ridge, Oct 1970)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla, ‘Gears from the Greeks. The Antikythera Mechanism: A calendar computer from ca. 80 BC’, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., vol. 64, no. 7, pp. 1–70 (1974)

  Shapley, Deborah, ‘Nuclear weapons history: Japan’s wartime bomb projects revealed’, in Science, vol. 199, pp. 153–157 (1978)

  Shizume, Eri Yagi and Derek J. de Solla Price, ‘Japanese bomb’, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, p. 29 (Nov 1962)

  ‘The Leonardo da Vinci Medal’, in Technology and Culture, pp. 471–478 (1976)

  Chapter 6

  Books:

  Asprey, William (ed.), Computing Before Computers (Iowa State University Press, 1990)

  Swade, Doron, The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer (Abacus, 2001)

  Wright, M.T., J.V. Field and D.R. Hill, Byzantine and Arabic Mathematical Gearing (The Science Museum, 1985)

  Papers:

  Bromley, Allan G., ‘Notes on the Antikythera mechanism’, in Centaurus, vol. 29, pp. 5–27 (1986)

  Bromley, Allan G., ‘The Antikythera Mechanism: A reconstruction’, in Horological Journal, p. 28–31 (July 1990)

  Bromley, Allan G., ‘Observations of the Antikythera mechanism’, in Antiquarian Horology, pp. 641–652 (Summer 1990)

  Bromley, Allan G., ‘The Antikythera mechanism’, in Horological Journal, p. 412–415 (June 1999)

  Cherfas, Jeremy, ‘Seeking the soul of an old machine’, in Science, New Series, vol. 252, no. 5011, pp. 1370–1371 (7 June 1991)

  Edmunds, Mike and Philip Morgan, ‘The Antikythera mechanism: Still a mystery of Greek astronomy?’, in Astronomy and Geophysics, vol. 41, pp. 6.10–6.17 (Dec 2000)

  Field, J.V. and M. T. Wright, ‘Gears from the Byzantines: A portable sundial with calendrical gearing’, in Annals of Science, vol. 42, pp. 87–138 (1985)

  Maddison, Francis, ‘Byzantine calendrical gearing’, in Nature, vol. 314, pp. 316–317 (1985)

  Wright, M.T., A.G. Bromley and H. Magou, ‘Simple X-ray tomography and the Antikythera mechanism’, in PACT (Journal of the European Study Group of Physical, Chemical, Biological and Mathematical Techniques Applied to Archaeology), pp. 45, 531–543 (1995)

  Chapter 7

  Books:

  Evans, James, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford University Press, 1998)

  Papers:

  Wright, M.T. and A.G. Bromley, ‘Current work on the Antikythera mechanism’, in Proc. Conf. on Ancient Greek Technology, pp. 19–25 (Greece, Thessaloniki, Sept 1997)

  Wright, M.T., ‘A planetarium display for the Antikythera mechanism’, in Horological Journal, pp. 144, 169–173 and 193 (2002)

  Wright, M.T. ‘Epicyclic gearing and the Antikythera mechanism, Part I’, in Antiquarian Horology, vol. 27, pp. 270–279 (2003)

  Wright, M.T., ‘In the steps of the master mechanic’, in Proc. Conf. on Ancient Greece and the Modern World, pp. 86–97 (Greece: University of Patras, 2003)

  Wright, M.T. and A.G. Bromley, ‘Towards a new reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism’, in Extraordinary Machines and Structures in Antiquity (ed. S.A. Paipetis), pp. 81–94 (Patras: Peri Technon, 2003)

  Wright, M.T., ‘The scholar, the mechanic and the Antikythera mechanism’, in Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, vol. 80, pp. 4–11 (2004)

  Wright, M.T., ‘Counting months and years: The upper back dial of the Antikythera mechanism’, in Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, vol. 87, pp. 8–13 (2005)

  Wright, M.T., ‘Epicyclic gearing and the Antikythera mechanism, Part 2’, in Antiquarian Horology, vol. 29, pp. 51–63 (2005)

  Wright, M.T., ‘The Antikythera mechanism: A new gearing scheme’, in Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, vol. 85, pp. 2–7 (2005)

  Wright, M. T., ‘The Antikythera mechanism and the early history of the moon phase display’, in Antiquarian Horology, vol. 29, pp. 319–329 (2006)

  Wright, M.T. ,‘Understanding the Antikythera mechanism’, in Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on Ancient Greek Technology, pp. 49–60 (Athens: Technical Chamber of Greece, 2006)

  Wright, M.T. ‘The Antikythera mechanism reconsi
dered’, in Interdisciplinary Science Review, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 27–43 (2007)

  Chapter 8

  Papers:

  Brooks, Michael, ‘Tricks of the light’, in New Scientist, pp. 38–41 (7 April, 2001)

  Edmunds, Mike, ‘The elementary universe’, in Astronomy and Geophysics, vol. 46 pp. 4.12–4.17 (Aug 2005)

  Edmunds, Mike, ‘Landscapes, circles and Antikythera: The birth of the mechanical universe’, in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Special Issue, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 87–92 (2006)

  Freeth, Tony, ‘The Antikythera mechanism. I. Challenging the classic research’, in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 21–35 (2002)

  Ramsey, Andrew T., ‘The latest techniques reveal the earliest technology – A new inspection of the Antikythera mechanism’, in International Symposium on Digital Industrial Radiology and Computed Tomography, pp. 25–27 (France, Lyon, June 2007)

  Seabrook, John, ‘Fragmentary knowledge: Was the Antikythera mechanism the world’s first computer?’, in The New Yorker (14 May, 2007)

  Solomos, N.H. (ed), ‘The Antikythera Mechanism – Real Progress Through Greek/UK/US Research. M.G. Edmunds for the Antikythera Research Project. Recent Advances in Astronomy and Astrophysics’, in 7th International Conference of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, pp. 913–918 (2006)

  Chapter 9

  Books:

  Netz, Reviel and William Noel, The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Blueprint of Modern Science (Phoenix, 2007)

  Steele, John, Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000)

  Papers:

  Charette, Francois, ‘High-tech from Ancient Greece’, in Nature, vol. 444, pp. 551–552 (2006)

  Freeth, T., Y. Bitsakis, X. Moussas, J.H. Seiradakis, A. Tselikas, H. Mangou, M. Zafeiropoulou, R. Hadland, D. Bate, A. Ramsey, M. Allen, A. Crawley, P. Hockley, T. Malzbender, D. Gelb, W. Ambrisco, M.G. Edmunds, ‘Decoding the Ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera mechanism’, in Nature, vol. 444, pp. 587–591 (2006)

  Marchant, Jo, ‘In search of lost time’, in Nature vol. 444, pp. 534–538 (2006)

  Steele, John, ‘Eclipse prediction in Mesopotamia’, in Archive for History of Exact Sciences, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 421–454 (Feb 2000)

  Steele, John, ‘Ptolemy, Babylon and the rotation of the earth’, in Astronomy and Geophysics, vol. 46 pp. 5.11–5.15 (2005)

  Chapter 10

  Books:

  Cicero, The Nature of the Gods (Oxford University Press, 1998)

  Evans, James, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford University Press, 1998)

  Hill, Donald, Islamic Science and Engineering (Edinburgh University Press, 1993)

  Kidd, Ian Gray, Posidonius: Volume III The Translation of the Fragments (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

  Linssen, Marc J.H., The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice (Brill-Styx, 2004)

  Pliny, Natural History (Penguin, 1991)

  Rosheim, Mark E., Robot Evolution: The Development of Anthrobotics (Wiley-Interscience, 1994)

  Ruggles, Clive, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Northern Ireland (Yale University Press, 1999)

  Russo, Lucio, The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn (Springer, 2003)

  Toomer, G.J. (translated), Ptolemy’s Almagest (Princeton University Press, 1998)

  Papers:

  Freeth, Tony, Alexander Jones, John Steele and Yanis Bitsakis, ‘Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera mechanism’, in Nature, vol. 454, pp. 614–617 (2008)

  Gingerich, Owen, ‘Islamic astronomy’, in Scientific American, vol. 254, p. 74 (April 1986)

  Jones, Alexander, ‘The adaptation of Babylonian methods in Greek numerical astronomy’, in Isis, vol. 82, pp. 441–453 (1991)

  Jones, Alexander, ‘The astronomical inscription from Keskintos, Rhodes’, in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Special Issue, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 213–220 (2006)

  Jones, Alexander, ‘The Keskintos astronomical inscription text and interpretations’, in SCIAMVS, vol. 7, pp. 3–41 (2006)

  Keyser, Paul, ‘A new look at Heron’s ‘‘Steam Engine’’’, in Archive for History of Exact Sciences, vol. 44, pp. 107–124 (1992)

  Price, Derek J. de Solla ‘Automata and the origins of mechanism and mechanistic philosophy’, in Technology and Culture, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 9–23 (Winter 1964)

  Toomer, G.J., ‘Hipparchus’, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles Gillespie, vol. XV, pp. 207–224 (New York: Scribners, 1970–1980)

  Toomer, G.J., ‘Hipparchus and Babylonian astronomy’, in A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs, pp. 353–362 (Philadelphia: Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 9)

  Tybjerg, Karin, ‘Wonder-making and philosophical wonder in Hero of Alexandria’, in Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., vol. 34, pp. 443–446 (2003)

  Waerden, Bartel van der, ‘Mathematics and astronomy in Mesopotamia’, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (ed. in Chief Charles Gillespie), vol. XV, Supplement I, pp. 667–680 (1978)

  Footnotes

  1. Is it correct to describe the Antikythera mechanism as a computer? The term was first applied by Derek Price when he called it a calendar computer, but some scholars have suggested that the word ‘calculator’ would be more appropriate. This book follows the guidance of Doron Swade, a computer historian who until recently was senior curator of computing at the Science Museum in London. He argues that it is short-sighted to restrict the term ‘computer’ purely to the programmable electronic devices that we are familiar with today. In his view, the computing tradition started much earlier. He defines a computer as any device that can not only calculate a mathematical function, but also display the answer on a numerical scale. So a spherical model of the solar system would not count as a computer, for example, but the Antikythera mechanism most certainly does.

  2. Austria’s Tom Sietas has since broken the nine-minute barrier.

  Index

  The following items may be used as a guide to search for information in the eBook.

  Achaea (I)

  Adriatic Sea (I)

  Aegean (I), (II), (III), (IV)

  Afghanistan (I)

  Africa (I)

  Aigilia see Antikythera

  al-Biruni (I), (II), (III)

  Al-Muradi (I)

  Alexander the Great (I), (II), (III)

  Alexandria (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX), (X), (XI)

  Museum and library of (I)

  Ambrisco, Bill (I)

  Anatolia (I)

  Anaximander (I)

  Antikythera island (I), (II)

  Antikythera mechanism

  description of (I), (II), (III)

  discovery of (I), (II)

  uniqueness of (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V)

  early interpretations of (I)

  hidden during war-time (I)

  uncertainties concerning (I)

  possible origins and destination of (I), (II)

  Price’s work on (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX), (X), (XI), (XII), (XIII), (XIV), (XV), (XVI), (XVII)

  X-rays of (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX)

  counting of teeth in (I)

  models and reconstructions of (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII)

  von Däniken’s views of (I)

  put on display (I)

  Wright’s work on (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX), (X), (XI)

  Bromley’s work on (I), (II), (III)

  considered a computer (I)

  possible purposes of (I), (II), (III)

  accidentally broken by Wright (I)

  suggested documentary on (I)

  and decoding of texts from the CT data (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI)

  dating of (I), (II), (I
II)

  Freeth’s work on (I), (II)

  speculation on possible maker of (I), (II)

  personal impressions of (I)

  continuing work on (I)

  Antikythera wreck (I)

  Kontos and the sponge divers (I), (II), (III), (IV)

  finds reported to the Government (I), (II)

  statues from (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII)

  cataloguing and displaying of objects from (I), (II)

  amphoras from (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI)

  glassware from (I), (II), (III)

  dating of (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI)

  Cousteau and Dumas’ expeditions to (I), (II)

  Roman construction of (I)

  coins from (I)

  skull found in (I)

  Antikythera Youth see Hermes, statue of

  Antioch (I)

  Apamea (I)

  Apollonius (I), (II)

  Aratus, Phenomena (I)

  Archimedes (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII)

  Aristion (I)

  Aristotle (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V)

  Artemis (I)

  Artemis 4 radio telescope (I)

  Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World (film, 1980) (I)

  Ashurbanipal (I)

  Asia Minor (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX)

  Assyria (I), (II)

  astrolabes (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX)

  astrology (I)

  astronomy

  early instruments for (I), (II), (III), (IV)

  early texts on (I)

  importance of the Antikythera mechanism to history of (I), (II)

  evidence of interest in (I)

  Classical writings on (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V)

  Babylonian work on (I)

  clockwork displays (I)

  modern understanding of (I)

  Athens (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII)

  National Archaeological Museum (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX), (X), (XI), (XII), (XIII), (XIV), (XV), (XVI), (XVII), (XVIII), (XIX), (XX), (XXI), (XXII), (XXIII)