The Antikythera Mechanism I

With Java animations by Bill Casselman

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2. Pictures of a Mechanism

Here are three significant illustrations from Derek de Solla Price's monograph on the Antikythera Mechanism. They are reproduced from the Transactions of the American Philosophical Scoiety, with permission.

Click on either image to view a larger version.

These two images are of the same fragment ("C1") before and after cleaning. The first one is shown at a slightly smaller scale. It gives some idea of the state of the mechanism when it was discovered. Shrinkage of the wood casing as it dried caused it the relic to split into several fragments, thereby exposing some of the bronze gearwork. Otherwise the true nature of what was inside the calcareous lump might never have been suspected. On the second can be seen the only remaining part of the dial on the front of the mechanism. The rulings are obvious. Close examination shows the name of a month on the outer (movable) ring, and one and a half names of zodiac constellations on the inner.

This is a gamma radiograph of one of the fragments ("A") of the mechanism. The gears can be matched with their positions in the gearplan. The three concentric bands at the lower left are part of the display dials on the back of the mechanism, whose function is not completely understood.

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• 1. The history of the Mechanism

• 2. Pictures of a Mechanism

• 3. The Sun-Moon Assembly

• 4. Gear ratios and continued fractions

• References