Did it by chance have an Apple mark on it?
On Sep 17, 2006, at 4:56 PM, Daniel Stenning wrote:
Revealed: world's oldest computer
Helena Smith
Sunday August 20, 2006
The Observer
It looks like a heap of rubbish, feels like flaky pastry and has been
linked
to aliens. For decades, scientists have puzzled over the complex
collection
of cogs, wheels and dials seen as the most sophisticated object from
antiquity, writes Helena Smith. But 102 years after the discovery of the
calcium-encrusted bronze mechanism on the ocean floor, hidden
inscriptions
show that it is the world's oldest computer, used to map the motions
of the
sun, moon and planets.
'We're very close to unlocking the secrets,' says Xenophon Moussas,an
astrophysicist with a Anglo-Greek team researching the device. 'It's
like a
puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge.'
Known as the Antikythera mechanism and made before the birth of
Christ, the
instrument was found by sponge divers amid the wreckage of a cargo
ship that
sunk off the tiny island of Antikythera in 80BC. To date, no other
appears
to have survived.
'Bronze objects like these would have been recycled, but being in deep
water
it was out of reach of the scrap-man and we had the luck to discover
it,'
said Michael Wright, a former curator at London's Science Museum. He
said
the apparatus was the best proof yet of how technologically advanced the
ancients were. 'The skill with which it was made shows a level of
instrument-making not surpassed until the Renaissance. It really is the
first hard evidence of their interest in mechanical gadgets, ability
to make
them and the preparedness of somebody to pay for them.'
For years scholars had surmised that the object was an astronomical
showpiece, navigational instrument or rich man's toy. The Roman Cicero
described the device as being for 'after-dinner entertainment'.
But many experts say it could change how the history of science is
written.
'In many ways, it was the first analogue computer,' said Professor
Theodosios Tassios of the National Technical University of Athens. 'It
will
change the way we look at the ancients' technological achievements.
On 17/9/06 18:46, "Norman Palardy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
On Sep 15, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Terry Ford wrote:
In 1943, Colossus, the world's first programmable digital
electronic computer
This part of the entry is mostly wrong
There was actually a lawsuit in which the Eniac folks were suing for
the right to claim the right to this title and they were upstaged and
the suit resolved in Atanasoff and Berry's favor who predated all of
these (they did their work prior to WW II)
Even Konrad Zuse, whose work remained largely unknown because he was
a German, predated much of the Colossus work.
I believe the professional magazines and literature (Anals of the
Hostory of Computing) reflects that Atanasoff Berry is in fact the
earliest programmable digital computer.
But, their computer was not GENERAL PURPOSE and so I believe that the
Eniac ends up claiming the title of first general purpose digital
computer and the Atanasoff Berry the first programmable digital
computer.
, conceived by Tommy Flowers and his crew at the British Post
Office, Dollis Hill facility, was built at Bletchley Park in order
to break the Fish Cyphers, in particular the Lorenz cipher.
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