Decoding the world’s first analogue computer
Building your own PC in 2022 can be intimidating, but at least it’s easy to identify the parts involved. Not so for the Antikythera mechanism: scientists have been trying to recreate and understand the world’s first analogue computer for the best part of 120 years. But since this curious device is over two millennia old, in bits and has two-thirds of the pieces missing, it’s no wonder it’s puzzled them for so long.
The Antikythera mechanism could have come straight out of an Indiana Jones film. Discovered in 1900 by Captain Dimitrios Kontos and his crew of divers near the tiny island of Antikythera, its main surprise is its sophistication. There is simply nothing else like it from the ancient world.
Among the astounded researchers is Professor Tony Freeth, of University College London. He became interested in the Antikythera mechanism about 20 years ago. “I was approached by somebody I knew through a close friend who is a professor of astronomy and he asked me if I’d heard of this thing,” Freeth told PC Pro. “I hadn’t but I was soon intrigued by the puzzle that nobody had ever told me about.”
He quickly learned how diver Elias Stadiatos spotted a pile of treasure amid the bodies of long-lost humans and horses while Kontos’ crew were exploring the Aegean Sea off Antikythera’s coast.
