In his famous research paper "Gears From The Greeks"
historian Derek De Solla Price put forward a stunning theory
regarding the device known as the Antikythera Mechanism.
That the origins of our modern day engineering achievements,
what he called our "recent age of High Technology",
could be found in this ancient device.
He theorised that the profession of clock and instrument making
had acted as a silent "carrier" of a larger, and much older technology tradition.
Embedded in the daily output of clockmakers,
were the fundamental elements of modern engineering,
such as gearing, linkages, shafts and bearings.
Some of the key elements that had led to The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions,
and then everything that had followed.
Clockmakers, he said, had played a crucial role in the emergence of our modern world,
and that the clockmaking tradition itself,
was part of a distinguished main line of technology
that could be directly traced all of the way back to the Antikythera Mechanism.
The Ancient Greeks had written the original language of the mechanical engineer,
and had left behind a record of it in this incredible device.
A calculating machine, that used complex mathematics
and precise engineering to model the Ancient Greek understanding of the Cosmos.
A single input wheel drove a complex combination of gears, pins, slots, and pointers,
so that the operator could directly compute and most importantly predict,
the position of the naked eye celestial objects, the date and time of eclipses,
and even some of the characteristics of those eclipses.
The phase of the moon, retrograde motion of the planets,
and even barely observable details like the precession of the lunar orbit,
were all modelled according to Ancient Greek astronomical theory.
For our understanding of the history of science and technology,
it is likely to be the single most important object
that has ever been uncovered from ancient times.
Now I should point out that this is not the first time
that someone has made a version of the Antikythera Mechanism, in fact far from it.
There have been more than a dozen reproductions that I'm aware of,
the most notable of which are the two constructed by Michael Wright.
But as far as I am aware no-one has fully documented the construction process on video,
showing all of the engineering details and challenges,
as they would have been experienced by the original maker.
Now you're going to want to see me complete the project in a reasonable timeframe,
so I'll use the usual power tools that you've seen in previous videos.
But there will also be plenty of opportunity to investigate some of the construction,
as it would have been undertaken but the original maker more than 2000 years ago.
The data for the reproduction will be sourced from the latest research,
mostly from the published work of Tony Freeth
and his colleagues of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.
I've used his published gear schematics, and dimensions,
together with the raw scan data to generate what I think
is a faithful CAD model of the mechanism.
You can find links to that research in the description box below.
Of course after so much time under water,
a lot of those dimensions are quite uncertain,
and you'll be able to see for yourself that a lot of the engineering detail in the scans
is obscured, corroded or simply missing.
So a lot of the fun of building this reproduction is going to be had
in figuring out exactly how the original maker solved each problem.
For materials, the device was mainly constructed from a low tin bronze.
The closest modern equivalent, is a particularly expensive material in my part of the world,
and its probably not an authentic match anyway.
So while I will cast the raw stock for some of the parts from a homemade bronze,
for convenience I'll make the majority of the device from commercially available brass stock.
Either choice should deliver similar mechanical properties to the original,
and I think will be consistent with the overall spirit of the device.
Now there were of course no threaded fasteners used in the original.
It mainly has rivets, pins, latches and solder to hold everything in place,
with a wood casing providing the overall supporting structure.
These elements will be reflected in the reproduction,
but the wood case presents a small problem with regard to this video series.
It would obstruct a lot of the mechanism, and prevent you from seeing everything
as its being built, and we can't have that.
So I'll construct the mechanism using these temporary support pillars,
that you've been watching me make for the last few minutes.
It'll keep the whole thing open and easily viewed during the majority of the build.
At the end of the project, I can either remove the pillars entirely,
and replace them with the original wooden structure.
Or I could perhaps do some sort of combination of both pillars and detachable casing,
so that the internal wheel work can be viewed as the device is operated.
I'll leave that decision until later in the build.
Of course there's plenty more to figure out and so much more to discuss,
as I go through the process of building this beautiful machine.
Stick around, I'm sure its going to be a lot of fun
Thanks for watching, I'll see you later.
Now If you'd like to help me make these videos,
and you're not sure if you can go through an entire year
without seeing something a bit closer to modern horology,
then I've got just the thing for you.
Commencing in February 2017 A modern reproduction
of the 2nd oldest geared mechanism from antiquity.
The device known as The Byzantine Sundial Calendar,
and also known as the London Sundial Calendar.
I'm giving it the full reproduction treatment,
but more from the perspective of how an 18th century clockmaker
might have tackled the project.
So you'll see all of the techniques and materials that I've started to explore
with the skeleton clock project,
but developed further to work on this much more condensed scale.
Patrons get the same deal as for the first patron series project.
Exclusive access to the build videos,
free plans for the patron series projects,
and of course the added bonus that one lucky patron
will get to keep the finished project at the end of the build.
Visit Patreon.com/clickspring to find out more.
Thanks again for watching, I'll catch you on the next video.