WONDER OF WONDERS
There has never been a time, I suppose, when Mankind did not look into the heavens above – especially at night - and say softly to himself: ”If I could come to know what makes all that work, I'd know all worth knowing!”
And, certainly ever since well before thew day when we first started counting time in B.C./ A.D. Terms, we have been constructing machines designed to help us learn how the galaxy functions. One of the earliest such gadgets is a small, many-wheeled, cogged and shafted creation powered by hand called the “Antikychera” - from its place of origin - the “Rhodes Calculator”.
Now a museum piece, it was in thought to have been part of the creative handiwork of a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer by the name of Posidonius. He lived on the island of Rhodes, the largest of the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea south of Greece. In in 87 B.C.,or thereabouts, and played and active role in extending studies of the universe as it was then understood.
He mechanism, was made to duplicate the movements of the known planets and of the moon and was not intended for any additional purpose. We have to remember ,too, that on the island of Rhodes, at that time, the concept of the universe was quite primitive. They thought of the earth as a large solid afloat on a vast sea with and inverted bowl above in which the stars and the moon appeared at night. The mechanism was designed to duplicate those movements of the planets as then known to exist and that of the Moon.. An interesting question has arisen in more recent years raising the question as to the use of the machine.
It may well have been used more by those persons interesting in astrology rather than astronomy where a more exacting rule of accuracy might be sought. Such and assumption may well be correct, but I find that it is difficult to tell one from the other during those formative years. Those who advance the astrology emphasis suggest that, of the two, astrology may we well have been the most profitable side of the fence of which and enterprising inventor type individual might locate himself. And investment in such a machine, hence, which would help their business and expense of r&d could, in time, be met and financial disaster averted, or, at least, delayed for a time.
The now rusted remains of the original machine have been duplicated in every detail and the replica tells us the invention did, indeed, “work”. Much depended, however,on the proper application of hand power by means of a level arrangement. Many people ,today, refer to it as “the forerunner of today's computers” which is stretching it a bit because it merely traced out the paths of the Moon and planets and left you sitting there no wiser than your were before you started turning the power handle. It reminds us, perhaps, that there are gadgets on the market today which do about the same for us. They swerve valuable purpose, none the less The man or men, who made that first antikychera machine, dreamed dreams far beyond their ability to make a machine which would be of genuine help, but they were delving into the potential. We have in our human minds the solution to life's most pressing problems, if we but work to seek them out.
What is your dream? It may not concern the world of philosophy,
economics, manufacturing or commerce but it can be so fashioned that other men and women can make it work to their advantage.
Dare to think and plan beyond your ability to perform that which now seems as if it would be a miracle.
A.L.M. September 23, 2004 [c636wds]
