Antikythera Fragment #8 - Ancient Tool #Technology - Layout Line Visibility

g'day chris here and welcome back to clickspring in episode 4 of the main build series I raised the issue of how the ancients may have increased the visibility of layout lines whilst making components for the mechanism and you recall that I tried out candle sort as one possible idea now there were many excellent ideas suggested in the comments of that video so in this video I'm going to test out a few of those ideas to see what else might have plausibly been used the mechanism was constructed almost entirely from a lote in bronze so I've chosen a similar alloy for these test pieces and a lot of the ideas could be broadly categorized as being oxide based making use of the natural tendency for bronze to form a dark patina over time in fact it could be argued that no enhancement of the surface would have been required at all the metal would likely have had an oxide coating from the formation process and it does provide a reasonable contrast but I've discovered through the construction process that abrasives almost certainly played a large role in the fabrication of the machine particularly in achieving the very tight clearances so that would almost certainly have been situations when layout lines were placed on to freshly abraded metal surfaces and so would have benefited from some sort of contrast enhancement so with that being the case there are a lot of excellent ideas that essentially involved forcing the rapid formation of oxide onto a fresh surface the first of which is simple heating and it certainly works well I used a butane torch for convenience and almost any heat source from the period would have done the job it's a tough oxide and the contrast is good so a heat generated oxide is a definite possibility but there are also many ways to chemically generate an oxide using readily available chemicals from the period ammonia and vinegar are two strong candidates and I found the best results by simply exposing the test pieces to the vapor of each chemical the result with vinegar was certainly clear but the ammonia was by far the most effective of the two generating a deep green patina within a few hours of exposure it's also possible that the apps more complex chemicals were created from the more common ingredients this ammonium sulfate solution was easy enough to make and generated a very clean oxide layer in a matter of minutes and while it's not entirely clear that liver of sulfur was now and during the period it does seem to be a reasonable proxy for the various sulfur based compounds that likely would have been available and again it generates a clear useful result so with several plausible methods chemical oxidation of the metal surface would have been a relatively convenient way to improve the law in contrast although it's worth pointing out that some might have been more practical than others ammonia for example produces a very tough green oxide but it does appear to come at the cost of a small amount of the surface metal a similar issue applies to vinegar it's a decent oxide but it rubs off relatively easily and the reaction has lightly pitted the surface the ammonium sulfate oxide is excellent very tough and uniform at the cost of essentially no metal and the same applies to liver of sulfur it's a very tough oxide and with an excellent contrast now I guess that each of these methods present a small liability in the shop with regard to the smell of the chemicals and the risk of spillage but they're certainly workable particularly the last two it would have been fairly straightforward to remove the oxide with an abrasive such as powdered pumice and it's easy to imagine this last step that he worked into the general build process of setting clearances as a given part approach completion now another suggestion for chemically altering the surface of the metal revolves around using blue stone solution otherwise known as copper sulfate in addition to being well suited to growing large crystals copper sulfate solution reacts easily with the surface of ferrous metals depositing a thin layer of metallic copper onto the metal surface it's a very convenient and effective method for improving line contrast and can be easily removed with a light abrasive but the problem is that copper sulfate doesn't react with copper based alloys such as bronze so although it was an to some extent still is used as a marking fluid for ferrous metals it wouldn't have been applicable to the construction of the bronze components of this particular mechanism now before I move on to some of the other ideas I'd like to quickly revisit the idea of suit and lampblack simple candle sort proved to be a little too fragile to a large extent that fragility comes down to the fuel that was burned some fuels generate an oilier soot that more readily sticks to the surface and it's clear that paraffin also known as kerosene is one of those fuels and for that reason it's still in use today it deposits a velvet black coating onto the surface of the metal that while it can still be easily rubbed off is durable enough for a modest amount of marking and handling however it's not clear that paraffin was necessarily available in the region during the period of the mechanisms construction so to keep the technique in play we need a fuel from the period that provides a similar result s Fulton is known to have been widely used in antiquity for various sealing tasks and so is worth considering and while it certainly burns well it generates a suit that's reminiscent of candle wax coming off with very little handling so on its own burning asphaltum is not that effective at a lower based soot also fits well within the period in terms of availability of materials and is easily formed into a candle for convenient application but again it's very fragile and probably the least persistent of the suits that I tested coming away from the surface of the metal with the slightest touch fortunately though there is one candidate that stands out and that's olive oil it was of course widely available in the region and as it happens generates a very oily suit that's almost indistinguishable from that made by paraffin so for an ancient candidate for simply smoking the part I think it's hard to go past olive oil now asphalt amor pitch can be used directly on the metal but one very interesting suggestion involves combining asphaltum with some other ancient ingredients to form a hard specialized wax once cool the wax is Finley smeared onto the pre-warmed part and initially doesn't look to be at all promising but the application of suit completely transforms it into something that's quite impressive to show you what a difference the wax makes I've suited the other side of the test piece without it and of course the straight tallow suit comes off as easily as before but the side with the wax has formed a very robust coating that has a relatively hard plastic feel it takes a scriber mark easily and importantly aside from providing excellent contrast it also has the other main property of equality marking material and that's the ability to take a mark without necessarily requiring that the underlying metal be scored now this isn't something that all marking methods can provide so it really sets this one apart is very suitable for complex marking tasks that require a lot of surface construction lines that you'd rather not have to remove later with abrasives add the fact that it can be removed with hot water and I think this one really stands out as a solid candidate okay so the next collection of suggestions can be broadly described as an easily applied binding material combined with some sort of pigment in solution and a good example of this of course is the modern layer fluid a reasonable approximation of which can be made by combining gentian violet with denatured alcohol and shellac resin now gentian violet is a distinctly modern compound so clearly this specific combination is not consistent with the period with the obvious performance of the modern fluid naturally leads to the question was there an ancient equivalent that preceded it shellac and other resins like for example colophony was certainly widely known and used during the period and if applied in a thin coat with a suitable pigment would likely be a reasonable candidate but there's a bit of a problem whilst these resins do dissolve readily in pure alcohol they're largely insoluble in other common liquids of the period like for example water wine or vinegar and alcohol distillation is presently understood to come much later in the historical record now other solvents are certainly possible so I wouldn't necessarily write the idea of entirely and the resins can be applied reasonably thinly with nothing more than heat but the solvent issue does complicate things a little in any event there are a great many other pigment based IDs that can't easily fit the bill without much issue about a suitable solvent and we should probably cover the most popular one first good Eve now I have to admit I wasn't overly keen on being the donor for this particular test but there's never a volunteer around when you need one so here it is some of my own limited supply aside from supply issues though there are some other drawbacks to consider it does take a reasonable time to dry and it severely affects ferrous materials although we can ignore that for our purpose given that we're only concerned with the effect on bronze which appears to be relatively modest on the plus side it takes a line excellently and again has that property of enabling marking of the coating rather than the metal underneath it's very robust to handling and of course water soluble so supply issues aside blood definitely checks out another very popular idea was squid ink and I'd have to say that overall it's a good candidate it seems likely that it would have been readily available in the period and it provides a decent contrast with the underlying metal although it did prove to be a little uneven during application and the longer drawing time would certainly have been a drawback but one surprise was that it generated a particularly tough coating yet being water-soluble was also very easy to remove both attributes that strongly recommended a clay slurry would certainly have been cheap to source and easy to apply so on first inspection would also seem to be a reasonable candidate with an acceptable drying time it initially appears to hold a line well but the coating is quite soft and not well bonded to the underlying surface so it quickly becomes apparent that it can't tolerate much in the way of handling a water-based paint like for example Chinese white is certainly a possibility it's quick to dry very tolerant to handling and holds a line well and no doubt these are the attributes that keep it in use today by some hand engravers but it must be said that it doesn't provide a great contrast with the underlying metal and that does raise the question is there perhaps something similar from the period that would have provided a better contrast the elite purple dye of the period is even today I watering lis expensive so I think we can rule that one out but there were many other affordable dyes available like for example Road an excellent source of natural indigo dye it's a plant-based diet and is easily mixed into a thin suspension and then applied to the work drying time is acceptable and it does take a line quite well although it's not quite as robust to handling as for example China white or blood now not the possibility to consider is a pigment added to some sort of tempera paint base again I used wowed as the indigo sauce with egg yolk for the base I wouldn't say that it was the best material to apply and I'm not sure how long it could be stored also the drying time was a little impractical but other than that the results were very impressive the markings were clear and it proved to be one of the materials most tolerant to handling there were many suggestions based around other plant-based coloring materials like for example wine berry extracts and juices I tried out both wine and beetroot juice and discovered that there was an issue common to both each looked quite promising going onto the surface but they simply never drive instead forming a sticky residue on the surface now it's possible that this could be improved with various additives so I wouldn't necessarily rule this one out but it does complicate it as an option one of my favorites of the whole testing process was India ink this stuff really is fascinating to make and use and much like the mechanism itself has its origins thousands of years in the past it's also an excellent example of what's known as a colloidal suspension where an otherwise insoluble material in this case lampblack remain suspended in another substance now it's probably a little impractical due to the drying time but even so it's a worthy candidate for the job it's easy to apply and takes the mark well and was probably the most durable of all tested materials to handling it again came off very easily with only water the lampblack component of India ink can also be combined with some sort of non water-based binding agent like for example beeswax combined over a medium heat the lampblack easily goes into suspension in the wax and can then be applied to a pre warmed part it does take the line well but it has to be said that's a little soft and so easily smudged which brings us to the final and perhaps simplest idea of all and that is to score the metal directly and then rubbing some sort of wax or coating so that only the lines themselves show up a technique that's generally referred to as smudge marking now this might not always be an acceptable approach it's never fun to have to remove deep construction lines on the surface of the work at the end of a project but for some situations it would have been hard to go past such an effective idea so there you have it a bunch of possible solutions that could have been used independently or maybe even together depending on the job at hand this test piece for the engraving of the rear dial is a good example when it comes to the actual work piece of probably used smudge marking for keeping track of the arcs and engraving the radial lines but I can easily imagine that the maker would have preferred to see the general layout of the text before pulling out the hammer and chisel and getting stuck in say something that works a little more like a modern marking fluid would probably have been desirable a material that could take the marking while also permitting some small Corrections and that would also hold up to a lot of hand contact from the engraving process for this test I tried out the asfalt and gum mastic and beeswax mix and I have to say it's suited the job well the text was still readable throughout the job despite a lot of hand contact and pressure and the coating came off easily with hot water it even helped with the overall visibility of the engraving by lightly colouring the inside of the cuts and making them stand out a little more clearly against the surrounding metal now that's not to say that one of the other options might not work even better so I'll continue to test out various ideas over the coming videos and be sure to let me know which methods you think of worth testing out further in the comments below thanks for watching I'll see ya later

Channel: Clickspring

Views: 613,023

Keywords: Antikythera, antikythera mechanism, ancient greece, ancient greek, hellenistic, dykem blue, layout line, clickspring, hellenistic greek, new testament greek

Id: Nksb2RCNsF0

Length: 20min 8sec (1208 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/canadianTEA]

the absolute madman! It boggles my mind he'd go to such lengths, but wow do I appreciate it. Fascinating stuff.

[u/RogueWriter]

His channel is just amazing, and if you join his Patreon you get a look at other projects as well. The entire Antikythera mechanism project along with the tool tech accompanying videos are so worth binging on. Just can't say enough good things about his work.

[u/BabiesSmell]

Blood worked great. They would certainly have a lot of it. One goat's worth of blood could probably cover the whole project.

[u/stuffucanmake]

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[u/benoliver999]

Great channel, I highly recommend watching his clock build.