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.
