Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer--and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets PDF
Preview Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer--and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets
Decoding the Heavens Decoding the Heavens A 2,000-Year-Old Computer— And the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets Jo Marchant DA CAPO PRESS A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP Copyright © 2009 by Jo Marchant All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. Designed by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire Set in 11 point Bembo by the Perseus Books Group Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress. First Da Capo Press edition 2009 Reprinted by arrangement with William Heinemann ISBN: 978-0-306-81742-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008939733 Published by Da Capo Press A Member of the Perseus Books Group www.dacapopress.com Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Ian Contents Prologue 1 1: I See Dead People 4 2: An Impossible Find 31 3:Treasures of War 59 4: Rewriting History 93 5: A Heroic Reconstruction 130 6:The Moon in a Box 159 7: Mechanic’s Workshop 187 8: The New Boys 212 9: A Stunning Idea 240 10: Old Man of Syracuse 261 Epilogue 297 Acknowledgements 301 Picture Credits 305 Sources and Further Reading 307 Index 319 Prologue In a corner of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens is something that doesn’t fit. It is nothing like the classical Greek statues and vases that fill the rest of the echoing hall. Three flat pieces of what looks like mouldy, green cardboard are delicately suspended inside a glass case. Within each piece, layers of what was once metal have been squashed together and are now covered with corro- sion products – from the whitish green of tin oxide to the dark bluish green of copper chloride. They’ve been under the sea for 2,000 years, and it shows. Look closer though, and you’ll see something impossible. Through the deposits, shadowy outlines are visible: engraved letters, a large wheel and part of an encrusted but precisely marked circular scale. Next to these strange items an X-ray image shows what’s hidden inside. Beneath the ancient, calci- fied surfaces, delicate cogwheels of all sizes are jostling for space, their triangular teeth so perfectly formed it seems that any second they might start clicking round. The design of the mechanism is modern and immediately recognisable. It looks just like the inside of an alarm clock. This is the Antikythera mechanism. Its fragments are now 1
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