Building The World's First Computer - Greeks, Clocks and Rockets - Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN repeatedly recommends the series for its extraordinary craftsmanship and its credible demonstration of how the mechanism could have been made.
What it is
The first episode of Clickspring's series on reproducing the Antikythera Mechanism by hand, laying out the plan and the history. The series follows a machinist building the ancient Greek device with traditional tools and methods.
Recommended by 7 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2018 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec btown · 2018-11 · on “Missing Piece of Antikythera Mechanism Found on Aegean Seabed”
Non-paywall link: [LINK] This reminds me of one of my favorite YouTube channels, Clickspring: an inspiring clockmaker and machinist who's currently documenting a full reproduction of the Antikythera Mechanism: [this video] . Highly recommend for anyone who is fascinated by the care that goes into handmade mechanical devices.
Strong rec abainbridge · 2019-07 · on “The “greased sled” theory of Stonehenge”
If you want some archaeological engineering theories that aren't obviously wrong, I highly recommend this youtube series about how the Antikythera mechanism could have been made. [this video] It's the complete antithesis of this pig fat hogwash.
Strong rec gus_massa · 2022-05 · on “The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 11 – Inscribing the Back Plate – Part 1”
This is a new episode after more than a year. :) I highly recommend this serie of videos about building a reconstruction of the The Antikythera Mechanism with tool similar to the ancient tools. [Warning: It's a huge time sink] Complete playlist: [this video]
Recommends neatze · 2021-03 · on “Scientists solve another piece of the puzzling Antikythera mechanism”
Any one interested, see Clickspring[1], he actually attempts to use ancient tools and methods to build Antikythera Mechanism. [1] [this video]
Recommends mattbillenstein · 2021-03 · on “Scientists Have Unlocked the Secrets of the Ancient 'Antikythera Mechanism'”
A watchmaker has made a video series on youtube about reconstructing the mechanism using some traditional techniques: [this video]
Recommends wincy · 2021-03 · on “YouTube and Patreon Still Aren’t Paying the Rent for Most Creatives”
If deep domain knowledge paid off on Youtube people like Ben Eater would be a millionaire from Youtube at this point[0], his videos are so cool and great at explaining computing. Or Clickspring, the guy who made the Antikythera Mechanism [1]. But honestly even for me being a software engineer and someone who considers himself interested in this sort of stuff, I look at these pages sometimes out of wonder but I often end up watching comedy videos and stuff like that on Youtube. The algorithm recommends it, and I watch. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Recommends nialo · 2023-12 · on “Earliest Carpenters: 476,000-year-old log structure discovered in Zambia”
In case anyone here hasn't seen it, I want to share this very cool youtube series of an Australian clock maker creating a replica of the Antikythera device using only tools believed to be available to the ancient Greeks: [this video]
Cites qohen · 2020-06 · on “Ask HN: Building a Computer in Jesus's Time”
Perhaps not exactly what you have in mind, but there is the Antikythera mechanism [0][1], the first known analog computer, dating back to about 100-200 BCE which exhibits gear-work that one doesn't see for another 1500 years or so. The device calculates the phases of the moon and the motion of the known planets and more for any date over a 76 year cycle. It takes into account the retrograde motion of Mars, can calculate the dates of eclipses, etc. There are videos on YouTube showing how it is supposed to have worked, e.g. [2]. [0] [LINK] [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]