Hacker News Reader

Comment by MontagFTB | Hacker News Reader

I would love a website with a 3D breakdown of the Antikythera mechanism that let one peruse it in space, (dis)assemble it, and see how it functions (at least, to be best of our understanding.) Are we far enough along in what we know of it to have such a resource?

View on HN

This guy is re-creating using only materials available at the time: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0...

Clickspring is the most skilled machinist of youtube. Watching him work is so incredibly satisfying.

Definitely the most interesting to me.

What about the bald dude with the moustache?

Not sure about "most skilled", as there are some very good machinist with skills in different areas. I'd say he's definatley the most patient, learning and explaining ancient methods and every step along the way. And the videos are certainly of the most visually appealing.

For anyone who's not familiar, "this guy" is Chris Budiselic of Clickspring, who's mentioned as an inspiration for this research:

> In 2020, new X-ray images of one of the mechanism’s rings, known as the calendar ring, revealed fresh details of regularly spaced holes that sit beneath the ring. Since the ring was broken and incomplete, however, it wasn’t clear how just how many holes were there originally. Initial analysis by Antikythera researcher Chris Budiselic and colleagues suggested it was likely somewhere between 347 and 367.

Not merely inspiration, but https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BHI-Antikythera... is Budiselic et. al.'s paper on the hole count. (It's kind of a big deal to fans because he stopped putting out youtube videos to get the paper ready for publication - where we learned that this was far more than a machining-technique obsession, and that the "British Horological Institute" was a real thing :-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com