​A different kind of Tech Tip

This week’s article isn’t going to be me nagging you to make a backup, keep your device up to date, or to not click on unsolicited links. I’ve done that enough.
This week I want to talk about some other kinds of technology, old and new.

First, the first computer. About 15 years or so ago I first read about a find in 1901, in a ship that sank off the coast of Greece. An item was found that looked like a rock, but was actually a mechanical device that was quite corroded. Amazingly, it had gears inside it. The Antikythera mechanism appears to be an astronomical calculator, as far as scientists can tell. It’s over 2000 years old. The article I just read is HERE. 

When I first read about it, it was suggested that Archimedes himself was the possible creator of this device. Apparently, the current thinking is that it was likely from the Archimedes school, or about 100 years after Archimedes, somewhere around 150 BC. Apparently, this kind of science was then lost for the next 1500 years. I wonder how that happens, yet, it’s a recurring theme in history. Read more detail HERE. 
 
Speaking of lost knowledge, I read a great article about the same sort of thing regarding muslin. Yes, the fabric.

Dhaka muslin was a fabric made in what is now Bangladesh, in a 16 part process using a now extinct type of cotton. The thread count in my sheets is maybe 300? This hand woven material had a thread count as high as 1200. This was the most expensive fabric of the time, sometimes called “woven air”. It was sold all over the world, as far back in time as the Antikythera mechanism, but all that ended in the beginning of the 20th century. In the 19th century, it was popular among those that could afford it, including Josephine Bonaparte, and Jane Austen. Read the article HERE. 

It’s a fascinating piece of history, and another lost knowledge.