the Antikythera Mechanism the World's First Analog Computer?

      In 1901, divers exploring the remains of an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, northwest of Crete, recovered a bizarre-looking mechanical object that baffled the international scientific community.
   
      The mysterious device, found in 82 fragments  heavily  encrusted  with corrosion, is composed of 30 bronze gear wheels covered with Greek inscriptions. Decades of scientific examination revealed that the  ancient device, called the Antikythera mechanism, is an analog computer-the world's first-designed to calculate the position of heavenly bodies, predict eclipses, and even pinpoint the dates of the Olympic Games.    In 2014, James Evans, professor of physics at the University of Puget Sound, and Christian Carman, history of science professor at the University of Quilmes, Argentina, published an article in the Archive for History o Exact Science claiming that the mechanism was timed to begin in 205 B.C.E., establishing the device to be as many as 100 years older than  most  researchers  thought.  The incredibly   complex   machine   was engineered and built by ancient Greeks, although "it's probably safer not to try to  hang it on any one particular famous  person,"  according  to  Evans.   The  researchers believe the mechanism was  designed   on   Babylonian   arithmetic  principles adopted by the Greeks.  
     
       The  front  dial  of  the  mechanism  features  two  concentric  scales  that  represent the movement of the twelve  zodiac constellations in the sky. The outer  ring is marked with the months of the 365-  day Egyptian calendar in Greek letters,  while the inner ring is marked with the Greek symbols of the zodiac. The rear face of the mechanism includes numerous dials believed to predict lunar and solar eclipses. The mechanism was operated by turning a small crank that was linked to the largest gear on the front dial.   
     
       In 2012, in an exhaustive study of the Antikythera mechanism, researchers Tony Freeth and Alexander Jones concluded that the device is "the sole witness to a lost history  of  brilliant  engineering,  a conception of pure genius, one of the great although "it's probably safer not to try to  hang it on any one particular famous  person,"  according  to  Evans.   The  researchers believe the mechanism was  designed   on   Babylonian   arithmetic  principles adopted by the Greeks.     The  front  dial  of  the  mechanism  features  two  concentric  scales  that  represent the movement of the twelve  zodiac constellations in the sky. The outer  ring is marked with the months of the 365-  day Egyptian calendar in Greek letters,  while the inner ring is marked with the Greek symbols of the zodiac. The rear face of the mechanism includes numerous dials believed to predict lunar and solar eclipses. The mechanism was operated by turning a small crank that was linked to the largest gear on the front dial.     wonders of the ancient world-but it didn't really work very well!" The researchers attributed  the  mechanism's  lack  of exactness to its imprecise  mechanical engineering   and   the    inaccurate mathematical and celestial theories of the time.   
       
      To date, no other ancient machine like the Antikythera mechanism has been found. The story behind this ancient marvel of engineering has been long lost to time.