Ancient Machine Technology

Ancient Machine Technology
Author: Michael Woods
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0761365230

Examines the machines created by ancient cultures.

Ancient Machine Technology

Ancient Machine Technology
Author: Mary B. Woods
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 0761372660

Did you know . . . • Ancient people used bows to drill holes and start fires? • The ancient Chinese built a machine to detect earthquakes? •The ancient Romans operated a factory for milling grain? Machine technology is as old as human society itself. The first humans on Earth used basic machines. They used stone axes to butcher meat. They use levers to pry roots and rocks from the ground. Over the centuries, ancient peoples learned to make more complicated machines. People in the ancient Middle East devised wheels and pulleys. The ancient Chinese created wheelbarrows and bellows. The ancient Greeks built big war machines. What kinds of tools and techniques did ancient craftspeople use? Which methods worked and which didn’t? And how did ancient machines set the stage for our own modern machines? Learn more in Ancient Machine Technology.

Gods and Robots

Gods and Robots
Author: Adrienne Mayor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691202265

Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.

Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt

Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt
Author: Christopher Dunn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2010-06-24
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 159143968X

A unique study of the engineering and tools used to create Egyptian monuments • Presents a stone-by-stone analysis of key Egyptian monuments, including the statues of Ramses II and the tunnels of the Serapeum • Reveals that highly refined tools and mega-machines were used in ancient Egypt From the pyramids in the north to the temples in the south, ancient artisans left their marks all over Egypt, unique marks that reveal craftsmanship we would be hard pressed to duplicate today. Drawing together the results of more than 30 years of research and nine field study journeys to Egypt, Christopher Dunn presents a stunning stone-by-stone analysis of key Egyptian monuments, including the statue of Ramses II at Luxor and the fallen crowns that lay at its feet. His modern-day engineering expertise provides a unique view into the sophisticated technology used to create these famous monuments in prehistoric times. Using modern digital photography, computer-aided design software, and metrology instruments, Dunn exposes the extreme precision of these monuments and the type of advanced manufacturing expertise necessary to produce them. His computer analysis of the statues of Ramses II reveals that the left and right sides of the faces are precise mirror images of each other, and his examination of the mysterious underground tunnels of the Serapeum illuminates the finest examples of precision engineering on the planet. Providing never-before-seen evidence in the form of more than 280 photographs, Dunn’s research shows that while absent from the archaeological record, highly refined tools, techniques, and even mega-machines must have been used in ancient Egypt.

Ancient Agricultural Technology

Ancient Agricultural Technology
Author: Michael Woods
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0761365265

Describes the technology used by ancient farmers, covering the evolution of farming tools, irrigation methods, animal breeding, and the processing of crops, including the ancient civilizations of China, Greece, Rome, India, and the Middle East.

Ancient Machines

Ancient Machines
Author: Michael Woods
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780822529941

Discusses the invention of six simple machines in various ancient civilizations from the Stone Age to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism
Author: Evaggelos G. Vallianatos
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2021-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 162734358X

In Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and Its Demise, Evaggelos Vallianatos, historian and ecopolitical theorist, shows that after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, the Greeks, especially in Egypt, reached unprecedented heights of achievements in science, technology, and civilization. The Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical computer probably crafted in Rhodes in the second century BCE, was proof of that prowess. It’s the grandfather of our computers. Greek sponge divers discovered the Antikythera Mechanism in 1900 on a 2,100-year-old Roman-era shipwreck. The hand-powered device reveals a sophisticated Greek technology previously unknown to scholars and historians, not seen and understood again until the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book not only describes how the sophisticated political and technological infrastructure of the Greeks after Alexander the Great resulted in the Antikythera celestial computer, and the bedrock of science and technology we know today, but also how the influence of Christianity on Greek civilization destroyed the nascent computer age of ancient Greece. Vallianatos, born in Greece and educated in America, is a historian, author, and journalist. He is a passionate champion of Greek culture and a well-suited guide to this historical account. Vallianatos explains how and why Greek scientists employed advanced engineering in translating the beautiful conception of the Antikythera Mechanism into an astronomical computer of genius: a bronze-geared device of mathematical astronomy, predicting the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon; calculating the risings and settings of important stars and constellations, and the movements of the planets around the Sun; while mechanizing the predictions of scientific theories. The computer’s accurate calendar connected these cosmic phenomena to the Olympics and other major Panhellenic religious and athletic celebrations, bringing the Greeks closer to their gods, traditions, and the Cosmos.

Decoding the Heavens

Decoding the Heavens
Author: Jo Marchant
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2010-10-19
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1459600096

In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the full story of the hundred-year quest to decipher the ancient Greek computer known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters and explores the deep roots of modern technology in ancient Greece and the medieval European and Islamic worlds. At its heart, this is an epic adventure and mystery, a book that challenges our assumptions about technology through the ages.

Ancient Inventions

Ancient Inventions
Author: Peter J. James
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Total Pages: 702
Release: 1995
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0345401026

A guide to ancient accomplishments and inventions unearths the origins of modern creations, including computers in ancient Greece, plastic surgery in India in the first century B.C., and a postal service in medieval Baghdad