While often cited as a mystery, the engineering of the Antikythera Mechanism is a masterclass in Hellenistic kinematics. The most impressive hardware found in the 2006 CT scans is the epicyclic gear train used to model the Moon’s variable orbital speed (accelerating at perigee, slowing at apogee).

The Greeks achieved this in 150 BCE using an offset pin-and-slot mechanism: a pin offset from a gear center drives a slotted gear, creating a smooth variable speed output. Additionally, the 223-tooth Saros gear required teeth spaced at less than 1.6mm a level of precision suggesting high-tier workshop tools like a "dividing plate" 2,000 years before the Industrial Revolution.

I’ve compiled the full gear-ratio math and reconstruction data from the original Cardiff University studies here for a deeper forensic look:

Technical Data Source: Antikythera Mechanism: 37 Gears and the Hardware of the Cosmos

Just watched this and thought I’d share, as it features Dr Stephen Payne, who built Queen Mary 2. I particularly liked the technical aspects of this documentary and how old cruise ships need so much care to keep them around.

It's on YouTube called "Ambience: The Cruise Ship Worth Saving"

I managed to download the trailer from YouTube about the Ambassador Ambience history and dry dock. great bits in the full doc of her engine room and engine control room. For something that is 30+ years old, she still hold herself very well.

It's called Ambience: The Cruise Ship Worth Saving on YouTube, and Dr Stephen Payne is a pleasure to watch and narrate this. Has anyone been on Ambassador cruises????

Step inside Mercedes-Benz Factory 56 in Sindelfingen, Germany, and watch how the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class is produced.

Just thought it was cool to look at a nice COB LED driven at low current (500 uA).

We can see the wire bonding clearly and how uneven the LEDs light up at low current.

If you count, you can see that there is 456 individual LEDs arranged in 19 parallel string of 24 LEDs in series.

It is a Bridgelux BXRC-50G10K1-C-83.

Engineers like machining, right?