Hellenistic age

Sciences

The technological achievement of the Hellenistic age is masterly displayed in the Antikythera mechanism, a 37-gear mechanical analog computer which calculated the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets, including lunar and solar eclipses. Devices of this sort are not found again until the 10th century, when a simpler eight-geared luni-solar calculator incorporated into an astrolabe was described by the Persian scholar, Al-Biruni. Similarly complex devices were also developed by other Muslim engineers and astronomers during the Middle Ages. Other technological developments of the Hellenistic age include cogged gears, pulleys, Archimedes' screw, the screw press, glassblowing, hollow bronze casting, surveying instruments, the odometer, the pantograph, the water clock, the watermill, the water organ, and the piston pump.