Originally posted by TedHodgson
reply to post by intrptr
Thank you greatly for adding that any and every insight is much appreciated 
Good choice for a thread. Anyone who knows anything about mechanics surely is in awe of it. Earliest clocks appeared in 15th century medieval Europe
(gear mechanisms). Some were pretty strange from our point of view:
One in Prague...
...15th century. It has three main components, the astronomical dial which represents the position of the Sun and Moon, a calendar dial which stands
for the months and “The Walk of the Apostles” which shows a procession of the Apostles on an hourly basis.
The 8 figures around the clock where added later. On the main dial are 4 animated figures: Vanity admiring himself in the mirror, Avarice waving a bag
of money, Death ringing the bell and a Turk shaking his head.
Around the calender dial are 4 figures which are not animated. They are a chronicler, an angel, an astronomer and a philosopher.
We go
Before about the 16th century the slate goes blank as it were. Then go back all the way to the "mechanism". Thousands of years old. Did you notice
it doesn't mark our notion of time? Instead it tracks the motion of the heavens, surely unknown to many at that time. Besides knowing when to plant
and harvest, which is discernible with shadows, and maybe the Zodiac, the intricacies of the "mechanism" are more complex than "necessary"...
I would venture this opinion. The only thing I can see that would explain such a detailed computer for the motion of the heavens would be (here
goes... wait for it)...
... an "extraterrestrial" stuck here like (oh God) E.T. Face Palm, Face Palm. But computer like that would be needed to track the planets to discern
when a ship might return to earth and the being would have to figure out when that would be. Like Nasa uses computers to figure out launch windows and
gravity assists from other planets in the solar system, any returning vessel would need to use similar trajectories to arrive at earth orbit. Maybe
our mysterious inventor missed his boat and needed to invent such a device to figure out when and where to meet the "mother ship" when it came
back.
The weird thing is it was found on a sunken vessel at the bottom of the sea. Maybe our stranded "visitor" found out where to be and when he
"beamed up" his vessel sunk the ship so no witnesses. He left the "thingy" behind to tease us. I can't believe I am saying this. No proof really,
just a good story line.
