Thales thought all things came from water and the Earth floated on water. Earthquakes were caused by disturbance to the floating Earth. Not by a god. Thales is said to have fallen down a well while walking along at night because he was looking up at the stars and not looking where he was going.

Anaximander

Anaximander thought the universe began as boundless nothing and the world began when a "seed" of hot and cold separated from the eternal boundless space, from this a sphere of flame grew around the air surrounding the earth like the bark around a tree. This is much like the Big Bang theory. Anaximander thought the primary substance was air.

Anaxagoras

After studying a rocky meteorite which fell on the Aegean coast in 468BC. Anaxagoras concluded that the heavenly bodies must be made out of the same materials as found on Earth.

His anti-religious views aggravated conservative members of the Athenian government who were opposed to his friend Pericles. In 450BC. he was imprisoned. He was rescued from execution by his friends, and escaped from Athens, living the rest of his life as a refugee.

Anaxagoras was one of the earliest of many scientists persecuted by the religious establishment.

Atomism

Atomon meant indivisible, and from this comes our word atom. The atoms are infinite in number and spread through an infinite void. They are in constant motion and collisions are frequent.

There are different shapes of atoms and if they collide they may adhere or fix together to form a new substance the nature of which depends on the atoms of which it is composed. The universe began with chaos but gradually the atoms have collisions and stick together to form the world.

The thery can be traced back to Leucippus of Miletus in the 6th century BC. It was later developed by Democritus of Abdera, (north coast of the Aegean) around 460-370BC. and adopted by Epicurus, 341-270BC.

It clashed with the ideas of the universe like a cosmic machine as expressed in Aristotelian cosmological system which became the established bog standard. Proving, that just because we can see a theory with hindsight as being on the right lines, it may not seem so to the scientific establishment at the time.

Atomism enjoyed a revival during the time of the Roman Empire. Titus Lucretius Carus, 95-55BC, wrote it up in an lengthy epic poem "DE RERUM NATURA". At the time, atomism never rivaled the Aristotelian system. But the book survived to be republished in the 17th century, when the Aristotelian system was finally discredited and alternative cosmological theories were sought out.

It set an example for imitators, and a number of long turgid 17th century poems on scientific subjects were written on the same lines.

It was not until Dalton's work in the 19th century that the existence of atoms was proven, and not until the development of electron microscopes that they could be seen, by which time it was realized that the word atom does not describe the most fundamental particle but that atoms are themselves made up of particles.

Cosmic Egg

In Han Chinese myths, the universe was formed from the body of the first being Pan Gu. This is not unlike Egyptian, Greek and Polynesian myths in which the universe is formed from the body of gods. In other myths the universe is made by Gods from some primordial substance like clay and water. But in the Finnish myths in the Kalevala the universe is made from an egg which is broken and the fragments become the Earth, Sun, Moon and stars.

The realization that the world was round is found from about the 5th century BC when it was ascertained from observation and mathematical calculations.

Unequal hours

See also:

• time before clocks
• directions of the sun
• Chukchi directions

Equal hours

Equal hours were used particularly by astronomers. Although they can be traced back to the iron age, more than 2,000 years ago, and the first use of clepsydra, it is a myth that equal hours were brought in to enable clocks to be made. clocks were made showing unequal hours too. Both clepsydra and later, mechanical clocks. As mentioned, Japanese clocks, which had mechanical escapements, showed unequal hours.

In China, equal hours were introduced from India with Buddhism. Each day was divided into 12 equal hours named after an animal from

rat - 23.00-01.00; ox; tiger; hare; dragon; snake; horse; sheep; monkey; cock; dog and pig.

These 12 animals were also used from the names of the days, in cycles of 12 for 60 days, paired to 10 names in a 60-day cycle, for the months and for the years.

This "zodiac" was employed together with astronomical observations and the influences of the directions and their associations to predict events and forecast fortunes and horoscopes.

The Clepsyra or Water Clock

Another type consisted of a container with an overflow to keep the level constant. Water was dripped constantly into this container from another or from a water wheel. In the lower part of this container there was another pipe from which water dripped through into another, graded container. On this simple device the more complicated clocks were based, ranging from domestic alarm clocks to great elaborate astronomical clocks and mechanical devices, where water filled a succession of compensating cisterns, moved weights and worked water wheels which powered geared machinery.

Although scientists in both the Greek and Chinese empires were designing astronomical clocks as models of the heavens and aiming at accuracy for the use of astronomers, the Chinese, unlike the Greeks, never took the model as an image of the real thing. Greek philosophers were to see the universe literally as a solid cosmic machine. By chance this concept was to survive, be readopted, and continue to dominate and stifle astronomical thought in the Mediterranean, Europe and the Near East for two thousand years.

The picture on the left, which shows the universe supported by Atlas, in William Cuningham's THE COSMOGRAPHICAL GLASSE published in 1559, shows how much "Western" astronomical tradition confused the model of the universe as in the armillary sphere with reality. A concept that persisted from the 3rd century BC to the mid-17th century.

Religion of Mathematics

"Neo-Taoism"

Taoism degenerated from science into a religion. Its popularity with men and women, was partly due to its concern with unusual sexual practices - some of which must have led to health problems, and which included public displays as part of the religious rituals.

As well as sex and the search for eternal youth, the Taoists became obsessed with mystic numbers. The I-Ching, the Book of Changes, of 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams, dates from the 3rd century BC, and involves mathematical number, religion and divination. The hexagrams are binaries of the numbers 1-64 but were given meanings, which derived from the ancient shamanic compass directions and their meanings.

The magnetic compass and spoon shaped pointer (like the Plough asterism) replaced the shaman's tambourine and spoon-shaped stick for divination and to ascertain the auspicious direction and placing of buildings. It was soon found to be a useful aid to navigation.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world:

Pythagoras of Samos

Members, men and women, lived together in a community which he governed with strict and sometimes, bizarre regulations (eg no beans).

The cult spread and had political as well as spiritual influence, so Pythagoras and his followers were compelled to move to another state on a number of occasions either fleeing the law, or being expelled by it. In 529 BC they were living in Southern Italy, but they had to move on again. The cult was continued for several years after the death of Pythagoras by his daughter and grand-daughter, until finally suppressed, but the ideas endured.

Pythagoras was obsessed by numbers. He saw all nature modeled in numbers and numbers to be the first thing and the elements of all things - the whole heaven was a musical scale and number, for he studied the numerical proportions of scales in music. The Pythagoreans were very upset by "irrational numbers" like √2 and Π. They liked whole numbers and searched for simple numerical relationships in the heavens.

Philolaus,

Plato

Two of the young men mentioned in Plato's "The Phaedo" were pupils of Philolaus. The Phaedo is about the execution of Socrates written as a dialogue between Phaedo who was with Socrates visiting him in prison and staying by him to the end, and another philosopher. Phaedo (Phaidon) who was about 19 at the execution of Socrates in 399BC was a high class rent boy in Athens, who later founded a college in his home town of Elis which is where the Olympic games were held.

Phaedo and Plato were Pythagorean, but not fully committed to all the ideals. In Plato's book "the Timaeus" the directions in space are identified with elements and also with geometric figures: fire= tetrahedron(4 faces), air= octahedron, water=icosahedron (20 faces) and Earth=cube. (This is similar to contemporary Chinese ideas about the directions and elements except they had five elements as they included wood and five directions as they included the centre).

In the cosmos described in the Timaeus all the planets including the sun and moon are living divine beings, formed as perfect spheres moving in perfect circles round the Earth. His description of how the universe is formed is actually a description of an armillary sphere, a model showing the apparent movements and positions during the year of the planets round the Earth.

In "the Phaedo" the Earth is described as looking like a multicoloured football made from 12 pieces of leather each with five sides, in the middle of the heavens. It does not need air or any force to stop it from falling as the uniformity of the heavens and the equilibrium of the Earth itself are sufficient to support it. On Earth everything is marred and corrupted but above the Earth, in the heavens everything is perfect. It is not clear if the ideas in "the Phaedo" are those of Plato, Phaedo, or Socrates. Socrates was tried and executed for his political views and influence but also accused for following the ideas of Anaxagoras. The concept of an impure Earth and perfect heaven is very Pythagorean, and may have actually come from Phaedo.

Plato, as a pupil of Socrates, lay low during Socrates' trial and execution, he travelled abroad and several years later returned to Athens to set up his Academy. Plato's writings as mentioned have a number of cosmological references but they are all different. Many of Plato's associates, like Phaedo, were Pythagorean, and they favoured a mathematical model of the universe with the simplest linear mathematics.

Euclid's long serving geometry

Eudoxus of Cnidus

This model was improved upon by a younger colleague Callipus of Cyzicus (near where Istanbul is today) who added to the number of spheres.

Another member of Plato's Academy Heraclides Ponticus from a Black Sea resort on the north coast of Turkey, (388-315 BC) proposed a different system in which the Earth rotated on its axis and the planets Mercury and Venus went round the sun. However the sun went round the Earth. and he kept to the system of spheres and circular orbits. A neurotic type he became obsessed with visions and portents and divine retribution. He is important in the history of astronomy because he is another of the early examples given by Copernicus who stated that the Earth moved. This was contradictory to the theories of Eudoxus and Callipus which were elaborated and became established as dogma by Heraclides' contemporary:

Aristotle

Aristotle's influence on the future of science was mainly luck. In 342 BC, he was appointed by Philip of Macedonia as tutor to his son, Alexander.

In 336 BC Alexander's father, his father's new young wife, who had taken the place as Queen of Alexander's mother Olympias, and the new baby, who threatened Alexander's position as heir, were mysteriously dead.

While his mother happily organized the builders and decorators of the fine new royal tombs, Alexander took his army to conquer the Persians and carve out an empire which reached into Central Asia, past Samarkand and into Pakistan and also included the whole Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, with Egypt. To the East the Greek Empire bordered on the Chinese states which in 221 BC were all conquered by the despotic First Emperor. Thus trade routes (the Silk Road) were opened up between the Eastern Mediterranean, China and India, along which ideas, and technology as well as goods flowed.

When his pupil went off conquering, Aristotle set up a school in 335 BC, called the Lyceum, in Athens for the children of the extremely rich, where he collected animals for his zoo and books for his library sent by Alexander on his campaigns.

Aristotle wrote many books on Physics, Biology, Politics and Ethics. He was not a man to admit ignorance of a subject, and having been tutor to such an obviously successful pupil as Alexander the Great gave his work much credence.

After the unexpectedly premature death of Alexander in 323 BC Aristotle was forced by the anti-Macedonian feelings in Athens and accusations against him, to retire to Chalcis by the sea north of Athens and died a year later.

Aristotle followed the system of celestial spheres as a physical model of the universe. He added more spheres to account for the motions to 56 in number, and changed their order as well. This system did not accord with actual observations but that was not seen as a problem. Aristotle never did any practical observing himself.

In Aristotle's cosmic system the four "elements" were in the Earth's sphere, earth in the centre (solid ground) then water around it, then air, then fire. This was all under the sphere of the Moon. From the solid sphere to which the Moon was fixed outward through the solid transparent spheres to which the other heavenly bodies were fixed, one outside the other (like Russian dolls), all was of a "heavenly element" - the aether, and was unchanging.This meant according to this system that any change had to occur in the "atmosphere" of the Earth, below the moon's sphere.

Aristarchos of Samos

Athenian Calendar

Meanwhile under the First Emperor...

Fortunately, although he survived a number of assassination attempts, the First Emperor's obsessive search for the elixir of immortality was unsuccessful. The expeditions expensively equipped to search the mysterious lands far to the east failed to return (perhaps deliberately, they may account for the apparent Chinese influence and possible 2,000 year old relics found in America). His son, who succeeded him was killed in a conspiracy organized by the prime minister, palace eunuch Chao Kao and his son-in-law. (He had a married daughter because all men who worked at the royal palace whatever their job from gardeners to senior administrators, including the court astronomers, had to be completely castrated, even if they already had wives and children.)

After more conspiracies and battles the empire was won by Liu Pang who now became the Emperor Kao-tsu of the Han dynasty, and a new capital city built, Xian.

The Xuan Ye theory

The Xuan Ye belief was in an infinite universe. Heaven is without substance - high distant and limitless. The Sun, the Moon, the Planets, and the Stars naturally float and exist in the void. This means they may pass away or stay, and may move either apparently forward or backward, their disappearances and reappearances need not be regular, their advances and retreats are different because they are not tied to anything their individual behaviour is all different.

The idea of an infinitely chaotic type of universe superseded the concept of a cosmic machine, and remained dominant in Chinese and Chinese dominated culture. This meant the Astronomers in the Far East, particularly, China, Korea, and Japan, did not become bound and restricted and therefore limited in their observations and the interpretations of them, as those which followed the Greek tradition of linear mathematics after the Pythagoreans and the cosmic machine of Aristotle in the West of Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Zhang Heng,

"The heavens are like a hen's egg and as round as a crossbow bullet, the Earth is like the yolk of the egg, and lies alone in the centre. Heaven is larg e and Earth small. Inside the lowest part of the heavens there is water. The heavens are supported by chi (vapour) the Earth floats on the waters."

The circumference of the heavens is divided into 365 1/4 degrees; hence half of it, 182 5/8 degrees is above the Earth, and the other half is below. This is why of the 28 hsiu (lunar 'mansions' one for each day of the month) only half are visible at one time (they were along the celestial equator). The two extremities of the heavens are the north and south poles, the former, in the middle of the sky, is exactly 36 degrees above the Earth, and consequently a circle with a diameter of 72 degrees encloses all the stars which are permanently visible. A similar circle round the south pole encloses stars which we never see. The two poles are distant from one another 182 degrees and a little more than half a degree. The rotation goes on like that around the axle of a chariot."

Clocks and Armillary spheres

If you can describe the universe like that you can make a model of it to show the motions of the heavenly bodies across the sphere of the sky. This was called an armillary sphere. They were made from strips of metal and used to make observations and calculations. With gearing and with a means of motive power, you have an astronomical clock.

This description of the universe by Zhang Heng is in his work on the armillary sphere. He made an armillary sphere driven by water power. The major problem was not the gearing and power source as water powered mills with norias driving gears had been built since the 5th century BC, but to maintain a regular going rate. Zhang Heng made an armillary sphere driven by water which was tested and found to keep accurate time with the heavens. This is one of the earliest recorded astronomical clocks installed for practical use in an observatory. We know there were others earlier in China.

And on the other side of the continent...

the Antikythera mechanism

There were also astronomical clocks in the Mediterranean at the same time. One which was found under the sea in a shipwreck of about the 1st century BC is called the Antikythera mechanism. This consists of flat discs connected by gears, so it is an early form of astrolabe which is in effect a flattened armillary.

Reconstructions have revealed its complicated design and its use for astronomical calculations. The latest investigations made in 2005 can be seen in this video made in 2008, where you can also see it described to Don Unwin - as a new project for him - since Don Unwin has also made superb replicas of other ancient astronomical clocks. Among the things the Antikythera mechanism could do was show the eclipse cycle and the Olympic games years.

The motive power might have been water, sand, weights - it is not clear if the Antikythera mechanism was self powered or an extremely sophisticated calculator. It is also not know how many others like this there might have been. It only survived because it was in a ship which sunk with its crew and passengers and was not discovered for twenty centuries. This useful device is unlikely to have been unique in its time and there must have been a number of similar calculators.

The story continues....

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This website written, designed and maintained by Heather Hobden

The Cosmic Elk

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copyright of Heather Hobden and The Cosmic Elk

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