And I’m not talking about the Inspector.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/historys-greate.html
It’s an interesting line-up. The theory about the Ark of the Covenant being a primitive battery interested me, partly because of my faith, but also because of a slight fascination with examples of ancient technology that either matches or confounds our own. The Baghdad Batteries fall into the same category, along with questions about how “primitive” cultures built such enormous monuments with astronomical precision. Was it manpower and centuries of work alone? Or did they have some architectural and engineering prowess that have been lost since then?
From mechanical computers to automatic chess players built in the 1700s, this is an impressive reminder that “old” and “new” don’t always correlate with “dumber” and “smarter.”
I see that smile.