Michael Wright

Michael studied Physics at Oxford and History of Technology at Imperial College, London. He worked for 34 years at London’s Science Museum (as Curator of Mechanical Engineering from 1985 to 2004) but he is best known for his spare-time work on the Antikythera Mechanism. This astonishingly elaborate mechanical instrument of bronze, found in a 2000-year-old shipwreck, had been widely regarded as an extraordinary archaeological enigma. Working on a small budget and with home-made measuring instruments and additions to simple X-ray equipment, Michael deduced that it was a sophisticated planetarium, incorporating the mathematical astronomy of its time and presenting us with an unique insight into the previously-unsuspected ability of ancient Greeks to design and construct “clockwork”. Michael has gone on to build working reconstructions of the Mechanism in his home workshop.