Most complicated thingy
 

Guys, you need to lighten up. I need someone to tell me about the most complicated device ever made by man that fits these criteria:

No electricity, no combustion, no steam. No strange power source I haven't accounted for.

Purely mechanical power (horse, river, wind power, man pushing button to activate spring...) is fine.

The typewriter?
The windmill?
The something else entirely?



The winner? Everything I own.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

I'm going to go with the self-winding pocket watch. I have a beautiful one my wife gave me with the guts all exposed behind the crystal, and that thing is astounding.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

My guess is the piano.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

Principia Mathematica

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

The brain. Though strictly speaking, these are made by women only.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm going to go with the self-winding pocket watch. I have a beautiful one my wife gave me with the guts all exposed behind the crystal, and that thing is astounding.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's got to be something like this. I can't find a picture of the internals, but the H4 watch that solved the longitude problem was something to behold.

Precision mechanical clocks/watches are amazing technology that you can hold in your hand and are only as complex as they need to be, yet are very complex, and they do work. Babbage's engine may be complex, but it didn't work, or at least it couldn't be built, so that's kind of a strike against it. Watches work.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

I don't know if this counts, but the pyramids are pretty impressive [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

I am going to second the suggestion of something in the clockwork department. Perhaps one of the complicated orreries, that gives the time, date, phase of the moon, and position of all the planets.

The optical range and direction finders, combined with mechanical computers to calculate the direction and elevation of the guns, used on WWI-era battleships may also be a candidate. (By WWII these were electrical analog computers, I think, but the early ones, at least, were mechanical...)

In more modern times, the hologram might be a candidate - it requires electricity to create one, but not to view the several images contained in one. If you judge complexity based purely on bits of information contained, rather than number of moving parts, your winner will almost surely be something like holograms or microfilm. The latter may be more to your taste, since it can requires just a mechanical camera and chemicals.

Re: Most complicated thingy
 

The most complicated purely mechanical pocket watch

Patek Phillippe Caliber 89

By far the most complex mechanism not run by external power sources I can think of.

I like that principia answer, but why not say qm or higher math?