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1600 Years Before the Steam Engine There Was the Steam Engine

Written by Jason Bellows on 27 October 2005

Mankind doesn’t really evolve. Not as a people. We copy, mimic, and integrate, all standing on the shoulders of the great men that came before. It’s an inherently unsteady system, and especially tragic where we can peer back through history and spot one of the rare and special truly great men who was, in his time or the generations thereafter, disregarded.

One such man was Hero of Alexandria. One of the Greek inventors of the first century AD, his geometric proof “Hero’s formula” was embraced and lived beyond him, he put automatic supermarketesqe doors on the temple, made a coin-operated vending machine for holy water, and built a fully automatic machine gun for arrows; but the one invention that really should have earned him notoriety was completely missed by the men of the era.

Hero created a steam engine, but they called it a aeolipile. Basically, a sealed boiler pot with a pipe running up to a sphere that would spin with the release of steam. The invention was likely dismissed because that’s all it did; it was a sight, but not practical at that time.

In 1600 years, when the steam engine was reinvented in France, ideas for its use came fast and frequent, but it hasn’t been until near the 21st Century that the first inventor of the world’s most used engine type has gotten any credit.

Wikipedia Aeolipile


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#1 Stead311 09 August 2006 at 10:38 am

First post… a few months later…

But i will say that it is amazing when you look back how much we have actually copied from earlier civilizations. The Greeks had machinery that used complex gears and other such devices… yet we were in awe with ourselves in the 1800’s… some industrial revolution… merely a subchapter in the book of redundency.

#2 Mez 20 September 2006 at 10:24 am

Imagine what would have been achieved if Hero and Leonardo Da Vinci had been able to team up!

#3 Drakvil 07 January 2007 at 11:02 pm

Heh, the invention didn’t go anywhere because there was no one else around with the imagination to find a practical use for it at the time. No one else could think around the current way of getting things done. At least these days we have people that will think of good uses for important inventions, even if most of them are motivated by greed instead of helping humanity. (not the inventors, the people who find uses for the inventions – although these days the inventors are also thinking of ways to use their creations).

#4 Merciless 08 June 2007 at 08:23 am

I’ve seen a replicated model of this on Discovery or History channel. Truely amazing what inventions these brilliant minds in the past conjured up, and now we realize their potential. Now if these “inventors” these days can make more useful things instead of bigger, faster, stronger ways of blowing things up.

#5 DanThinksDances&femaleGspot 28 August 2008 at 08:37 pm

Enter your reply text here. OK

I invented the “fart” and I’m taking credit for it.

Got to go, that sticks!

#6 ValiantDefender 21 January 2009 at 03:34 pm

This article hits a nerve with me. I love figuring out how stuff works, but I have to say. Does anyone know if this design actually generated any power? (not electrical, but horses) Also, what of this automatic arrow launcher and sliding doors?!

I’ve thought up several inventions over the years. Some I’ve seen come out on the markets and others I’ve found other people hold patents for… too bad the patent system is so easy to prospect an idea.

#7 lizdini 17 February 2009 at 08:17 pm

Stead311 said: “First post… a few months later…

But i will say that it is amazing when you look back how much we have actually copied from earlier civilizations. The Greeks had machinery that used complex gears and other such devices… yet we were in awe with ourselves in the 1800’s… some industrial revolution… merely a subchapter in the book of redundency.”

They did use gears, but not at all as fine or small or as useful as the ones that came later.

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