The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-11-16
Qhelrmnrraf-S Star
AN EARLY LOCOMOTIVE.
The Invention of Hero. Of Alexandria. 1000
Years Ago.

ine lHFentloh Vi nero OF Alexandrla, ZUUU
Years Ago.
The Scientific American contains an
account by r.. W. Durfee of a locomo-
tive that was invented and used COCO
years ago.
There is a general belief, the writer
remarks, among m~cchanicians that
vehicles containing within themselves
the Means for their " propulsion
are of comparatively recent origin !;
and the fact of the adhesion Of the
rims of their wheels To the earth or a
supporting rail being sufficient to en-
able adequate power applied to the
wheels to move the vehicle was a dis
covery of not later than the middle of
the last century. But in this instance
the writers on locomotive machines
have not dived deep enough or stayed
long enough among the records Of an
tiquity to discover the bottom facts
in the history of such m%echanisms.
The first locomotive. or sclf-moving
vehicle, of which we have any account
vas the invention OF Hero, of Alexan-
dria, who lived about 1000 years ago.
In his work descriptive of automatic
or self-moving machines, there is illus
trated a shrine Of BacclIus mounted
upon three wheels concealed within its
base.
The shrine was crowned with a can
Opy, about which figures of dancers
were made to move by hidden mechan-
ism. Within the base of the shrine
were three supporting wheels. OF
these two were fixed to an axle, on
which was a drum. Around this drum
was wound a rope which passed up
ward on one side Of the shrine and
over two pulleys. 1t was then attached
to a heavy leaden weight. The grad
ual escape OF sand through a hole in a
compartment beneath the weight
caused it to descend. The weight thus
pulled ON the cord and reyolved the
drum and wheels, causing the shrine
to move forward in a line.
Hero also describes how to arrange
the wheels in order to make the shrine
move in a circular path and to make
it move in straight lines at right
angles.
BY turning the figure of Victory two
fountains beneath the canopy could be
made to discharge wine or milk at
pleasure. This apparatus is an adap-
tion of the two-way cock, familiar to
modern mechanical engineering.
The mechanism Of this shrine OF
Bacchus proves that 2000 years ago the
fact that wheeled vehicles could be
propelled by power applied to the
axles on which the driving wheels
were fastened was well known, and
that the mechanical principles in
volved in the application of the power
were well understood. Furthermore,
the shrine affords evidence Of a high
degree Of refinement in mechanical
manipulation in the cylindrical plug
two-way cock, as well as the general
arrangement Of the details of appara-
tus for performing the seeming mira
Gle Of changing wine into milk or milk
into wine.
1t is confidently believed that this
is the first time this self-moving We
hicle (which the shrine certainly was
of Hero has been described or even
referred to by any writer in the Eng
lish language. This is not strange,
for the work of Hero, descriptive of
automatic, is very scarce, and the trans
latiOns Of Commandine into Latin and
OF Bald into Italian are also rare.
1t is universally admitted by writer's
on mechanics that Hero is the author
OF the first description of a machine
actuatcd by steam but hitherto no
one has claimed for him the hOnOr-tn
which the evidence above submitted
clearly entities him-Of having in
vented the first 'self-moying carriage
or locomotive.