SameArch

Monday, September 20, 2004

Aeolipile

Steam turbine invented in the 1st century AD by Heron of Alexandria and described in his Pneumatica.  The aeolipile was a hollow sphere mounted so that it could turn on a pair of hollow tubes that provided steam to the sphere from a cauldron.  The steam escaped from the sphere from one or more bent tubes projecting from its equator, causing the sphere to revolve.  The aeolipile