An Aeolipile
Hero of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician, engineer, and scientist in the first century AD. He developed a whole bunch of nifty inventions, including the first vending machine, the syringe, the force pump, and a windmill-operated organ. He also built the aeolipile, a device which consisted of a small tank of water with directed nozzles. This was essentially the first jet engine, as this video demonstrates:
As soon as I get a functional kiln installed out in the shop I’m making one of these things.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 11:00 pm and is filed under old dead white guys, science, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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