Heron's steam engine

Stephen

Banned
I just thought of a posible apliction of the aeolipile. Put some teath around the sphere and run a bike chain round it and with a generous enough gear ratio it might just have enough power to turn a spit. Freeing up that kitchen slave for other tasks. Only problem is the aeolipile is probably worth several times the value of the slave.
 
I just thought of a posible apliction of the aeolipile. Put some teath around the sphere and run a bike chain round it and with a generous enough gear ratio it might just have enough power to turn a spit. Freeing up that kitchen slave for other tasks. Only problem is the aeolipile is probably worth several times the value of the slave.

Bigger problem that the Romans didn't go in much for spit-roasting :)

But more seriously, spit-turning on the small scale does not require a steam engine. Twisted string or a small rotor above the fire are enough. Big spits (like we read of in Petronius) wouldn't be impressed by one.
 

MrP

Banned
Bigger problem that the Romans didn't go in much for spit-roasting :)

But more seriously, spit-turning on the small scale does not require a steam engine. Twisted string or a small rotor above the fire are enough. Big spits (like we read of in Petronius) wouldn't be impressed by one.

Hm, I'd managed not to think about him in ages. Bits of his prose are the 4chan of the Ancient World.
 
o Monarchies (the Empire) have alot more barriers to innovation than liberal constitutions like much of Greece and the mid and late Roman Republic had. But Rome had conquered Greece already, so once its Republic fell, that put the brakes on the smarts for two millenia.

Well, if Athens were a Democracy and Rome a Republic, this doesn't mean they were liberal in any modern sense of the world. They preferred not to stray from the old ways without crucial need. The Hellenistic Egyptian monarchy - and the Imperial Rome, on a smaller scale - on the contrary, had much more interest in scientific and engineering innovations and in assembling scientific knowledge(think about the State-sponsored Mouseion of Alexandria and the aqueduct of Gard built under Julians-Claudians) . One may even say without too much exaggeration that the scientific approach rather had his takeoff in Alexandria than in Athens.
 
Did the Romans/Greeks use dogs to turn spits, or was that practice invented later?

I've never seen any evidence, but the use of cooking spits in classical times is pretty limited anyway. Food was more likely to be grilled on skewers or grates than roasted on spits. Even sub-Roman Gallic 'spit holders' are as likely as not firedogs. Given the wealth of metal and pottery kitchen implements we can find and identify, it would be extremely surprising if we had missed that.
 
Some years ago I saw a document about Creek/Roman technology, and one of the greatest inventor of his time was Heron. Unfortunately they thought that there was no use for this kind of machine, just a toy. If just someone would have said to Caesar how useful this machine would be, for example in ship, there you go. A trimaran with steam-engine would have been somethig. I personally think that it's (dark) Middle Ages and christianity's fault that we are some 700 years behind in technological evolution.
As other people have already stated, the Middle ages and Christianity had little to no impact on technological growth. For example, there was no such "dark age" in the Middle East, China, or India, yet they experienced stagnation as well in technological growth. Also, Rome was really stagnant from the 1st century A.D., much before Christianity became the mainstream. Further, Rome adopted Christianity because it's ideals fit very well into their existing ideology.

In fact, it might be fair to say that the European political climate due to the Middle Ages allowed the creation of the Renaissance and, later, the Enlightenment. The Gold, Glory and God thing also fueled the Age of Discovery.
 

Germaniac

Donor
The Romans simply did not have the capacity to have an industialization at the time. Once they occupy Britannia however it could have caught on, however the Steam engine was just a toy. In Britain Coal was being used as a heat source already and if the Roman could put it together you might get a good spark. Very unlikely though, unless they could find a military application very quickly.
 
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