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We all know that it was essentially impossible for the aeolipe to be used to start an industrial revolution during the Antiquity. Metallurgy wasn't advanced enough and slaves made it economically unfeasible, it stayed a curiosity.
But what could have happened if, for any reason, it spread around enough to become well known, and it stayed as part of the public consciousness around the Mediterranean, even if only as a weird spinning toy? How long would it take for the technology necessary for it to become useful, and what kind of developments it could have caused?
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