Hero of Alexandria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hero of Alexandria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hero of Alexandria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (c. 10–c. 70) was a Greek engineer and geometer. His most famous invention was the first documented steam engine, the aeolipile. He is said to have been a follower of the Atomists. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius.

A number of references mention dates around 150 BC, but these are inconsistent with the dates of his publications and inventions. This may be due to a misinterpretation of the phrase "first century".

Hero is credited with inventing many feedback control devices using water, fire and compressed air in various combinations, and the first type of analogue computer programming via intricate systems of geared spindles studded with pegs and wound with ropes connected to weights (trays of sand emptying over time) used to operate his automatic theaters that included automatic doors and multiple changing scenes of moving figures accompanied by lighting and sound effects.

Ideas and Inventions of Heron of Alexandria include:
Automating Temple doors to move with the use of water counter-wieghts controlled by the temple fires and an Omen machine with a singing bird under the control of the priest - a total scam but his bird warble-sound design for the bird song was great, the lowering of a bell piped to open ended whistle pipes topped with another inverted bell shape, as this metal construct was lowered into a container of water the warble is a long whistle followed by a warble and a shift final whistle - amazingly. He may have also been the inventor of the "Teraballista" a mechanized high power rapid-fire crossbow used to guard the Roman Emipres outer borders.

compressed-air fountain
siphons
automated puppet theatres
machine for threading wooden screws
steam turbine (50/62/70) (aeolipile)
density of air
water organ or hydraulic organ
odometer