ReMaking History, Volume 1

Chapter 5 Heron of Alexandria and the Gin Pole 50 CE

Ancient Alexandria was hotbed of scientific discovery. Euclid, the father of geometry, lived there, as did Eratosthenes, the mathematician who first measured the circumference of the earth. In Chapter 3, we met Ctesibius when we explored his siphons, and now we’ll explore the work of Heron, perhaps Alexandria’s earliest, if not its greatest, mechanical engineer.

You Can Lift Heavy Things

Prior to the 5th or 6th century BCE, the only ways to raise a heavy object were to either climb up on a ladder, put a rope over the object to be lifted, and pull, or, if you had enough time, build a ...