“Unveiling the Ingenious Visionary of Ancient Greece: A Forgotten Titan Who Redefined Innovation”
Another of Heron’s hydraulic innovations was what is now known as Heron’s Fountain, which operated without the use of pumps. This consisted of a shallow tray with a spout in the middle from which a stream of water issued. The tray, in turn, was connected by a series of vertical pipes to a pair of sealed chambers. Water flowing from the tray into the first chamber compressed the air inside, which flowed into the second chamber and forced the water inside out the spout in the tray. Despite appearances, this was not a perpetual motion machine, such devices being physically impossible, or so Big Energy would have us believe…. Instead, the water would continue to flow until the first chamber was completely filled, whereupon the whole fountain would stop. Still, the effect must have been mystifying to ancient observers.
Heron also invented a double-action water pump with a rocking handle remarkably similar to modern designs, which was widely used by the notoriously inept and corrupt Roman fire brigades, the Familia Publica. How corrupt, you might ask? Well, when the brigade’s creator, general and statesman Marcus Licinius Crassus, arrived at the site of a fire, he would not begin extinguishing it right away. Instead, he would offer to buy the burning property from the owner. If the owner refused, Crassus would hold his men back and let the building burn, continually lowering his bid until the owner finally relented.
Heron’s genius even extended to the field of theatre, for which he developed a variety of impressive special effects – including carts and set pieces that automatically moved about the stage seemingly of their own volition. These devices were powered by a falling weight system, whose speed was regulated by the flow of sand out of a reservoir – similar to an hourglass. But Heron didn’t stop there; using a sophisticated system of gears, knotted ropes, and other mechanisms, he was able to make these carts stop, start, reverse, and trace circles or figure-eights in a pre-determined sequence. These techniques were the distant ancestors of modern computer programming, which would not be experimented with again until the 18th Century. But even this remarkable achievement was dwarfed by what is perhaps Heron’s most impressive creation: a fully automatic miniature theatre that presented a complete, 10-minute theatrical performance using mechanical puppets. The show, titled Nauplius, told the story of a king whose son is falsely accused of treason by his comrade-in-arms Ajax and stoned to death. King Nauplius then sets about exacting his revenge on Ajax, aided by the goddess Athena. In the first scene, mechanical figures of nymphs were shown repairing Ajax’s ship, accompanied by the realistic sounds of saws and hammers. The doors of the theatre then closed and reopened to reveal the second scene, depicting the launching of the ship. The third scene depicted Ajax’s fleet sailing across the sea, accompanied by leaping dolphins. The sky then turned stormy, causing the ships to draw in their sails. In the fourth scene, King Nauplius was shown holding up a false beacon to draw Ajax’s ships onto the rocks, with Athena looking on approvingly. Finally, the last scene showed the fleet being shipwrecked on the rocks and Ajax struggling in the water. Like all of Heron’s automatons, the entire show was driven by an intricate system of pulleys, gears, and falling weights.
