The use of steam power is generally associated with the Industrial Revolution and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Steam-powered ships and trains helped modernize and bring the world together. Before that, everything was fairly primitive, right?
Well, not exactly. Yes, the Industrial Revolution didn’t begin until the 1700s. But the idea of steam power had been figured out, and forgotten, nearly two thousand years prior.
The idea to use steam, and therefore water, to power things is as ancient as it is logical. The ancients were around water every day and saw that its power was enough to make things move, and the most intelligent of them reasoned that if they could somehow make water move on command, then they could do things others only imagined!
The first man to develop serious hydropower theories was a Greek from Alexandria, Egypt named Ctesibius, who lived in the third century BC. Ctesibius was a member of the famed Museum of Alexandria and had access to the newly opened Library of Alexandria, which is where he got some of his invention ideas. He is credited with inventing a water-powered pipe organ and improving existing water clocks. Ctesibius’ contributions to science extended beyond his own lifetime, however, as his inventions influenced later scientists to move forward with his ideas.
The Roman engineer Vitruvius (ca. 80-15 BC) was inspired by Ctesibius to create many military inventions and improvements in architecture, most notably central heating. But perhaps one of his most interesting experiments was with an early aeolipile, or steam engine.
The aeolipile was actually quite a simple device. It consisted of a radial steam turbine that was powered by two hollow tubes that connected it to a water container below it. The container was heated until steam was created, making the turbine move.
Although Vitruvius offered the first description of the aeolipile, the device is often more closely associated with another scientist from Alexandria, Hero of Alexandria (ca. AD 10-70). Besides the aeolipile, Hero invented a water-powered vending machine, a force pump, and several mechanical devices that were used in theaters.
Unfortunately, though, Hero’s inventions never caught on enough to be widely distributed. It also didn’t help that the Library of Alexandria was destroyed during the late Roman Empire or early Islamic Period in Egypt.
And there was also this little thing called the Dark Ages.
So, early experimentations with steam power were forgotten until the Early Modern Period. It is interesting to think of where we might be if the experiments of Vitruvius and Hero would have been improved instead of forgotten.