1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

4.7 Use of Natural Power 107
to do with Archimedes, without even considering the evidence, has led
to persistent attempts to backdate it to Pharaoh-era Egypt. 97a The water- page 147
screw did become important to Egyptian irrigation under the Ptolemies
(see page 221), but the copious iconographic documentation from earlier
times, including much that is related to irrigation and flood control, fails
to show Archimedean screws or screws of any type.
Another technological product of Hellenistic science useful for lifting
water was Ctesibius’ pump. 98 This device must still have been widespread
in Roman times, because archeological digs have yielded twenty-five examples
from early imperial times: thirteen in wood, eleven in bronze and
one in lead. 99 The bronze pieces bespeak skill in treating metal surfaces
with the precision necessary to ensure a fit between piston and cylinder,
as in the air catapult (page 94): in other words, metal grinding techniques
were already known. 100
4.7 Use of Natural Power
The design of machines that could be operated by means of a simple rotational
motion, like those just described for lifting water, allowed the replacement
of human by animal power, but also suggested the desirability
of using inanimate power sources. In Hellenistic times several such
sources were used.
Running water. The earliest water mill we know of was connected with
the palace of King Mithridates VI of Pontus (120–63 B.C.) at Cabeira, but
the testimonium gives no details. 101 Next we read in an epigram of Antipater
of Thessalonica (first century B.C.):
Rest your hands from the mill, flour-women: sleep in, even if the
cocks crow to announce dawn, for Demeter has assigned the labor of
your hands to the nymphs; and they, tumbling down the very edge page 148
97a
Thus the influential History of technology: “According to legend, Archimedes invented and constructed
many machines . . . but . . . the evidence is vague. The only machine which is both associated
with his name and precisely known is the ‘Archimedean screw’ for irrigation. Here it seems
that legend has incorrectly attributed to him a contrivance that had long been in use in Egypt”
([Gille: Machines], p. 633). But this thesis had already been refuted in [Feldhaus] and in [Rehm]:
“That the Archimedean screw . . . is an invention of the man whose name it bears is as well-attested
as it can possibly be” ([Rehm], p. 146, note 28).
98
See page 70.
99
[Oleson: WL], p. 272, note 96.
100
This is stressed in [Woodbury], p. 30. Compare also [Philo/Prager], p. 12, note 30. Earlier it
was thought instead that the need for ground metal joints disqualified an instrument from being
contemporary with Philo ([Drachmann: KPH], p. 50).
101
Strabo, Geography, XII, iii, 30.
Revision: 1.14 Date: 2002/10/24 04:25:47