ce magazine march 2019 issue

Something to enlighten you up
Hunter Scott
Could the ancient Romans have built a digital computer?
The Romans were undoubtedly master engineers. They were experts at civil
engineering, building roads, improving sanitation, inventing Roman concrete, and
constructing aqueducts that adhere to tolerances impressive even by today’s
standards. Perhaps the best evidence of their aptitude is the fact that many of
those structures still stand today, almost 2000 years later. They even began
dabbling in technology vastly ahead of their time. Hero of Alexandria drew up
plans for a rudimentary steam engine in his Spiritalia seu Pneumatica. He called it
the aeolipile.
It didn’t work very well. However, by the late 3rd century AD, all essential parts for
constructing a steam engine were known to Roman engineers: Hero’s steam power,
the crank and connecting rod mechanism (in the Hierapolis sawmill), the cylinder
and piston (in metal force pumps), non-return valves (in water pumps) and gearing
(in water mills). That got me thinking: Could the Romans have built a digital
computer using only the technology and manufacturing processes available to
them?
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