Steam Engines in Ancient Times Introduction

All bodies in nature are presented to us in one or other of the three differernt forms or states- viz. the solid, the liquid and the gaseous. Most bodies can be made, by changes in temperature, to assume thses different forms. The simplest and best know example is that of water. At the ordinary temperature of out climate, this is a perfect liquid; at a considerably lower temperature, it becomes solid, and then it is called ice; at a very high temperature, it becomes gaseous, and is then called steam.

A liquid, under the influence of heat, generates an aeriform fluid; this fluid, when free to expand in a given space, is called a vapor, but when it completely fills that space, and prevents the futher vaporization of that fluid, it is called a gas or an elastic fluid. Although simple variations of temperature and volume will cause a gas to pass into the state of vapor, and vice versa, yet the physical properties of the fluid, in these two states, are essentially different. Thus, by heating a given volume of air, or any other vapor, from 32 degrees to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it's elastic force is increased only in the ratio of 1 to 11, or of 8 to 11, nearly; whereas, the elastic force of the vapor of water, while in contact with the generating liquid, is increased in the ratio of about 1:150. It is this enormous development of force, produced by the application of heat, which accomplishes in modern times, the amazing mechanical effects of steam, when employed as a moving power.

The Ancients had no such clear notions of the nature of steam as those which have just been stated; although, in the writings of Plato, we find speculations concerning the nature and properties of the four elements, as they were called, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, which show that they were partially acquainted with the subject. It is true that only about a century and a half have elapsed, since steam began to be usefully employed as a moving power; and yet, the knowledge of it's expansive force can be traced to remote antiquity. This discovery must, indeed have forced itself on the notice of those who first made use of a pot, with a lid on it, in culinary operations.

It is, therefore, simply ridiculous to refer the discovery of the properties of steam, or the invention of the steam engine, to the Marquis of Worcester, who flourished in 1663, because he observed the lid of his tea-kettle thrown off by the force of the steam. For aught we know to the contrary, Adam and Eve may have witnessed such a phenomenon as this, in their post-paradisical state.

Hero of Alexandria, who flourished around 120 B.C., in a Treatise on Pneumatics, written in Greek, records the principal facts that were then known regarding the vapor of water, and gives an account of several machines in which the force of steam is employed to produce motion.

One of these, the 45th in the book, consists of a pot with a lid, into which is fastened an upright tube, terminating in a perforated hemispherical cup, in which is placed a movable ball. Water having been put into the pot, and the whole apparatus placed over a fire, as soon as the vapor or steam issues with sufficient force through the tube, it causes the ball to dance over the cup, with a rapidity varying according to the force of the steam.

Figure 1 is a representation of this apparatus, which is called in Greek lebes, that is, pot or kettle; it is taken from Commandine's edition of the work of Hero, published at Urbino in 1575, and has evidently been copied from the oldest manuscript.

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