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Yes. They were able to draw wire for jewellery. The could smelt iron so they could have made electromagnets, generators, electric motors, transformers, and lo
by kwhitefoot 5y ago
Yes. They were able to draw wire for jewellery. The could smelt iron so they could have made electromagnets, generators, electric motors, transformers, and loudspeakers. That's enough for spark gap transmitters and wired telegraph.
Hero of Alexandria made, or at least described, a simple steam turbine. But it was just seen as a toy or philosophical talking point and it wasn't until over a thousand years later that steam power became useful.
Half the challenge is knowing that something can be done and having some idea of what might be achieved. The rest is just work. :-)
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile
- KineticLensman 5y ago> Hero of Alexandria made, or at least described, a simple steam turbine. But it was just seen as a toy It was in fact a toy [0]. It was basically a kettle mounted on a spindle with two spouts on opposite sides. When heated the steam escaped via the spouts and the whole thing rotated around the spindle. For many reasons it could not have done useful work: * Very low pressure - with no valves to maintain a working pressure or pistons to drive a machine * Not engineered to withstand useful pressure (simple copper welds) * No way to reload water when in use [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoThey also appeared to be able to make batteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery But as the article states, they're not convinced anymore that they were. Never mind?