An idea is only as influential as a society is able to appreciate. The invention of the steam engine bears this truth out. Here you see an “aeolipile,” described in the first century CE most notably by Hero of Alexandria (d. 70 CE). In the first image is a drawing of his machine – so named because its use of air brought to mind Aeolus, the Greek God of the winds. Water in a basin was heated from a fire beneath. Hollow tubes would take pressurized steam up into a sphere, and put torque into the machine. Blades on either side of the sphere would then cause it to rotate. (See second image with illustration.) What did the Ancients do with knowledge of this primeval steam engine? The Roman Vitruvius (d. 10 CE) remarked that the aeolipile was useful for studying the physical properties of the material world. Well, he put it in terms of his own worldview: “[the aeolipile is] a scientific invention [to] discover a divine truth lurking in the laws of the heavens.” But obviously, the machine didn’t catch on. It wasn’t interesting enough as a fantastical object, nor as a way to think about the concept of energy, nor as a device that they could use to power other things. That machine would have to wait until Newcomen, and then Watts’, steam engines in the 18th century.
Source(s): Quote from Vitruvius, _De Architectura_, Chapter IV.
