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Demonic Spoon
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 6802
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:02 am Post subject: Early Steam Power? |
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Hey folks...I was watching the history channel, and this got me thinking.
More than 2,000 years ago, in Alexandria, some smart bastard named Heron invented a "steam ball". It was basically the first application of steam power. Basically, if he had taken this idea just a little bit further, there would have been steam power in 300 BC. As yall know, steam power is what modernized the world.
What do you folks think would have happened if Heron actually DID make a steam engine? |
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patrickt
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 1700
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:29 am Post subject: |
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| His steam ball demonstrated that steam power could move things but it stopped there. The Indians supposedly didn't have the wheel but they did. They used it on toys. For a discovery to move to the next step there has to be a perceived need. The perceived need that was the stimulus for steam power was transportation which was in turn necessitated by industrialization. Water power plants worked fine since they were next to rivers but moving the goods they produced was a problem. Hence, the excitement of steam-powered boats and trains. |
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perdidochas
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 15408
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 11:04 am Post subject: Re: Early Steam Power? |
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Demonic Spoon wrote: Hey folks...I was watching the history channel, and this got me thinking.
More than 2,000 years ago, in Alexandria, some smart bastard named Heron invented a "steam ball". It was basically the first application of steam power. Basically, if he had taken this idea just a little bit further, there would have been steam power in 300 BC. As yall know, steam power is what modernized the world.
What do you folks think would have happened if Heron actually DID make a steam engine?
The industrial revolution would have occurred about 1600 yrs earlier. |
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Demonic Spoon
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 6802
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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| thought that was pretty obvious, but what would that mean for the world? How would that 2,000 year difference affect things today? |
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Free Thinkr
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 12555
Location: Northwest Indiana
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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| It wouldn't have made much difference at all, because the materials in use at the time would have made it impossible to build. It probably would have been lost and only discovered again once steam power was re-invented. |
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Demonic Spoon
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
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Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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| What the hell? Why? They had iron back then... |
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X-Shocker
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Posts: 167
Location: All around you
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: Early Steam Power? |
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perdidochas wrote: Demonic Spoon wrote: Hey folks...I was watching the history channel, and this got me thinking.
More than 2,000 years ago, in Alexandria, some smart bastard named Heron invented a "steam ball". It was basically the first application of steam power. Basically, if he had taken this idea just a little bit further, there would have been steam power in 300 BC. As yall know, steam power is what modernized the world.
What do you folks think would have happened if Heron actually DID make a steam engine?
The industrial revolution would have occurred about 1600 yrs earlier.
And we would now be in global disaster. |
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Demonic Spoon
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 6802
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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| why? |
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Pzatchok
Joined: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 7115
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| Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:34 am Post subject: |
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They actually didn't have iron. At least not good iron. they had somewhat usable iron.
Nothing like steel.
The real catalist for the industrial revolution was population.
The more people there were to feed, house and transport the more we needed higher production methods.
We needed more iron for house hold tools. We found more ore and learned how to mine it.
We needed more food we made better plows. Plows needed iron.
Boats needed armor we put iron on them as soon as we had enough production.
His "engine" would have worked to move something. But it was in efficient and not powerfull. The piston engine was needed. It contained the steam and this used it far more efficiently. And for an efficient piston you need a casting method and a metal turning lathe.
The metal lathe was missing at that time.
Not counting the idea of bronze bearings and a petrolium industry to supply cheap grease. |
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