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Philo Of Byzantium
Philo of Byzantium (, ''Phílōn ho Byzántios'', ), also known as Philo Mechanicus (Latin for "Philo the Engineer"), was a Greek engineer, physicist and writer on mechanics, who lived during the latter half of the 3rd century BC. Although he was from Byzantium he lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. He was probably younger than Ctesibius, though some place him a century earlier. Works Philo was the author of a large work, the ''Syntaxis'' (, ''Mēkhanikḗ Sýntaxē''), which contained the following sections: * Isagoge (, ''Eisagōgḗ'') – Introduction (general mathematics) * Mochlica (, ''Mokhliká'') – Leverage (mechanics) * Limenopoeica (, ''Limenopoiiká'') – Harbour Construction * Belopoeica (, ''Belopoiiká'') – Siege Engine Construction * Pneumatica (, ''Pneumatiká'') – Pneumatics * Automatopoeica (, ''Automatopoiētiká'') – Automatons (mechanical toys and diversions) * Parasceuastica (, ''Paraskeuastiká'') – Preparations (for sieges) * Poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand-year existence of the Eastern Roman Empire, which also became known by the former name of the city as the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BCE and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 CE. Etymology The etymology of ''Byzantium'' is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of Thracian origin. It may be derived from the Thracian personal name Byzas which means "he-goat". Ancient Greek legend refers to the Greek king Byzas, the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city. The name '' Lygos'' for the city, which likely corresponds to an earlier T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Wilson (classical Archaeologist)
Andrew Ian Wilson (born 29 February 1968) is a British classical archaeologist and Head of School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He was director of the Oxford Institute of Archaeology from 2009 to 2011. Wilson's main research interests are the Roman economy, economy of the Roman world, Ancient Greece, Greek and Ancient Rome, Roman water supply, and ancient technology. Early life and education Wilson was educated at the Perse School, Cambridge, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he studied Literae Humaniores (Classics) from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 1993 he worked as a computer consultant for the electronics firm Eurotherm, before returning to Oxford to study for his doctorate (1993 to 1997), a social and technological study on water management and usage in North Africa during classical antiquity#Roman era, Roman North Africa, supervised by John Lloyd (archaeologist), John Lloyd. Academic career From 1996 to 2000 he was a Fellow by Examination in Classical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Oates (archaeologist)
Edward Ernest David Michael Oates, (25 February 1927 – 22 March 2004), known as David Oates, was a British archaeologist and academic specializing in the Ancient Near East. He was director of the excavations at Nimrud from 1958 to 1962, Tell al-Rimah from 1964 to 1971 and at Tell Brak from 1976 to 2004. He was Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology from 1969 to 1982 and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research from 1997 to 2004. Early life Oates was born on 25 February 1927 in Stoke Climsland, Cornwall, England. He was educated at Callington County School, a state secondary school in Callington, Cornwall, and Oundle School, a private boarding school in Oundle, Northamptonshire. He studied classics and archaeology at Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. He was awarded the Rome Scholarship to study at the British School at Rome from 1949 to 1951. During his studies in Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephanie Dalley
Stephanie Mary Dalley FSA (''née'' Page; March 1943) is a British Assyriologist and scholar of the Ancient Near East. Prior to her retirement, she was a teaching Fellow at the Oriental Institute, Oxford. She is known for her publications of cuneiform texts and her investigation into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and her proposal that it was situated in Nineveh, and constructed during Sennacherib's rule. Biography As a schoolgirl, Stephanie Page worked as a volunteer on archaeological excavations at Verulamium, Cirencester, and Bignor Villa. In 1962, she was invited by David Oates, a family friend, to an archaeological dig he was directing in Nimrud, northern Iraq. Here she was responsible for cleaning and conserving the discovered ivories. Between 1962 and 1966 she studied Assyriology at Newnham College, Cambridge, part of Cambridge University, and followed it up with a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. In the years 1966–67, Page was aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity, first established in the 1572 publication '' Octo Mundi Miracula'' using a combination of historical sources.: "It is perhaps only with the execution of these drawings that the list became fixed for all time , but the details of each monument have been scrutinised ever since under the scientific eye of such scholars as Johann Fischer von Erlach.": "The 'canonical' list of the Seven Wonders that we use today was actually drawn up in the sixteenth century by Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck, who produced a set of drawings of the Seven Wonders compiled from his perusal of ancient authors. His list contained two statues, the Zeus from Olympia and the Colossus of Rhodes; two sets of tombs, the Pyramids of Egypt and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; and several buildings, the Temple of Artemis at Ephe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hero Of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria (; , , also known as Heron of Alexandria ; probably 1st or 2nd century AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria in Egypt during the Roman era. He has been described as the greatest experimentalist of antiquity and a representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition. Hero published a well-recognized description of a steam-powered device called an '' aeolipile'', also known as "Hero's engine". Among his most famous inventions was a windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of wind harnessing on land. In his work ''Mechanics'', he described pantographs. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius. In mathematics, he wrote a commentary on Euclid's ''Elements'' and a work on applied geometry known as the ''Metrica''. He is mostly remembered for Heron's formula; a way to calculate the area of a triangle using only the lengths of its sides. Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is called the radius. The length of a line segment connecting two points on the circle and passing through the centre is called the diameter. A circle bounds a region of the plane called a Disk (mathematics), disc. The circle has been known since before the beginning of recorded history. Natural circles are common, such as the full moon or a slice of round fruit. The circle is the basis for the wheel, which, with related inventions such as gears, makes much of modern machinery possible. In mathematics, the study of the circle has helped inspire the development of geometry, astronomy and calculus. Terminology * Annulus (mathematics), Annulus: a ring-shaped object, the region bounded by two concentric circles. * Circular arc, Arc: any Connected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperbola
In mathematics, a hyperbola is a type of smooth function, smooth plane curve, curve lying in a plane, defined by its geometric properties or by equations for which it is the solution set. A hyperbola has two pieces, called connected component (topology), connected components or branches, that are mirror images of each other and resemble two infinite bow (weapon), bows. The hyperbola is one of the three kinds of conic section, formed by the intersection of a plane (mathematics), plane and a double cone (geometry), cone. (The other conic sections are the parabola and the ellipse. A circle is a special case of an ellipse.) If the plane intersects both halves of the double cone but does not pass through the apex of the cones, then the conic is a hyperbola. Besides being a conic section, a hyperbola can arise as the locus (mathematics), locus of points whose difference of distances to two fixed focus (geometry), foci is constant, as a curve for each point of which the rays to two fix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermoscope
A thermoscope is a device that shows changes in temperature. A typical design is a tube in which a liquid rises and falls as the temperature changes. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from it with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Function Devices employing both heat and pressure were common during Galileo's time, used for fountains, nursing, or bleeding in medicine. The device was built from a small vase filled with water, attached to a thin vertically rising pipe, with a large empty glass ball at the top. Changes in temperature of the upper ball would exert positive or negative pressure on the water below, causing it to rise or lower in the thin column. The device established fixed points but does not measure specific quantity, although it can tell when something is warmer than another thing. Essentially, thermoscopes served as a justification of sorts regarding what is observed or experienced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washstand
A washstand or basin stand is a piece of furniture consisting of a small table or cabinet, usually supported on three or four legs, and most commonly made of mahogany, walnut, or rosewood, and made for holding a wash basin and water pitcher. The smaller varieties were used for rose-water ablutions, or for hair-powdering. The larger ones, which possessed receptacles for soap dishes, were the predecessors of the modern bathroom wash basin, or sink. Both varieties, often of very elegant form, were in extensive use throughout a large part of the 18th century and early-19th century, eventually disappearing with the advent of modern indoor plumbing. Ancient Greece In his ''Pneumatics'', (chapter 31) Philo of Byzantium, a Greek engineer and writer on mechanics, describes an escapement mechanism, the earliest known, as part of a washstand. A counterweighted spoon, supplied by a water tank, tips over in a basin when full releasing a pumice in the process. Once the spoon has emptied, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escapement
An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to the clock's timekeeping element (usually a pendulum or balance wheel) to replace the energy lost to friction during its cycle and keep the timekeeper oscillating. The escapement is driven by force from a coiled spring (device), spring or a suspended weight, transmitted through the timepiece's gear train. Each swing of the pendulum or balance wheel releases a tooth of the escapement's ''escape wheel'', allowing the clock's gear train to advance or "escape" by a fixed amount. This regular periodic advancement moves the clock's hands forward at a steady rate. At the same time, the tooth gives the timekeeping element a push, before another tooth catches on the escapement's pallet, returning the escapement to its "locked" state. The sudden stoppi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gimbal
A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of the rotation of its support (e.g. vertical in the first animation). For example, on a ship, the gyroscopes, shipboard compasses, stoves, and even drink holders typically use gimbals to keep them upright with respect to the horizon despite the ship's pitching and rolling. The gimbal suspension used for mounting compasses and the like is sometimes called a Cardan suspension after Italian mathematician and physicist Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576) who described it in detail. However, Cardano did not invent the gimbal, nor did he claim to. The device has been known since antiquity, first described in the 3rd c. BC by Philo of Byzantium, although some modern authors support the view that it may not have a single identifiable inventor. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
