How Ancient Mechanics Thought About Machines

friedo writes "The NYTimes has an interesting piece about Prof. Mark Schiefsky, a Harvard classicist with an interest in the history of science. Schiefsky pores over ancient texts in Greek, Latin, and Arabic to decipher the origin of knowledge that's been taken for granted for millennia. For example, a Greek treatise published a generation before Archimedes' proofs of the lever laws explains why, if you were a galley slave, you'd want to work the oars near the center of the ship instead of closer to the hull."

Comments

Library of Alexandria

[Bananatree3]

Only a tiny, tiny fraction of the books and scrolls within the Library of Alexandria survived, and who knows what kind of complex science and engineering was put into those books. The day it burned the world lost the greatest knowledge resource at the time.

The History channel has a program on some of these amazingly complex ancient machines

Re:Oh, the irony!

[techno-vampire]

This, of course, ignores the fact that in Greek times the oarsmen of a ship were paid professionals, not slaves. I doubt that there were any galley slaves in the Greek ships that won the battle of Salamis. Not sure about the Persians, though.

Re:Galley slave would want to be toward the hull

[icegreentea]

Completely true. A galley slave really wouldn't care. Which is why the Greek States by and large didn't use slaves. Almost all oarsmen were freemen, and they had to be somewhat professional. Athens (for example) built its wealth and its 'empire' on its navy, and thus there was a sense of pride in serving the navy. Not to mention, when you have 170 oarsmen, they have to work as a coherent team. Getting 170 slaves who really don't want to be there to work properly would be detrimental. In cases where slaves were pressed into service (in emergencies or what not) they were sometimes rewarded with freedom after serving.

Re:Oh, the irony!

[Petrushka]

You're thinking of Athens, not of Greece generally, and even Athens used slaves in its navy. Hence the social importance of the battle of Arginousai: after the battle the assembly voted to give freedom to slaves who fought in the battle.

Re:Other great knowlege repositories

[TapeCutter]

"they never even invented the wheel"

So how do you explain wheels on Mayan toys?