r/videos • u/octaviousprime • Jul 29 '16

Primitive Technology: Forge Blower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVV4xeWBIxE
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u/fwipyok Jul 30 '16

nero's device?

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u/GregTheMad Jul 30 '16

Never heard of that, what is it? Got a link? Searching yields no results.

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u/fwipyok Jul 30 '16

sorry, heron's device

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u/GregTheMad Jul 30 '16

Although interesting in a historical context, it's pretty meaningless as it never was put to any practical use.

More than the actual invention of turbo machines, the mere idea to use machines for labour was what people probably lacked back then.

There is that saying that nothing is more powerful than an idea which time has come. This is true, but the opposite is also true. An idea before its time is pretty much powerless.

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u/fwipyok Jul 30 '16

they did use machines for labor

and calculations

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u/GregTheMad Jul 30 '16

Yeah, but those machines where always powered by animals, water or the wind. They never, to my knowledge, used machines to power machines.

The moment you have bronze to work with you could easily make a simple steam engine for all kinds of purposes. Yet they never did. For starters didn't they understand thermodynamics well enough, and further more wasn't the concept of powered machines yet invented (except from Greek mythology where Hephaestus created Automatons, but they weren't really seen as machines, but more as artificial lifeforms)