Classical Technology: Heron’s List

Technological devices listed by Heron of Alexandria in his book Pneumatics:

• A vase that makes a bird sound or a whistling sound when someone fills it with water.
• A vase that emits water in quantities proportional to the coins inserted – a kind of vending machine.
• Figures that dance when a fire is lit on an altar.
• Statues of animals that cry out and drink.
• A pus extractor (aka a syringe).
• An hydraulic organ.
• An apparatus that suspends light balls in the air on a jet of vapor.
• The eolipyle – possibly the first steam engine.
• A maintenance free oil lamp – as oil is burnt, the wick moves automatically.
• Compressed air chambers that shoot liquid (???).
• Pumps with suction and pressure that can shoot water in any direction because of a flexible head. Used to fight fires.
• A sucking device that does not rely on fire.
• A solar powered device for running water.

From Henri Boch’s Exposed: Ouija, Firewalking and Other Gibberish, p.118-9.