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.