

Archimedes used cannons, not mirrors to burn Roman ships - zmmz
http://www.livescience.com/history/archimedes-set-roman-ships-afire-with-cannons-100627.html

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hugh3
It would be interesting to see a reconstruction of a steam cannon. There's no
mention in the article of anyone actually building one, and I'm at a loss to
imagine how you'd use ancient metalworking technology to build the valve which
holds back the pressure that's sufficient to fling a projectile any
significant distance.

Also, if they were such a great weapon, able to set ships alight from the
shore, why did nobody ever use them again?

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drats
>Also, if they were such a great weapon, able to set ships alight from the
shore, why did nobody ever use them again?

Other advanced Greek technology was lost and unmatched again for centuries.
Note the Corinthian connection in the origins of the Antikythera mechanism.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Origins>

However, whilst lost to the West, many of these traditions lived on in the
Byzantine Empire and Arabic automatons and inventions (Al-Jazari), so there is
some continuity. The migration of Greek scholars and texts from Byzantium to
Italy at the behest of philhellenic sponsors then sets the stage for Da Vinci
and others as the article notes. If anything it serves as a reminder that high
technology and culture can be lost in the vicissitudes of human arrogance,
conflict and oppression.

Although confined to the elites the Greeks knew the earth was round, and they
had a theory of evolution and complex mechanical computation devices. Today we
battle against people trying to insert creationism into schools and a massive
and systemic attempt across the West to censor and control the Internet. The
only thing we can be thankful for is that the flat-earth movement can't get
any traction in the face of satellite imagery (although, the moon landing
hoaxers are not too far off such a proposition and get quite a few people to
believe them).

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hugh3
All of which is fine, but this wasn't lost in the dark ages, this was
supposedly used once, never used again, and never even recorded or noticed by
the invading Romans, who might have been very interested in the novel weapon
which was setting their ships on fire.

Wikipedia has an article on steam cannons:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_cannon>

which notes that there were various attempts to make a viable steam cannon
during the heyday of the steam engine, but nobody managed to make a viable one
until World War 2.

Also, Mythbusters apparently did an episode about Archimedes and steam
cannons. I can't find out much about it, but it doesn't look like it was an
overwhelming success.

In conclusion, I don't see a helluva lot of advantage for the steam cannon
over the catapult.

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Canopy
In order to launch fire at a distance of 150m the old bow & arrow looks more
practical too. Even if this steam cannon seems more plausible than the mirror
hypothesis it looks more like an engineer's gadget than the future (at this
time) of warfare.

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trebor
Now that's an intriguing weapon! Sounds more plausible than the parabolic
mirror, too.

