More info on the project
It is certainly exciting remaking the first steam machine that has ever been discovered and the feeling watching it to work again was unbelievable by reviving those years of the past. Having this in mind, we remade the steam machine of Heron, the ‘Hero of Alexandria’.
This was the first machine which needed steam to move. Heron was a Greek Mathematician and Engineer, who was and still is known for his various, remarkable devices. Even though, his steam machine has not any functional application is still quite an exciting device.
First, we made the boiler of this machine by taking a stainless steel basin of 35cm where we glued a stainless steel iron plate shaping a closed container. Then, taking two small bowls, we welded them together and we shaped a sphere on which we placed two bearings and two nozzles. Bearings are the points where the sphere spins smoothly while the nozzles are the spots where the steam exits with pressure and forces the sphere to spin and move. After, we connected the sphere with tubes from the bearings and we placed it on the boiler so that when the water boils, it passes through the tubes to carry on to the sphere and then exits from the nozzles and the sphere spins.
Finally, below the boiler, we put a container where the wood for the fire is placed and the boiler gets hot. After trying our device, we got really impressed that this machine worked. Although, its extremely low performance and being functionally useless, it is still a remarkable example in the field of engineering as well as it is an amazing piece of history and decoration.