this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Well how close were they?
Edit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1id83b/how_far_away_was_the_roman_empire_from_an/
Pretty far, unfortunately. The aeolipile wasn't exactly a device suited to extract work from, and modern (~17th-18th century) steam engines require a degree of metallurgical technology that the Romans simply did not have. The blast furnace would have been a very basic necessary prerequisite for any sort of industrial revolution, which the Romans did not have.
Some of the answers in that Reddit thread are operating on somewhat... older understandings of the Roman Empire's social structure and economy.
The idea of a steam engine was around in the 1st Century. Personally, I like to think someone at the Coliseum would be looking for a faster way to move things around that didn't require an army of slaves or big smelly animals.
Things like hot air balloons, gun powder rockets, and optics all in the service of Bread and Circuses.
For context, the steam engine might have been a primitive version of this sort of thing, which can just about lift 0.5kg with twentieth century metallurgy and mass-produced bearings, seals, and pipe-fittings.
Yeah it's a cool little demo, but it could never scale up to work like an engine ever. Like you say even with modern perfect tools and materials it can barely do anything but spin itself. This is because a steam engine uses the pressure of the steam, whilst the toy in the demo works on the speed of the flow of the steam. It's a completely different principle which aren't related except for both being steam.
The modern story of this being a very early steam engine and the story of what could have been is just that, a story. It isn't really true in any sense of the word and a completely modern tale.
It depends on the ratios of the gears used but that demonstration was great. I had no idea how fast those 2mm jets could propel the flask.
Obviously, it would have to be developed, but the potential was there.