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Why Could The Ancient Greek Steam Engine Not Power an Industrial Revolution?
Around 10–70 CE, Greek-Egyptian mathematician and engineer Hero of Alexandria invented the Aeolipile, a primitive form of steam engine. Many believe that with improvement this could have powered an ancient industrial revolution.
We all love alternative histories about what could have been. Many people, when they first learn about the primitive steam engine, the Aeolipile, invented by the ancient Greeks, think that an industrial revolution did not happen because the Greeks failed to see its potential. But did they?
No, there is simply no way the Aeolipile could have served as a starting point for a industrial revolution in the classical era. In this story I will delve into the details of why, and in doing so give an insight into the nature of technological innovation.
The Aeoliphile was extremely inefficient and offered far too little power to be used as something to drive industrial machinery.
Could it have had other practical applications? An Aeoliphile-like contraption was invented by Taqi ad-Din (1526 –1585) in the Ottoman Empire hundreds of years later to turn a roasting spit, using steam power. This however is far away from an industrial application. In fact this was more of a novelty as it was simply more practical to use animals inside a wheel to drive the spit, as shown in the picture below.
Gathering huge quantities of wood to drive a relatively weak piece of machinery, would have made no sense when a windmill or waterwheel would have provided far more power, without the need for constant transportation of fuel to keep the machinery operating. This also underscores an important misconception about the industrial revolution. People think it was driven primarily by steam engines. It wasn’t. Most factories…
