Aeolipile Supplying Copper-Smelting Fire

An aeolipile supplying a blast to a copper-smelting fire. A hollow bronze ball with a small opening through which water is poured. When the water boils a strong blast issues from the ball. In the first century AD a Greek inventor known as Hero of Alexandria came up with a new invention that depended more on the mechanical interaction of heat and water. He invented a rocket-like device called an aeolipile, also known as Hero's engine. It used steam for propulsion. Hero mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into steam, and the gas traveled through the pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, and in doing so gave a thrust to the sphere that caused it to rotate. Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes production of silver, iron, copper and other base metals from their ores. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gasses or slag and leaving just the metal behind. No date supplied with image

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Aeolipile Extractive Fluid Herons Hydraulics Mechanics Metallurgy Smelting Steam-powered Turbine

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