The Greeks may have been just as practical as the Romans. One is less likely to find documentation. Heron of Alexandria is usually credited with the invention of the turbine. R. On Wed, 9 Feb 2005, Henry Baker wrote:
Who is collecting inventions that were ahead of their time -- e.g., Greek/Roman gear trains, DaVinci war machines, etc. ?
I'm particularly interested in why the Roman civilization never invented powered machines -- they obviously had excellent technology in civil engineering and naval engineering.
I have a pretty good idea why the Greeks didn't -- they were way too fixated on theory rather than practise, but that didn't seem to be a Roman problem.
Perhaps the inward-looking spiritual outlook of the Christian era diverted attention from mechanical progress.
At 10:57 AM 2/7/2005, R. William Gosper wrote:
John McCarthy collects inventions that came too late to do much good, e.g., the non-pulsating candle wick.
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