Re: [math-fun] ~s gears

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.