Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287bc-211bc)

The great Greek scholar, scientist and inventor Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287bc-211bc) is best known today for his scientific works, but in his lifetime he was much more admired as an inventor of the most deadly weapons of his age.

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, then a wealthy Greek colony on the island of Sicily, to a noble family that was probably related to the kings of the city. As a young man he travelled to Alexandria in Egypt, then the centre of intellectual activity in the Greek world and site of the famous Library of Alexandria - the largest in the world. At Alexandria, Archimedes won great fame for working out how to calculate the volume of a cone - something that had so far eluded even the finest mathematicians. He went on to develop what became known as the Archimedes Screw, a simple pumping device. The screw consists of an open-ended cylinder containing a tightly fitting spiral connected to a handle. If the bottom of the cylinder is placed in water at an angle and the spiral turned with the handle, water will be trapped in the threads of the spiral and pulled up to the top of the cylinder. This makes a much more effective pump than those then in use in Egypt.

Returning to Syracuse, Archimedes was hired by the Romans to devise a reliable apparatus for measuring distances along roads. Archimedes produced a cart that had mounted on it a complex system of gears that turned an indicator dial once for every mile the cart travelled. This device was used to erect milestones on Roman roads across Europe and was still in use 300 years later.

In 215bc King Hieron of Syracuse died and was succeeded by his son Gelon who went to war against Rome. The Romans began a siege of Syracuse, but soon found themselves held off by a series of weapons invented by Archimedes. One of these was a catapult that had an automatic loading system, allowing it to shoot three times as quickly as a conventional weapon. A second was a system of mirrors that could concentrate the rays of the sun and set fire to ship’s sails at a distance of over 300 yards. The most impressive of the machines, however, was the dreaded “Claw”. This device consisted of a massive wooden beam that could be pushed out over the top of the city walls. From the outer end dangled strong cables attached to a claw-shaped grappling hook. Inside the city was a complex system of pulleys and levers that allowed the beam to be swung from side to side. Once the grappling hook caught on a Roman ship, the pulleys were worked by teams of oxen to pull the interior end of the beam down, thus lifting the Roman ship up out of the water. When the ship had been pulled up far enough it was suddenly let go to crash back into the sea with terrific force, sinking the ship and killing most of those on board. The Romans did not know what had hit them. Prudently they pulled back from the harbour.

Due largely to Archimedes work the siege dragged on. Finally in 210bc the Roman managed to break through the city walls of Syracuse. The Roman commander, Marcellus, gave orders that Archimedes was to be spared. But when the Roman soldiers burst into his house and ordered him to follow them, Archimedes was so engrossed in a complex mathematical problem that he ignored them. The angry soldiers killed him. Marcellus erected a fine tomb for Archimedes consisting of a cylinder mounted on a sphere.

Quote:

“Give me somewhere to stand and I can move the Earth” Archimedes in a lecture on levers c.230bc