A steam turbine was built in Alexandria in the 1st century, about 1,700 years before Watt's engine.
Hero's sphere spun on jets of steam, but no one gave it any work to do, and it stayed a curiosity.
The events
- Hero's aeolipile, a steam turbinec. 50 · Alexandria. Hero of Alexandria described a sphere spun by jets of steam escaping from two bent nozzles. It is the first known steam turbine, yet nobody found a use for it, and it was shown off as a curiosity.
- Watt's steam engine1769 · Glasgow. Scottish engineer James Watt patented a steam engine with a separate condenser, far more efficient than earlier designs. Watt's improved engines powered Britain's Industrial Revolution.
More amazing facts
- 39 Caligula never made his horse a consul.
- 50 The first vending machine sold holy water.
- 50 An ancient temple could have automatic doors.
- 60 According to Pliny the Elder, Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights through an emerald.
- 64 Nero could not have fiddled while Rome burned: the violin was invented in the 16th century.
- 75 · 79 Cuneiform was still being written shortly before Pompeii was buried.