Aeolipile - The FIRST Engine Ever MADE!

Let's take a look at the Aeolipile, otherwise known as the Hero motor. It is a simple, bladeless radial steam turbine which spins when the central water container is heated. Torque is produced by steam jets exiting the turbine.

You can buy the model here:

[maurizioibba]

This is so charming to whatch. Thanks for sharing it. I never saw one like this before, a very similar to this one is the Stirling engine, but this is also very aesthetic and seems running at higher rpm than the Stirling.

[sunder-]

Being a mechanical engineer, I know how simple ideas like this have shaped future inventions.

[JohnV]

It would be cool to see someone try to make a simple generator out of this using similar materials they had back then just to see what they could have done with it if history went different.

[human_isomer]

So interestingly, jet propulsion was invented before the internal combustion engine.

[ianstobie]

I'm surprised they didn't come up with a musical version. The ancient Greeks had various reed and pipe instruments, including the pan pipes and the Aulos, a kind of twin flute requiring more skill. The pan pipes were made from a series of reed tubes, and don't need a mouthpiece or much air pressure to activate.

A musical device acting autonomously might have had some use to priests and cults. You could set the thing up to wail away and then get awestruck or intoxicated in some appropriately cultic way!

[chadlymath]

I feel like writing a sci fi what if a motorized society began in the 1st & 2nd century.

[nameless]

Such a little mechanism had the ability to power the world, yet it was viewed as a novelty.

[moonfther]

very cool! wonder if you could boil the water to steam using the sun rays through a fresnel lens

[ronarmstrong]

I think this could be redesigned into a practical steam engine.

[totalt]

Something 50 times larger changed the world, and continues to do so.

[farzammortazavi]

Thanks for sharing. Aelopile is a steam engine.

[MichaelWilson-snyo]

I wonder if you made a larger version of that, could it turn a generator? I've got an old stainless beer keg and an alternator.

[Kennephone]

I'd love to hook one up to a tiny motor jjust to see how much power it can generate.

[bnjdc]

Is it just a straight hole coming through the top from the inside of the bowl you never showed the inside of the bowls

[busterhyman]

Not a MOTOR rather it is an ENGINE.
( south Florida )

[costrio]

If they had a shaft going through the top and addea a screw gear they could have made fan for the pharaoh/king but it would have to be bigger and the friction would use up all the energy. Just sayin...

[oliverf.rupert]

Lol Bro Steam engines help map the country. Cool vide🚂

[everettstormy]

People who like this video should read the ice breaker trilogy. Is about these people who live on an ice breaker that has been circling Antarctica for the last 200 years because they are hiding from the anti machinists, people who hate machines and destroy anything mechanical. On the ice breaker there is all this machinery they talk about to keep everything rrunning. Also because they have been on this one ship for so long they use a strange dialect and have different factions that get In fights and stuff. It's an easy and short but super engaging read

[bartoszbarejko]

It must be reversed Steem from outside to the iside it is very simple...

[bradpitts]

Yha so what can we do with it. Because we should be way past the steam engine. By now...