Secrets of Lost Empires (various figures)

Chris Rorres
Archimedes Home Page: http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html

All images are jpeg format and most fit into a 640 x 480-pixel frame.
Most are also available at higher resolutions.

Figure 1. Diagram of hypothetical Archimedes Claw

(640 x 402, 99k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from "A History of the Machine" by Sigvard Strandh, A&W Publishers, Inc., New York, 1979

The author admits that this depiction is pure imagination.

Figure 2. Illustration of Siege of Syracuse with cranes

(640 x 395, 142k)
Obtained by C. Rorres from ArtToday WWW Picture Service.

Title: A Picturesque Tale of Progress 4 (1935)
Author: Miller, Olive Beaupre
Illustrator: Crane, Donne P. et al
Publisher: The Book House For Children
Keywords: ancient levers hooks lifting destroying sinking ships

Figure 3. Engraving of Siege of Syracuse and Archimedes' machines

(640 x 405, 121k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from a book (not yet identified).

This depiction of Archimedes' war machines is very consistent with the descriptions of Polybius, Liby, and Plutarch.

Figure 4. Map of Ancient Syracuse

(311 x 480, 45k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from "Hannibal's War", by J. F. Lazenby, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1978 (Map 11).

The Roman land forces attacked the northern walls between the features marked Scala Graeca and Santa Panayia. The sea forces probably attacked the Achradina walls just north of the Little Harbour.

Figure 5. Leonardo's steam cannon

(445 x 480, 41k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from article "Archimedes' Weapons of War and Leonardo" by D.L. Simms, The British Journal for the History of Science, Volume 21, 1988, page 196.

This illustration is Leonardo's sketch of his "architronito", which he attributed to Archimedes in the following sentence: "The Architronito is a machine of fine copper, an invention of Archimedes, and it throws iron balls with great noise and violence."

Figure 6. Illustration of Archimedes pulling a ship using pulleys

(640 x 329, 34)
Scanned by C. Rorres from "The Random House Encyclopedia", Random House, New York, 1977, page 1655.

This is an illustration of the following event described by Plutarch: " Archimedes, however, in writing to King Hiero, whose friend and near relation he was, had stated that given the force, any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon a ship of burden out of the king's arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock without great labour and many men; and, loading her with many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off, with no great endeavour, but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and drawing the cords by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as smoothly and evenly as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege."

Figure 7. Catapult

(197 x 192, 24k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . . .

Figure 8. Towers of Fort Euryalos (present day)

(250 x 176, 29k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . . .

Figure 9. Tunnels of Fort Euryalos (present day)

(250 x 150, 19k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . . .

Figure 10. Ballistic Machine 1 (408 x 480, 41k)
Figure 11. Ballistic Machine 2 (640 x 480, 45k)
Figure 12. Ballistic Machine 3 (640 x 480, 49k)
Figure 13. Ballistic Machine 4 (452 x 480, 49k)

Various illustrations scanned by C. Rorres from . . . .

Figure 14. Aerial view of Syracuse and the island of Ortygia

(640 x 427, 90k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from a tourist slide purchased in Syracuse.

The square fort at the tip of the island is Castel Maniace. The following description is from page 68 of a tourist booklet entitled "Syracuse: Art, History, Landscape": "Where there once stood a Byzantine fort, built by Giorgio Maniace in 1038 as a bulwark of the short lived Byzantine conquest of Syracuse, there later arose Castel Maniace in accordance with the wishes of Frederick II of Swabia (1239). The plan of the fortress is based on an Arab model, square with round angle-towers; the defence walls also take in the southern tip of Ortygia."

From "Frommer's Touring Guides: Sicily", 1991 (page 168): ". . . Castello Maniace, named after a Byzantine general. It was built in 1239 by Frederick II of Swabia on a spur at the tip of the island. Because the fortress is in a military zone it cannot be visited. All that remains of the original building are a fine portal and the walls with mullioned windows looking out to sea." (The large square building north of the square fort is a military barracks where the military zone begins.)

Figure 15. Illustration of ancient Syracuse and the Epipolae Plateau

(640 x 480, 126k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . .

Note: (cf. Fig. 4 and 16). The Roman land forces attacked the northern walls along the plateau, at the right of the illustration. The road across the plateau passes through the Hexapyloi gate at the northern wall of the plateau. The Roman land forces attacked the wall between this gate and the shore. The sea forces probably attacked the mainland walls below the word "Syracuse" on the map.

Figure 16. Map of ancient Syracuse

(564 x 480, 62k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . .

Appius Claudius Pulcher's land forces attacked where the northern wall goes from land to sea. Marcus Claudius Marcellus' ships probably attacked the sea wall near the end of the word "Achradina" on the map.

Figure 17. Text of article "On Archimedes' Burning Glass" by Albert C. Claus (640 x 491, 144k)
FIgure 18. Figure accompanying above article (601 x 480, 52k)

Scanned from journal "Applied Optics" Volume 12, October 1973.

Figure 19. Photograph of a Solar Power Tower in New Mexico (603 x 480, 95k)
FIgure 20. Another photograph of the Solar Power Tower (601 x 480, 98k)

Downloaded from the following website:
http://www.sandia.gov/Renewable_Energy/solarthermal/nsttf.html

Two views of an array of 222 flat mirrors ("heliostats") that reflect the sun's rays onto a tower to heat a fluid for the generation of electrical power. Located at the U.S. National Solar Thermal Test Facility operated by Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA) for the U.S. Department of Energy. This facility was built in the years 1976-78 and has a present value of about $120 million.

The following Q&A from the web site is of interest:

Q. Can the solar beam be used as a "star wars" weapon?

A. No! We are unable to target on fast moving objects, and it is impractical to highly focus the sun at very long ranges. Even if we could overcome these technical difficulties, we would have only a "fair weather" weapon.

Figure 21. Photograph of a Solar Power Tower in California
FIgure 22. Photograph of the "heliostats" of the above tower

(Each 500 x 330, 26-50k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://rhlx01.rz.fht-esslingen.de/projects/alt_energy/sol_thermal/powertower.html

A solar power tower called "Solar II" in Barstow, California, USA, that uses 1929 sun-tracking heliostats (flat mirrors).

Figure 23. Schematics of steam cannon built by I. Sakas
Figure 24. Photograph of model steam cannon built by I. Sakas
Figure 25. Greek newspaper article (May 5, 1981) of steam cannon demonstration by I. Sakas

(Each fits in 640 x 480 frame, 60-120k)
Scanned from "Archimedes: The Ingenious Engineer" by Christos Lazos, Athens, 1995 (in Greek) pages 183, 184, 186.

The experiment of Ioannis Sakas, in which a cement-filled tennis ball was shot a distance of 50 meters, took place on May 15, 1981 in Athens.

Figure 26. Aerial view of Porto Piccolo
Figure 27. Aerial view of Ortygia looking south
Figure 28. Aerial view of Ortygia looking north

(Each fits in 640 x 480 frame, 92-122k)
Scanned from postcards purchased in Syracuse in 1992.

Figure 29. View of Castello Maniace from the sea

(640 x 408, 115k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from tourist booklet "Syracuse: Art, History, Landscape", 1979 (page 68).

Figure 30. Aerial view of Castello Maniace looking north

(640 x 480, 119k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from tourist booklet "Syracuse: City of Art and Culture", 1990 (cover).

Figure 31. Illustration of hypothetical Archimedes claw

(616 x 480, 104k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . .

This design is far too elaborate. The Roman ships would hardly sit still long enough to be lassoed and lifted as the apparatus would require.

Figure 32. News photograph of Ioannis Sakas (left) and Evangelos Stamatis (right) in 1973

(411 x 480, 52k)
Scanned from "Archimedes: The Ingenious Engineer" by Christos Lazos, Athens, 1995 (in Greek), page 134.

This photograph was taken in Greece at Sakas' burning-mirrors experiment in 1973. Stamatis, who died in 1990, was Greece's chief expert on Archimedes. Both men fervently believed that Sakas' experiment proved that Archimedes did indeed use burning mirrors during the siege of Syracuse.

Figure 33. News Photograph of Greek sailors at Sakas' burning-mirror experiment in 1973

(640 x 456, 124k)
Scanned from "Archimedes: The Ingenious Engineer" by Christos Lazos (in Greek), Athens, 1995 (page 131).

These are some of the sailors controlling seventy mirrors in Piraeus on November 6, 1973. As reported in the New York Times (Nov. 11, 1973), the bronze-coated mirrors were about 5 feet by 3 feet and set fire to a tar-covered rowboat about 165 feet away.

Figure 34. Photograph of Buffon's burning mirrors

(349 x 480, 83k)
Scanned from . . .

Buffon, an 18th-century French mathematician, constructed these two mirrors around 1740. They are now located in a technological museum in Paris.

Figure 35. Page from Leonarodo's workbook showing various burning-mirror designs

(340 x 480, 75k)
Scanned from "A Golden Thread" by Ken Butti and John Perlin, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1980 (page 33).

Leonardo proposed to build a parabolic mirror some four miles across to heat a boiler for a dyeing factory. He began building his mirror around 1515, but never completed it.

Figure 36. Frame from Italian silent movie "Cabiria" showing Archimedes experimenting with mirrors

(640 x 480, 51k)
Copied by C. Rorres from a VHS tape of the movie.

See my web page (http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Mirrors/Cabiria/Cabiria.html) for details about this movie. You can download a four-minute episode from the movie from this web page, but it is a large file.

Figure 37. Staute of Archimedes with a parabolic mirror

(526 x 480, 45k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from a postcard purchased in Syracuse in 1992.

This lifesize statue is located in the lobby of a technical school in Syracuse.

Figure 38. Reconstruction of Fort Euryalos (640 x 401, 101k)
Figure 39. Reconstruction of Fort Euryalos (640 x 480, 107k)

Scanned by C. Rorres from . . .

Two reconstructions of Fort Euryalos.

Figure 40. Reconstruction of Archimedes' "scorpion"

(640 x 480, 116k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from . . .

Reconstruction of Archimedes' "scorpion" weapon and its positioning in the walls of Syracuse. Polybius writes: "He had the walls pierced with large numbers of loopholes at the height of a man, which were about a palm's breadth wide at the outer surface of the walls. Behind each of these and inside the walls were stationed archers with rows of so-called 'scorpions', a small catapult which discharged iron darts . . . "

Figure 41. Chris Rorres and a statue of Archimedes (1992)

(328 x 480, 55k)
Scan of a poorly lit photograph taken by Billie Rorres in 1992.

This statue is in the lobby of a technical school in Syracuse (cf. Fig. 37).

Figure 42. Version 1 of Archimedes claw by Chris Rorres

(788 x 600, 87k)
File created using SuperPaint software on a Macintosh computer.

This sketch shows how a shifting leaden weight could be used to quickly lower one end of a lever.

Figure 43. Roman quinquereme (side view) (640 x 131, 50k)
Figure 44. Roman quinquereme (front view & cross-sections) (640 x 318, 74k)

Scanned by C. Rorres from "Greece and Rome at War" by Peter Connolly, Macdonald Phoebus Ltd, London, 1981 (page 271).

The Romans launched the siege of Syracuse with sixty of these ships. Polybius wrote: "Meanwhile Marcellus was attacking the quarter of Arcradina from the sea with sixty quinqueremes, each vessel being filled with archers, slingers and javelin-throwers, whose task was to drive the defenders from the battlements."

See the listing below for Figs. 45-47 for the specifications of a quinquereme.

Figure 45. Roman quinquereme (top view with boarding plank lowered) (640 x 197, 82k)
Figure 46. Roman quinquereme (front view with boarding plank raised) (416 x 480, 57k)
Figure 47. Two Roman quinqueremes lashed together with siege tower (front view) (437 x 480, 69k)

Scanned by C. Rorres from "Warfare in the Classical World", by John Warry, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1995 (pages 118-119).

In Figs. 45 and 46 the boarding plank (the "corvus" or "beak") was used to board an enemy ship. It was not used during the siege of Syracuse. The siege tower illustrated in Fig. 47 is a bit more elaborate that the scaling ladder described by Polybius, Livy, and Plutarch.

The following specifications are from page 119 of the above book:

Length: c120 ft (c37 m)
Beam: 14 ft (4 m) hull; c17 ft (5 m) outrigger
Draught: c4.5 ft (1.4 m)
Crew: Oarmen: Upper 112, Middle 108, Lower 50; Sailors: 30; Marines 40 (normal), 120 (war time)

Notice that if the top of the wall of Syracuse were, say, 40 feet above sea level, then a quinquereme would be three times as long. If the bow of the ship were raised to the top of the wall by a machine, the ship would be tilted at an angle of about 20 degrees. (The exact angle depends on how much the stern sinks when the bow is raised.) If the top of the wall were 60 feet above sea level, the angle would be about 30 degrees.

Figure 48. Version 2 of Archimedes claw by Chris Rorres

(788 x 600, 68k)
File created using SuperPaint software on a Macintosh computer.

Figure 49. Painting of Archimedes by Jusepe Ribera (Spanish 1588-1656)

(352 x 480, 30k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from "Hannibal's War" by John Peddie, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997 (page 136).

The picture source is listed as Bridgeman Art Library, SCP 036733.

Figure 50. Statue of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the conqueror of Syracuse

(355 x 480, 23k)
Scanned by C. Rorres from "Hannibal's War" by John Peddie, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997 (page 99).

I don't know where this statue is located. The picture source is listed as The Mansell Collection.

Figure 51. The Duomo (cathedral) in Ortygia (250 x 373, 43k)
Figure 52. Plaza Archimede and the Fountain of Diana (307 x 188, 22k)
Figure 53. Aerial view of Ortygia looking north (189 x 295, 12k)
Figure 54. Umberto bridge connecting Ortygia to the mainland (333 x 222, 17k)
Figure 55. Porto Grande of Syracuse looking northwest (307 x 187, 12k)
Figure 56. The Greek theater during a modern performance (306 x 185, 17k)
Figure 57. Temple of Apollo in Ortygia (189 x 311, 21k)
Figure 58. View of Castello Maniace from of the sea (334 x 223, 14k)
Figure 59. Archaeological Museum of Syracuse (332 x 222, 13k)

The above photographs were downloaded from the following Italian tourist web site http://www.sistemia.it/siracusa/

Figure 60. Model of Ship Shaking Device at Smith College (Massachusetts, USA)

(704 x 504, 153k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://sophia.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/shipshaker2.html

This model was constructed by two students for Smith College's Museum of Ancient Inventions.

Figure 61. Commerical signal mirror for emergency use

(220 x 219, 5k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://www.landfallnav.com/landfallnav/-ssm01.html

The signal mirror pictured is for sale ($13.95) at the above WWW commercial site. The following are additional sites dealing in military and wilderness equipment that sell such signal mirrors:

http://www.tecfen.com/emergency/gerber/mirror.html
http://www.ewalker.com/adgear/signal.htm
http://www.infohwy.com/business/www.wildfur.com/htdocs/safesignal.html
http://www.afmo.com/products/422.html

Figure 62. Diagram on the use of a signal mirror

(350 x 154, 12k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://www.oreida-bsa.org/ontarget/usesignal.html

The above Boy Scout site gives instructions for constructing and using a small signal mirror made from two pieces of glass with a sighting hole in the middle.

Figure 63. Fairmount Water Works (753 x 268, 36k)
Figure 64. Fairmount Water Works (470 x 132, 31k)
Figure 65. Fairmount Water Works (600 x 336, 89k)
Figure 66. Fairmount Water Works (300 x 201, 12k)
Figure 67. Fairmount Water Works (195 x 112, 8k)

Images downloaded from several WWW sites.

Five views of the Fairmount Water Works on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The large building at the top of the hill in the background is the Philadelphia Museum of Art. More information about the water works can be found at the following sites:

http://www.fairmountwaterworks.org/index.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/WW/home.html

Figure 68. Photograph of a "Lego" version of "Archimedes' ship shaker".

(547 x 427, 33k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~erikred/brick/classic/wright.html

This was an entry in the 1998 "Ancient Theme Lego Building Contest." Although it is not mentioned, the design of this ship shaker and the quotation on the website page are from "The History of the Machine" by Sigvard Strandh", A&W Publishers, 1979, page 28.

Figure 1 on this page is the illustration of this ship shaker from Strandh's book.

Figure 69. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 48k)
Figure 70. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 64k)
Figure 71. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 88k)
Figure 72. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 68k)
Figure 73. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 67k)
Figure 74. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 57k)
Figure 75. Harry Harris's model (640 x 480, 41k)

Seven views of a model of Archimedes' war machines on the walls of Syracuse constructed by Harry Harris of Drexel University.

Figure 76. Simulated golden wreath with large leaves (490 x 480, 34k)
Figure 77. Simulated golden wreath with small leaves (506 x 480, 39k)
Figure 78. Actual golden wreath in the British Museum. (640 x 480, 50k)

Figures 76 and 77 are two simulated golden wreaths with different size leaves on a statue of the god Hypnos. The wreaths will fit an adult head, but the statue is slightly less than life-sized.

Figure 78 is an actual gold oak wreath housed in the British Museum. Dating from the fourth century B.C., it was found in the Dardanelles. It weighs 276 grams and the diameter of its rim is 23 centimeters.

Figure 79. Illustration of an Archimedes claw from an unidentified book.

(582 x 662, 112k)
Downloaded from the following website:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6672/Graphics_Inventions.html

Compare this illustration with the model shown in Figure 60.