Comments on: How Archimedes Burned Those Roman Ships: Mirror or Steam Cannon?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:04:00 +0000

Concave Mirror, which focuses the light into a smaller area, (highly polished shield turned around) with a lens fixed to the shield by an iron rod maybe an arms length distance, to focus the light again, I’d say it was possible, and well within the skill range of the ancient greeks.

By: Italoboy

Italoboy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:10:32 +0000

”Cannons or mirrors, Archimedes couldn’t save Syracuse–and the Romans’ success meant Archimedes’ end.”

Symbolic end of all good things Greek: insatiable curiosity about Nature and quest for Truth, and all bad things Roman: imperialism, empire-building, administration. bleh.

Shame the Greeks didn’t win.

Italoboy (A.G. lover)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:51:07 +0000

I wonder if they tried setting the sails on fire, instead of the ship itself. Seems that if the sails got going, they could easily set the rest of the ship on fire.

By: Joseph Calamia

Joseph Calamia — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:48:14 +0000

Richard, thanks for mentioning the MythBusters attempt. Definitely something to add to my Netflix…

By: Rebecca Horne

Rebecca Horne — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:35:30 +0000

I love this. Hoping to hear the follow up about the cannon tests.

By: Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:10:22 +0000

Depending on which historical account you consult, the ships may have actually been anchored. Still, mirrors as “death ray” definitely not an efficient weapon…

By: Laurie Penman

Laurie Penman — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:31:30 +0000

I wonder why Mr. Rossi limited himself to a quarter of a cupful of water. Given the Greek expertise with bronze, I would have thought that a vessel containing steam at 5 psi could be opened into a 12″ diameter tube and project a hollow clay ball of 25 pounds weight at just over 4g, or a more massive one of 50 pounds at more than 2g. The latter would have a better chance of a decent range, of course, but if that was less than 500 feet a more traditional weapon is much faster in use and, I would have thought, more accurate.

Given Archimedes work with levers, would a counter-weighted lever (trebuchet) be too fanciful? The details of his other weapons have mostly disappeared, a trebuchet is so removed from contemporary experience that any remains could easily be unrecognised as a weapon and be lost to history, but it has a staggering range with large projectiles, which would arrive out of a brilliant Syracusean sky. How many victims would see it as it plunged into their vessel? It is unlikely that any combatant would be looking skyward and the destruction would be credited to anything but a trebuchet.

By: Richard Dinning

Richard Dinning — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:05:58 +0000

The Mythbusters TV program tried to do this and even with a stationary mirror and a “ship” only a few metres away, the best they could do was some scorching.