molath
what you see in the picture now is considered the first vending machine in history, yeah it looked like that it was a very simple device you threw a coin and got a glass of holy water in exchange this machine was the first described in the works of the hero of Alexandria a mathematician and engineer who lived during the first century a.d nowadays these machines are everywhere but it’s difficult to imagine that they were invented that long ago
in this article, we’ll talk about technologies and inventions of the past that even today can shock the whole modern world
more than two thousand years ago a the powerful weapon was created in china it could only be compared in power to the Kalashnikov rifle it was probably the first rapid-fire weapon in history although people were still far away from the invention of bullets and other modern gizmos and if you don’t understand why it’s so cool well here’s a simple explanation the more shells a soldier can fire the more efficient he is and the Chinese warriors were incredibly efficient thanks to the repeating zeu crossbow the action of stringing the bowstring placing the projectile and lowering the bowstring could be done with one hand if you’ve seen medieval crossbows you can imagine that this Chinese crossbow was very different and thanks to the magazine case with bolts the Zeus crossbow could fire from 7 to 10 bolts in 15 to 20 seconds but we’re talking about the first version while an upgraded version of this crossbow could also, shoot two or three bolts simultaneously for comparison an ordinary crossbow can only shoot about two bolts per minute and the best archer can shoot 10 arrows see the difference and all this in the second or third century a.d or maybe even before that by the way the Zeus crossbow was last used in real battles in the late 19th century it was not just a crossbow but a timeless classic and here’s another interesting fact the Chinese repeating crossbow shoots bolts at the same speed as the Winchester model 1873 lever action rifle it’s not as good as the ak-47 of course but still however
The automatic crossbow
the rifle is not the only technology of ancient china that amazes us in southeast china archaeologists found a 2000-year-old working tool it’s hydraulic hammer water plus gravity are the perfect tandem for agricultural work the flow turns the logs and the hammers fall under their own weight hitting the grain and crushing it no electricity no physical labour no lunch breaks the hydraulic hammer can work 24 hours a day seven days a week and each hammer will hit with a force of 445 newtons so one the machine will be able to replace up to 10 people and it doesn’t need to eat sleep snacks or check their Instagram feed it’s very convenient Chinese craftsmen were far ahead of their time with this invention at least by 15 years for years the A hydraulic hammer was used to crush grain and produce flour but some centuries later it was used for metal casting during the Chinese industrial revolution and it’s still used all over the world in modern factories 2 000 years later of course hydraulic hammers look and work a little differently today but the principle remains the same
all right let’s leave china and move on to ancient Egypt
ancient vehicles
when it comes to ancient vehicles
what do you imagine probably chariots maybe Viking ships a trojan horse as the last resort but certainly not a boat the size of a modern aircraft carrier meanwhile, it’s a real boat from the 3rd century bc this huge galley was known as tessera can terrace and it was built by order of pharaoh Ptolemy iv fellow batter and the ship was so big that some scientists doubt whether it existed at all it supposedly was 130 meters long 20 wide 25 meters high and was all made of wood tessera can terrace was the largest wooden ship in history it had two bows two sterns and in fact looked like two very long boats connected by a platform something like an ancient catamaran weighing almost 4 000 tons it was supposed to demonstrate the power and wealth of Egypt and obviously the amount of wood they had to spare unlike modern aircraft carriers which move thanks to the energy of nuclear reactors the tesseracanteras could only rely on the power of the rowers and there were 4 000 of them with 50 ores on each side it’s not clear how the Egyptians managed to accommodate so many people and make them rise simultaneously there were also 400 sailors on board as well as 2 850 soldiers, on one hand, it sounds incredibly cool a whole small town and a boat but on the other hand just imagine how crowded it was and the working conditions of the rowers definitely not a dream job
Tanks
let’s remain in the country of the pyramids and take a look at another the invention from the past but worthy of the future some people feel disgusted with everything connected with war and it’s pretty obvious why however many scientific discoveries were made thanks to the desire to defeat the enemy wars have always stimulated technology and as a result mankind has learned how to create entire factories to create war machines and what about the ancient world well not in vain we mention factories right for example, let’s talk about tanks mostlikely you thought about them when I mentioned military machines tanks are like a modern version of the ancient battle chariot even scientists are talking about that in the end, the chariot provided mobility on the battlefield and was not just a means of transportation but a formidable weapon but armies needed a lot of chariots and therefore three thousand years ago pharaoh Ramesses ii built a factory that produced them the battle of kaddish was around the corner it was the largest chariot battle ever fought in 1274 bc the Egyptians sent a great number of chariots to battle and eventually, there were about 4 000 chariots from both sides on the battlefield imagine the heat the dust and the screams but let’s get back to the factory archaeologists believe that it was located in the Nile Delta and in addition to training grounds there was a real assembly line it was about the same as those at any modern factory except it didn’t have a conveyor belt chariots were assembled from parts that were created separately and this greatly accelerated the process so if you’re told that it was henry ford who created the assembly line method in the 20th century you can argue that it was the Egyptians who did it 3000 years ago but not only the Egyptians and Chinese had amazing inventions are you familiar with the name Archimedes you probably are even those who are not interested in history has heard about this ancient scientist
in his time Archimedes made many discoveries in the field of geometry he was the first to mention some ideas about mathematical analysis and laid the foundation for mechanics hydrostatics and he invented the pulley system.
today it’s used everywhere but in In ancient times heavy loads were lifted only by people and the heavier the load was the more people it took to lift it for example to get something off the ground that weighed a ton it was necessary to call at least 40 people can you imagine how hard it was to build anything wow but Archimedes came up with a way to make people stronger without any mutations only a system of pulleys and wenches that made it easier to lift any load in In simple words the weight of the cargo is distributed on a rope the longer it is the more weight a person can lift and although the whole process takes more time it can be done with less than 40 people there’s even a legend that Archimedes alone was able to pull a ship to shore using only his pulley system hopefully then he watched a bunch of people trying to push the ship back into the water and giggled okay well Archimedes and his pulleys ropes levers and other inventions are quite famous but what if I told you there’s at least one copy of a swiss army knife in the world which is 1800 years old and of course it’s not from Switzerland the knife was actually created by roman craftsman it includes a spoon a fork a knife an awl and a small shovel everything that a rich traveller needed in ancient times I have no idea what he did with the awl in the shovel needless to say the metal faded a little and bent over time but if you could look at a modern copy then hell is there one on eBay I totally buy that unlike the usual swiss army knife which is appreciated for its convenience and functionality is an ancient roman version emphasized the status of the owner not everyone could afford to eat well on the road let alone do it with proper cutlery even today in fact Romans carried a the whole set of silverware in their pockets maybe in the other pocket, they carried a dinnerware set inherited from their grandparents
construction
now let’s talk a little bit about construction when it comes to technologies that were used for example by the ancient Egyptians to create their pyramids there’s always someone who believes it’s all very mysterious surely you’ve come across these people they like to talk about alien forming and space drills it’s really hard to believe that allthese huge monuments of limestone sandstone and granite were created without the help of modern devices but to understand what the Egyptians actually used you can turn to the frescoes, you see this one it’s very well preserved it shows a man who uses a saw and it’s clearly made of metal the strongest metal back then was copper but could copper tools work with stone it seems that any copper saw would bend but strange as it may seem copper withstands a copper saw it’s possible to cut sandstone or limestone into pieces perhaps that’s how Egyptian statues were carved and the pyramids were built the Egyptians also had drills which allowed them to make holes even in such hard materials as granite and puzzle modern scientists you know I’m beginning to think if I start studying history I’ll discover that there’s nothing new in the modern world everything we use today everything that’s considered the result of progress was already invented thousands of years ago it’s just that humanity has managed to forget about all the cool technologies and now we have to rediscover them I’m going to study this issue more closely in the meantime,
