Ancient Impossible (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Ancient Einsteins - full transcript
Is it possible the
ancient world had geniuses
greater than ours today?
The greatest scientific
discoveries involve huge leaps
of imagination, but you have
to leap from somewhere.
Who were these
ancient geniuses and
what did they create?
This thing can make
water travel uphill.
Were there really
minds so great that they were a
match for Albert Einstein?
Monuments more colossal than
our own, ancient super weapons
as mighty as today's,
technology so precise
it defies reinvention.
The ancient world
was not primitive.
Their marvels are so advanced,
we still use them now.
Travel to a world closer than
we imagine, an ancient age
where nothing was impossible.
Many consider Albert Einstein to
be the greatest
mind of all time.
His discovery of the energy
contained in the atom
led to the nuclear age.
His theories still resonate
throughout modern science, and
have influenced devices that are
essential parts of our everyday
lives including televisions,
digital cameras, and GPS.
But could thinkers over 2,000
years ago have had equally
revolutionary ideas?
Is it possible that our modern
world was created
by ancient minds?
It was Isaac Newton, one of
the greatest scientists of all
time, who famously said that if
he'd seen further than others it
was because he was standing on
the shoulders of giants.
But it was the ancient Greeks
who were the real giants, the
ancient Einsteins, and what they
achieved was truly staggering.
Our search for
these ancient Einsteins begins
at the greatest seat of
knowledge and learning in the
ancient world, the library of
Alexandria in Egypt.
It was here where the most
amazing minds of the time came
to think, to imagine, to invent.
And it was here, 2,300 years
ago, where our first ancient
genius came to work and study.
His name was Ctesibius, an
ingenious inventor who
discovered something that is an
integral part of our
modern world...
The power of air.
Today, we use compressed
air for all kinds of things.
We take it for granted.
When you fill your tires, you're
using compressed air.
These modern racing cars depend
on it, but have you ever
thought who came
up with this idea?
Thank Ctesibius.
These cars go over
200 miles per hour.
But they're not the fastest
machines in the workshop.
Far from it.
The turning speed is between
10,000 and 15,000 rpm, so it's a
seriously powerful bit of kit.
And this power all
comes from compressed air.
There's nothing more effective.
To watch a pit crew work as
they do, changing the tires as
quickly as possible using this
technology is one of
the most incredible sights.
It's amazing to think that the
technology in this was being
used over 2,000 years ago.
And it was Ctesibius
who came up with the
idea in ancient Alexandria.
He discovered that air
had mass and pressure.
This was a giant scientific
leap, much like Einstein's
incredible insights
into space and time.
But how did this little-known
ancient genius make
this breakthrough?
It all started in a barbershop.
Ctesibius grew up as the son
of a barber, working in a
barber's shop, and one of the
things he seems to have invented
early on is a mirror that could
be raised up and down to help
with the job of shaving people.
And that invention led him on to
discover something else, that
when the mirror on its lead
counterweight moved up and down,
there was this noise, the noise
of air as it escaped and rushed
back into the casing
around the lead weight.
And that lead Ctesibius to
realize that air
was a substance.
Air was a thing that could be
compressed and which
would expand.
Ctesibius was quick
to realize that compressed air
could be used as a source of
power and that it
could power water.
It wasn't long before he came up
with this... the water pump.
It was so ahead of its time, it
was a truly
remarkable invention.
Today we'd basically call
this a two-cylinder
reciprocating force pump.
To explain it, I'll probably
turn it round, and we can
actually see the mechanism.
As the piston comes up, the
suction draws in water through
this bottom flap valve.
Then on the down stroke, the
force of the pressure closes
the bottom flap valve so the
only place for the water to go
is through this orifice here
and into the receiving chamber
through another valve.
The other piston is doing
exactly the opposite.
As the one on the left is
filling, the one on the right is
pushing the water out.
And with constant pumping, a
continual flow of water is
forced from the receiving
chamber up through a
nozzle at the top.
Incredibly, Ctesibius' water
pump was the world's
first fire engine.
In Alexandria, it was rushed out
in emergencies all
over the city.
It seems very effective.
I think it would be
useful in a fire.
It would certainly enable a jet
of water to get where
people couldn't.
In the ancient
world, a directed jet of water
like this was something
new and amazing.
But after the romans, the
fire-fighting water
pump disappeared.
The idea was lost, and it's not
until the 15th century
that it's reinvented.
It's amazing to think the fire
engine was invented over 2,000
years ago, and, thanks to
Ctesibius, today we still fight
fires in the same way.
But for Ctesibius, this
was just the beginning.
Like all geniuses, his
thinking knew no limits.
Well, Ctesibius was one of
the paid intellectuals
in Alexandria.
And he was part of a select
group that were really pushing
the boundaries in all sorts of
areas, in astronomy, in maths,
in geography, in history, and
they were all being paid by
ptolemy ii, who was keen to have
his own reputation imbued with
the amazingness of these
peoples' discoveries.
Ctesibius began to
wonder, he had learned how to
manipulate air pressure.
Now could he do the
same with water?
2,000 years before Einstein's
own investigations, he decided
to try to crack one of the most
difficult questions-
what's the time?
This was going to be
Ctesibius' greatest achievement.
His goal was to invent for
the first time something that
would accurately tell the time.
Sundials were useless at night
or when it was cloudy.
And for the Greeks, it was most
important to measure time
inside, especially
in the law courts.
Justice depended on giving
lawyers equal amounts of time.
We know from, say, ancient
Athens in the 5th and 4th
centuries bc in the law courts,
they had a kind
of a water clock.
Now this was a very simple
invention where you had a
bucket full of water with a hole
in the bottom, and the water
went out to a bucket
that was lower down.
When the bucket was empty, the
lawyer's time was said to be up.
But there was a problem.
As the height of the water
changed, it didn't run out at a
steady rate.
Ctesibius came up with a
brilliant answer, and he changed
the history of
timekeeping forever.
He took clocks from a couple of
buckets to this, something
intricate, remarkable and
completely groundbreaking-
the first ever accurate and
fully automatic clock.
Now what Ctesibius did is
particularly cunning.
He makes sure that the height of
water in this chamber
never changes.
Ctesibius did this by
continually feeding water to
the top and attaching
an overflow pipe.
The water then flowed into a
second chamber, which would rise
at a steady and precise rate,
allowing time to be
measured accurately.
This was genius, but
Ctesibius still wasn't happy.
The second chamber had to be
emptied when full, and he wanted
a clock that would run and run.
Surely this was impossible.
What he did was he fitted a
siphon to the system, and this
may well be the first time a
siphon was ever
fitted to a machine.
With a siphon, the clock emptied
and reset itself automatically.
This was revolutionary.
The world had never seen a
machine like this before.
But there was still one
remaining problem.
The Greeks divided the daylight
hours into 12, so their hours
were shorter in winter
than in summer.
Even our modern clocks
would struggle with that.
Using a waterwheel and a series
of cogs, a cylinder turned a
tiny amount every day, the hour
lines becoming nearer or farther
apart depending on the
time of the year.
The precision involved
is simply astonishing.
So overall, Ctesibius' water
clock ran 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 days a year,
and for over 2,000 years, this
was the most accurate clock in the world.
So all modern
clocks, even London's big Ben,
can trace their origins back to
this incredible machine.
Now imagine what Ctesibius might
have invented if he had been
alive in modern times with all
the resources that
are available today.
Would he have been a match
for Albert Einstein himself?
Ctesibius built the first
accurate clock, he built the
first fire engine, and of course
he discovered pneumatics
that's why for me, he is an
ancient Einstein.
The ancient world had
its colossal thinkers,
but could they have had minds
to match Albert Einstein?
We are on a journey to find out.
Over 2,000 years ago, Ctesibius
mastered the power of air and
water and invented the first
accurate clock.
And now we are about to
meet another brilliant mind.
Many consider this man to
be the father of robotics.
His name was Philon
of Byzantium.
He was also known as Philo, or
Philo mechanicus, because when
it came to mechanics, he was
thousands of years
ahead of the game.
Philon of Byzantium was one
of the most mysterious
characters of antiquity.
We know very little about him,
but what we do know is that he
was responsible for some of the
most impossible
inventions of his day.
We also know that Philon
was drawn to the library
at Alexandria around the same
time as Ctesibius.
And it's here where he wrote his
masterpiece, a
compendium of mechanics.
Most of this work has been lost,
but we know that Philon's
brilliance in math and mechanics
led him to invent some of the
most lethal weapons of the day,
like this repeating crossbow,
an ancient machine gun.
He also worked out how to
project huge missiles
from a catapult.
But Philon is most famous for
being the inspiration for this.
You talking to me?
I'm the only one here.
Machines like this can trace their
origins all the way back to Philon.
Meet Philon's maid, an automaton
that could pour a goblet of
wine and mix it with water.
Is this the world's first robot?
The invention that really
makes me think of Philo as a
hero of ancient engineering is
his wine-pouring maid.
Now, this was a device shaped
like a woman with an
outstretched hand and
holding a jug of wine.
Someone would come up and
place their empty cup in the
outstretched hand and under the
force of gravity, the hand would
descend and through a series of
very clever valves, the air
pressure inside of the device
would change, allowing wine and
water to be poured
into the glass.
The serving maid was built
to astonish and amaze.
And at a dinner party in ancient
Greece, this was just
what a rich host wanted.
It was a party piece
like no other.
It had human characteristics and
performed human tasks.
Guests at this dinner party had
witnessed history in the making.
They'd been given wine by the
world's first robot.
And 2,000 years after Philon
created the serving maid for
some wealthy client, we have
brought the robot back to life.
I'm going to place the chalice in
the hand, and we'll see if it works.
If it does work, first
we'll get a precise
measure of wine followed by a
precise measure of water.
Ah, there we go.
That's the start of it.
The wine's stopped, and
now there's the water.
There we go.
And it's stopped.
The cup would have then been
taken out and handed to an
astonished and mystified guest.
The wine is released
into the goblet by the
movement of the arm, and then,
when the goblet reaches an
exact weight, the wine valve
closes and the water valve
opens, diluting the wine, just
how the ancient Greeks liked it.
This was all incredibly
sophisticated.
It seems likely that Philon
learned from Ctesibius about
hydraulics and compressed air.
Then he took this engineering
to amazing levels.
The idea that a piece of
engineering of this
sophistication could actually
have been produced such a long
time ago is stunning.
It's almost impossible
for us to believe.
But there's more to
Philon than robotics.
He also invented incredible
devices that could
astonish an audience.
The impact of one of them has
resonated through the centuries.
One of the inventions that I
find most remarkable is Philo's
invention of the 8-sided ink
pot, and in each of these faces
was drilled a hole.
Now, you could take your quill
and dip it into the top face and
get some ink out, but the
remarkable thing about Philo's
8-sided ink well was that you
could rotate it around 360
degrees in any direction and no
ink would spill out.
This had never been seen before.
The magic lay in hidden
suspended rings, with gravity
holding the ink bowl
level at all times.
Whoever owned this device would
have had their
guests dumbfounded.
And over 2,000 years later,
this invention is in use in the
skies all over the world.
It's the basis of an airplane's
gyroscope, which shows a level
horizon to the pilot.
At night or in poor visibility,
it's the most important
instrument in the cockpit.
All I can see is clouds.
My reference point's gone.
I'm flying blind.
Without this use of the
gyroscope, we wouldn't be able
to see how far we're pitching up
and how far we're turning.
We'd get completely
disorientated.
We could either flip
it or stall it.
Philon's mind was so
ahead of his time.
There just wasn't the
technology really to utilize it.
In fact, the technology
involved in Philon's
inkpot was used in putting
a man on the moon.
One of the frustrating things
about studying Philo is that so
much of what he wrote
has been lost.
We know of the eight chapters in
his compendium of mechanics,
this ancient textbook
of engineering.
We know that only three survive.
It's this missing bit, it's this
extra five chapters that we
don't know about, together with
what we know probably makes him
one of the great ancient
engineers and a hero of mine.
We can only imagine
what genius inventions of
Philon have been
lost to history.
What other mental leaps might he
have made that could have driven
technology to new levels?
There are many great
minds that we have to
thank for our modern technology.
Steve jobs, bill
gates, Thomas Edison.
And the man many consider to be
the greatest of them
all, Albert Einstein.
Now we are on a quest to find
the ancient Einsteins, and this
journey takes us straight to the
amazing library of
Alexandria in Egypt.
It wasn't just a
library with books.
It was a center of innovation
and technology.
It was the silicon valley
of the ancient world.
The ancient Greeks
weren't so constrained by
religion, so Philosophers and
inventors were free to think
about how the world works.
And it's because of this that
what we now call
science was born.
So they weren't just
inventing things.
They were inventing the actual
processes of science itself.
After Ctesibius and
Philon, in the 1st century a.D.,
another ancient genius
worked at the library.
He was a native of Alexandria,
and he taught math, mechanics,
pneumatics, and physics.
His name was Heron.
Could he be an ancient Einstein?
Heron certainly had
a scientific mind.
He was a man of reason.
This is what the
Greeks are famous for.
But they did have religion.
And in fact, Heron wasn't averse
to making a tidy
profit out of it.
Ancient Alexandria had
hundreds of temples.
And they each competed
with each other.
They wanted to get people
in and take their money.
So how do you separate yourself
from the crowd?
The priests always knew that
they could rely on Heron to come
up with an ingenious idea.
He was the one who could think
outside the box.
Building on the
work of Ctesibius and especially
Philon, Heron invented
incredible mechanized models
that were at the cutting
edge of technology.
Priests would demonstrate them
in the temples to show
their godly powers-
an archer magically shooting his
arrow at a hissing dragon, a
brass horse that appeared to
drink water, dancers revolving
around a fire.
These were sure signs that the
gods were present.
So Heron was very much like a
modern-day stage magician in Las
Vegas, achieving what was
seemingly impossible.
Many inventions seem
extraordinary at the time.
Television, the electric light
bulb- can you imagine in the
20th century coming across
automatic doors for
the first time?
They were magic.
Now imagine coming across them
2,000 years ago.
Surely impossible.
But Heron did the impossible.
Incredibly, he invented
automatic doors over
2,000 years ago.
This was one of the most remarkable
pieces of technology of ancient times.
Amazingly, the world's first
automatic doors were on an
ancient Greek temple, and they
appeared to be
opened by the gods.
I'm in the temple of serapis
in ephesus, and this is a
massive doorway to this temple.
Now with the doorway
also come massive doors.
You can see one of the sockets,
how it swings open right here.
Now Heron took such a setting
like this and did
something incredible.
Heron realized that
if you heat air, it expands.
This is a huge development of
Ctesibius' discovery that
air was a substance.
And expanding hot air could be
used to push water just like the
compressed air of
the water pump.
And it's this that lies behind
the magic of the
automatic temple doors.
Heron's automatic doors are a
work of absolute genius.
The priest lit a fire.
Now the worshippers couldn't
see, but that fire started to
heat a tank of water.
The water would boil, create
steam, which would push through
into a second tank which would
force water through a
pipe into a bucket.
The bucket was attached by a
series of ropes and pulleys to
the door, so as the bucket
filled and fell, the
doors would open.
The worshippers would
be absolutely amazed.
They think that the gods
themselves have opened
the temple doors.
They flood in awe-inspired.
The gods have given a sign.
This is a moment of epiphany.
This is a religious experience.
It's so incredible, and you
can't quite figure
out how it happens.
It must be the gods
that are responding.
It's that kind of innovation
that Heron is famous for.
He makes the automatic
door 2,000 years ago.
Today we take automatic
doors for granted,
along with lots of other
so-called modern inventions.
But Heron didn't stop there.
Just like Ctesibius and Philon,
he was always looking to
push technology forward.
His mastery of weights, pulleys,
and the flow of water, led to
his next invention, which was so
ahead of its time, it wasn't
until the 20th century that it
became commonplace- a
coin-operated machine.
Incredibly, even back then,
you could take a coin, place it
into a machine and this machine
would dispense you a
cup of holy water.
It's a precursor to
the vending machine.
You basically come up to this
machine, put in a coin, and it
releases the holy water.
After the coin drops through,
the water closes a valve
and the water stops.
So you've got everybody happy.
You've got the
temple-goers getting the
water and the temple
getting the money.
It's that kind of complex
solution to a complicated
situation that shows that Heron
is a genius and basically
inventing the vending
machine 2,000 years ago.
The discoveries of Albert Einstein
are amazing and awe-inspiring.
But could there have been
ancient Einsteins?
Astonishingly, the technology of
the ancient world is just as
incredible.
And just like today, some of the
most advanced technology
was used to entertain.
The Greek inventor Heron of
Alexandria was a showman.
If he could amaze an audience
with a spectacular display, then
there was money to be made.
In modern times, it's movies
that have given us
drama and spectacle.
But the great directors of the
20th century owe their
craft to Heron.
Heron was just as much the
inventor, the showman,
the creator of magic.
And it could have been at this
theater in Alexandria where
Heron put on a show
like no other.
Heron of Alexandria is quite
the innovator, but he also has
a flair for spectacle, putting
on a good show.
Heron created an automated
theater, the first in history.
Once running, it didn't need
anyone to touch it.
It's believed that the
show ran for 20 minutes.
It was new, it was incredible,
and it left its
audience dumb-founded.
Basically, he has a bunch of
figures that have
pre-programmed moves.
How does he do this?
With ropes and coils.
Everything's spun and wound up
and ready to go.
When he sets off a button, off
goes the entire spectacle, off
goes the entire play.
You've never seen anything like it,
you can't figure out how it was done.
This is the innovation, this is the
spectacle of Heron the innovator.
The word "cinema" comes from
the Greek for "movement."
So Heron's theater was truly a
cinematic marvel.
But there was more to
Heron than the showman.
He was fascinated by
technology for its own sake.
His most incredible discovery
wasn't used in the theater.
In fact, it wasn't put
to use in any way at all.
But today, it powers these
launching mechanisms.
Heron discovered the
power of steam.
We may attribute the invention
of steam power to the
industrial revolution a couple
of hundred years ago.
But like many modern inventions,
it's really more
of a rediscovery.
This intriguing copper ball
is known as an aeolipile.
It may not look like
much, but it could spin
at an incredible 1,500
revs per minute.
This was the world's
first steam engine.
Before me is Heron of
Alexandria's ball of wind,
what many consider to be the first
true steam engine, predating the
industrial revolution
by 1,800, 1,900 years.
The cauldron is airtight
and filled with water.
A fire underneath heats the
water, creating steam.
The steam has nowhere to go but
up into the ball and out through
the two opposing nozzles.
Then the power of the jets of
steam gets to work, forcing the
ball to spin on its axis.
So now the flame is heating
the cauldron and the
water trapped inside.
Once it's hot enough, we'll then
have steam, we'll start to see
those gases come out of these
nozzles right here and then once
that pressure builds up high
enough, we should
then have rotation.
The fact that Heron was able to
get this to work 2,000 years ago
makes me compare him
to Albert Einstein.
Imagine if this technology had
been put to use by the Greeks.
History would not
have been the same.
In fact, imagine where we might
be today if we'd had an industrial
revolution 2,000 years ago.
Automatic doors, the first steam
engine- working within the
limits of his day, Heron must
have had an amazing mind.
Heron of Alexandria didn't
have the tools or the knowledge
of modern engineers, but his
inventions were incredible.
His machines were the
wonder of Alexandria.
Like any genius, Heron was
way ahead of his time.
But just imagine what he could
have achieved in our world of
high-power computers
and nuclear energy.
We're on a search for the greatest
minds of the ancient world.
Were there minds as brilliant as
Albert Einstein's
2,000 years ago?
So far, we've met three towering
figures, but there's still one
more who looms above
them all... Archimedes.
Could he be the greatest
mind in history?
Archimedes has always
fascinated me.
I think that "genius" is a very
overused word, but there is
absolutely no doubt that
Archimedes was a living,
breathing genius.
Archimedes is still thought
of today as one of the greatest
inventors of all time and this
is even more impressive when we
consider that he was the very
earliest of all our
ancient Einsteins.
Archimedes was born in Syracuse
on the island of sicily in 287 b.C.
Has any greater man
been born since?
So much of modern science
begins with him.
The greatest scientific
discoveries, like Einstein's
theory of relativity, involve
huge leaps of imagination.
But you have to leap
from somewhere.
Archimedes set the mark.
Archimedes laid the foundations.
Archimedes was not
just a mere genius.
He was the greatest mind
in the ancient world.
So what did Archimedes
do that was so special?
Like Leonardo Da Vinci, he had
an incredible imagination.
He dreamt up terrifying weapons,
like the death ray, which used
the power of the sun...
A Cannon that used the
power of steam...
Immense catapults to attack
enemy ships and a giant claw
that would pull
them from the sea.
But his greatest legacy is
giving us inventions that are
not only still in use but help
run our modern world.
So much of our everyday modern
technology can be traced
back to Archimedes.
Take the screw, for example.
It looks so simple, but
it was revolutionary.
There had never been
anything like it.
And this model shows how the
Archimedes screw could do
something miraculous.
This thing can make
water travel uphill.
The world had never seen
anything like this before.
It seemed to go against
all the laws of nature.
The genius was in
its simplicity.
You turn the handle.
Because you're churning the
water down the bottom it really
is just simply winding the
water up the mechanism.
It's a very simple device, but
it's a really beautiful one.
The Archimedes screw
was a revelation.
It meant bilge water could be
pumped from ships, enabling
them to travel farther.
It meant fields could be
irrigated like never before.
This was ancient
technology at its best.
And the incredible thing is
that this exact mechanism is
still being used today.
Windsor castle, one of the official
residences of the queen of england.
What has a place like this got
to do with Archimedes?
Most of the electricity for the
castle comes from a
surprising source.
Less than a mile away is the
river thames, and here, in the
21st century, are Archimedes
screws in action.
They are just like the screws
used by the ancient
Greeks but with a twist.
The Archimedes screw that
we're using today is virtually
the same as it's always been for
2,000 years, but just
a little bit different.
Rather than using them to pump
water up out of a river into a
field, we now turn them in the
opposite direction, allow the
power of the water to turn a
gearbox and a generator.
So now instead of pumping water,
these screws are using the power of the
water to actually generate electricity.
So every time the queen
switches on a light switch or
snuggles up next to a radiator
or even turns on the telly, she
is benefiting from one of
Archimedes' inventions.
Our journey into the
ancient world has led us to
some staggering intellects,
astonishing inventors, and
eventually to the greatest of
them all, Archimedes.
The Archimedes screw is his most
famous invention, but there
was no end to his genius.
If anyone in history is a match
for Albert Einstein, then surely
it would be Archimedes.
Archimedes was a brilliant
inventor and a mathematician.
He says to the people around
him, "don't just live
in the lap of the gods.
Don't be dominated
by mother nature.
You as a man can take control
of your own destiny."
And in discovering
fundamental laws of nature,
Archimedes led the way, and in
doing so, changed the world.
He didn't just invent things
that changed his world but
things that have changed
our world, too.
Archimedes lived for invention.
According to legend, nothing
could get between him and his
work, and sometimes he
would even forget to eat.
Ideas would come to him at any
moment, and he would scribble
them on any available surface.
Famously, he was in the bath
when he discovered the laws of
buoyancy, leading him to run
naked through the streets
shouting "Eureka!"
Perhaps he was the
world's first mad scientist.
He certainly had a
brilliant mind.
It's because of his huge
advances in math that the Greeks
went on to become such
incredible inventors.
His own inventions can seem
simple to us today, but that's
because they've become so much a
part of our world we often
take them for granted.
And one, just as important as
the screw, we've
come to depend on.
In a stroke of genius,
Archimedes invented
the pulley system.
Before Archimedes, lifting heavy
weights depended on
muscle power alone.
That was a big problem
in the ancient world.
To lift a ton would take 40 men.
How could one man
do the job of 40?
Surely it was impossible.
But not for Archimedes.
Now in every workshop or
factory, the legacy of
Archimedes' discovery
is all around.
Galileo, another brilliant
mathematician and engineer,
called Archimedes superhuman.
But thanks to Archimedes, any
man can be a superman.
Any man can singlehandedly
lift a car.
And here, in hereford, england,
we're going to put
that to the test.
Archimedes, he got it.
He realized there was a problem.
And so he came up with a very
simple but very clever system of
the block and tackle.
Archimedes worked
out that using a pulley made it
considerably easier to lift a
heavy weight, and using two
joined together made
it twice as easy.
When I pull down here...
How easy is that?
Because this weight is now
divided between a number
of different lines.
And, all right, I have to pull
quite a long way to take it off
the ground, but this is the
principle of a block and tackle,
lifting heavy weights
very easily.
This is what I'm going to be
using to lift the car.
The more pulleys are
combined and the longer the
total length of rope, the more
weight can be lifted by one man.
There's a story that goes to
prove this, he single-handedly
hauled a ship up
on to the beach.
I believe it.
He could do it.
A similar principle
lies behind the lever.
The longer the lever,
the less force is needed.
In fact, Archimedes said that
with a lever long enough, one
man could lift the
weight of the earth.
We can't put that
theory to the test.
But we can see what's possible
for one man to achieve
with just a few pulleys.
Whoa, hey, steady.
You promised me a small car.
Right, gloves.
It's moving, but it's not
leaving the ground.
Right, Archimedes said heavy
weights, more pulleys.
I've got some more pulleys.
Here we go.
I've got my pulley set here,
which is another four to one,
which means instead of 400
pounds, if I pull on this, 100
pounds should go up in the air.
Archimedes would be proud of me.
Here we go.
It may have been more than 2,000
years ago that Archimedes had
his flash of genius, but the
technology still works.
That car weighs more than
a ton, and it's in the air.
One man.
Well done, Archimedes.
"Eureka" means "I have found it,"
and it could be
argued that Archimedes found out
more than anyone else
before or since.
And we can only guess at what he
might have gone on to
achieve had he lived longer.
Tragically for all of us, he was
cut down by a Roman soldier
because he refused
to stop working.
As a historian, I have so
much respect for Archimedes.
And he's one of these people
that I would just love
to have met for one hour.
He was stimulating, he was
intriguing, and above all, he
had a brilliantly original mind.
So brilliant and so
original that it's strongly
suspected he was behind what's
been called the world's first
computer, an unbelievably
advanced calculating machine.
It could only have been created
by a genius and possibly the
most incredible mind in history.
And that's why some attribute it
to Archimedes it is
one of the greatest
"what ifs" of history.
If Archimedes hadn't been killed
before his time, what
could have he achieved?
The industrial revolution could
have happened 2,000 years earlier.
He might have kickstarted
the modern age.
And I'm sure he would have
created worlds that we
can't even imagine.
And that is why he is
my ancient Einstein.
We can only imagine
what inventions of Archimedes
have been lost to history.
Much of his work, like that of
our other ancient geniuses, was
written on scrolls and kept at
the library of Alexandria.
In 48 b.C., when Julius Caesar
was attacking the city, it's
thought that much of the great
library was destroyed by fire.
What other works of
genius were destroyed?
We'll never know.
There may even have been ancient
geniuses of whom
we know nothing.
Is it possible that one day
we'll discover a new
ancient Einstein?
From what we do know, it's clear
that the ancient Greek inventors
were all extraordinary men.
They began modern science over
ancient world had geniuses
greater than ours today?
The greatest scientific
discoveries involve huge leaps
of imagination, but you have
to leap from somewhere.
Who were these
ancient geniuses and
what did they create?
This thing can make
water travel uphill.
Were there really
minds so great that they were a
match for Albert Einstein?
Monuments more colossal than
our own, ancient super weapons
as mighty as today's,
technology so precise
it defies reinvention.
The ancient world
was not primitive.
Their marvels are so advanced,
we still use them now.
Travel to a world closer than
we imagine, an ancient age
where nothing was impossible.
Many consider Albert Einstein to
be the greatest
mind of all time.
His discovery of the energy
contained in the atom
led to the nuclear age.
His theories still resonate
throughout modern science, and
have influenced devices that are
essential parts of our everyday
lives including televisions,
digital cameras, and GPS.
But could thinkers over 2,000
years ago have had equally
revolutionary ideas?
Is it possible that our modern
world was created
by ancient minds?
It was Isaac Newton, one of
the greatest scientists of all
time, who famously said that if
he'd seen further than others it
was because he was standing on
the shoulders of giants.
But it was the ancient Greeks
who were the real giants, the
ancient Einsteins, and what they
achieved was truly staggering.
Our search for
these ancient Einsteins begins
at the greatest seat of
knowledge and learning in the
ancient world, the library of
Alexandria in Egypt.
It was here where the most
amazing minds of the time came
to think, to imagine, to invent.
And it was here, 2,300 years
ago, where our first ancient
genius came to work and study.
His name was Ctesibius, an
ingenious inventor who
discovered something that is an
integral part of our
modern world...
The power of air.
Today, we use compressed
air for all kinds of things.
We take it for granted.
When you fill your tires, you're
using compressed air.
These modern racing cars depend
on it, but have you ever
thought who came
up with this idea?
Thank Ctesibius.
These cars go over
200 miles per hour.
But they're not the fastest
machines in the workshop.
Far from it.
The turning speed is between
10,000 and 15,000 rpm, so it's a
seriously powerful bit of kit.
And this power all
comes from compressed air.
There's nothing more effective.
To watch a pit crew work as
they do, changing the tires as
quickly as possible using this
technology is one of
the most incredible sights.
It's amazing to think that the
technology in this was being
used over 2,000 years ago.
And it was Ctesibius
who came up with the
idea in ancient Alexandria.
He discovered that air
had mass and pressure.
This was a giant scientific
leap, much like Einstein's
incredible insights
into space and time.
But how did this little-known
ancient genius make
this breakthrough?
It all started in a barbershop.
Ctesibius grew up as the son
of a barber, working in a
barber's shop, and one of the
things he seems to have invented
early on is a mirror that could
be raised up and down to help
with the job of shaving people.
And that invention led him on to
discover something else, that
when the mirror on its lead
counterweight moved up and down,
there was this noise, the noise
of air as it escaped and rushed
back into the casing
around the lead weight.
And that lead Ctesibius to
realize that air
was a substance.
Air was a thing that could be
compressed and which
would expand.
Ctesibius was quick
to realize that compressed air
could be used as a source of
power and that it
could power water.
It wasn't long before he came up
with this... the water pump.
It was so ahead of its time, it
was a truly
remarkable invention.
Today we'd basically call
this a two-cylinder
reciprocating force pump.
To explain it, I'll probably
turn it round, and we can
actually see the mechanism.
As the piston comes up, the
suction draws in water through
this bottom flap valve.
Then on the down stroke, the
force of the pressure closes
the bottom flap valve so the
only place for the water to go
is through this orifice here
and into the receiving chamber
through another valve.
The other piston is doing
exactly the opposite.
As the one on the left is
filling, the one on the right is
pushing the water out.
And with constant pumping, a
continual flow of water is
forced from the receiving
chamber up through a
nozzle at the top.
Incredibly, Ctesibius' water
pump was the world's
first fire engine.
In Alexandria, it was rushed out
in emergencies all
over the city.
It seems very effective.
I think it would be
useful in a fire.
It would certainly enable a jet
of water to get where
people couldn't.
In the ancient
world, a directed jet of water
like this was something
new and amazing.
But after the romans, the
fire-fighting water
pump disappeared.
The idea was lost, and it's not
until the 15th century
that it's reinvented.
It's amazing to think the fire
engine was invented over 2,000
years ago, and, thanks to
Ctesibius, today we still fight
fires in the same way.
But for Ctesibius, this
was just the beginning.
Like all geniuses, his
thinking knew no limits.
Well, Ctesibius was one of
the paid intellectuals
in Alexandria.
And he was part of a select
group that were really pushing
the boundaries in all sorts of
areas, in astronomy, in maths,
in geography, in history, and
they were all being paid by
ptolemy ii, who was keen to have
his own reputation imbued with
the amazingness of these
peoples' discoveries.
Ctesibius began to
wonder, he had learned how to
manipulate air pressure.
Now could he do the
same with water?
2,000 years before Einstein's
own investigations, he decided
to try to crack one of the most
difficult questions-
what's the time?
This was going to be
Ctesibius' greatest achievement.
His goal was to invent for
the first time something that
would accurately tell the time.
Sundials were useless at night
or when it was cloudy.
And for the Greeks, it was most
important to measure time
inside, especially
in the law courts.
Justice depended on giving
lawyers equal amounts of time.
We know from, say, ancient
Athens in the 5th and 4th
centuries bc in the law courts,
they had a kind
of a water clock.
Now this was a very simple
invention where you had a
bucket full of water with a hole
in the bottom, and the water
went out to a bucket
that was lower down.
When the bucket was empty, the
lawyer's time was said to be up.
But there was a problem.
As the height of the water
changed, it didn't run out at a
steady rate.
Ctesibius came up with a
brilliant answer, and he changed
the history of
timekeeping forever.
He took clocks from a couple of
buckets to this, something
intricate, remarkable and
completely groundbreaking-
the first ever accurate and
fully automatic clock.
Now what Ctesibius did is
particularly cunning.
He makes sure that the height of
water in this chamber
never changes.
Ctesibius did this by
continually feeding water to
the top and attaching
an overflow pipe.
The water then flowed into a
second chamber, which would rise
at a steady and precise rate,
allowing time to be
measured accurately.
This was genius, but
Ctesibius still wasn't happy.
The second chamber had to be
emptied when full, and he wanted
a clock that would run and run.
Surely this was impossible.
What he did was he fitted a
siphon to the system, and this
may well be the first time a
siphon was ever
fitted to a machine.
With a siphon, the clock emptied
and reset itself automatically.
This was revolutionary.
The world had never seen a
machine like this before.
But there was still one
remaining problem.
The Greeks divided the daylight
hours into 12, so their hours
were shorter in winter
than in summer.
Even our modern clocks
would struggle with that.
Using a waterwheel and a series
of cogs, a cylinder turned a
tiny amount every day, the hour
lines becoming nearer or farther
apart depending on the
time of the year.
The precision involved
is simply astonishing.
So overall, Ctesibius' water
clock ran 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 days a year,
and for over 2,000 years, this
was the most accurate clock in the world.
So all modern
clocks, even London's big Ben,
can trace their origins back to
this incredible machine.
Now imagine what Ctesibius might
have invented if he had been
alive in modern times with all
the resources that
are available today.
Would he have been a match
for Albert Einstein himself?
Ctesibius built the first
accurate clock, he built the
first fire engine, and of course
he discovered pneumatics
that's why for me, he is an
ancient Einstein.
The ancient world had
its colossal thinkers,
but could they have had minds
to match Albert Einstein?
We are on a journey to find out.
Over 2,000 years ago, Ctesibius
mastered the power of air and
water and invented the first
accurate clock.
And now we are about to
meet another brilliant mind.
Many consider this man to
be the father of robotics.
His name was Philon
of Byzantium.
He was also known as Philo, or
Philo mechanicus, because when
it came to mechanics, he was
thousands of years
ahead of the game.
Philon of Byzantium was one
of the most mysterious
characters of antiquity.
We know very little about him,
but what we do know is that he
was responsible for some of the
most impossible
inventions of his day.
We also know that Philon
was drawn to the library
at Alexandria around the same
time as Ctesibius.
And it's here where he wrote his
masterpiece, a
compendium of mechanics.
Most of this work has been lost,
but we know that Philon's
brilliance in math and mechanics
led him to invent some of the
most lethal weapons of the day,
like this repeating crossbow,
an ancient machine gun.
He also worked out how to
project huge missiles
from a catapult.
But Philon is most famous for
being the inspiration for this.
You talking to me?
I'm the only one here.
Machines like this can trace their
origins all the way back to Philon.
Meet Philon's maid, an automaton
that could pour a goblet of
wine and mix it with water.
Is this the world's first robot?
The invention that really
makes me think of Philo as a
hero of ancient engineering is
his wine-pouring maid.
Now, this was a device shaped
like a woman with an
outstretched hand and
holding a jug of wine.
Someone would come up and
place their empty cup in the
outstretched hand and under the
force of gravity, the hand would
descend and through a series of
very clever valves, the air
pressure inside of the device
would change, allowing wine and
water to be poured
into the glass.
The serving maid was built
to astonish and amaze.
And at a dinner party in ancient
Greece, this was just
what a rich host wanted.
It was a party piece
like no other.
It had human characteristics and
performed human tasks.
Guests at this dinner party had
witnessed history in the making.
They'd been given wine by the
world's first robot.
And 2,000 years after Philon
created the serving maid for
some wealthy client, we have
brought the robot back to life.
I'm going to place the chalice in
the hand, and we'll see if it works.
If it does work, first
we'll get a precise
measure of wine followed by a
precise measure of water.
Ah, there we go.
That's the start of it.
The wine's stopped, and
now there's the water.
There we go.
And it's stopped.
The cup would have then been
taken out and handed to an
astonished and mystified guest.
The wine is released
into the goblet by the
movement of the arm, and then,
when the goblet reaches an
exact weight, the wine valve
closes and the water valve
opens, diluting the wine, just
how the ancient Greeks liked it.
This was all incredibly
sophisticated.
It seems likely that Philon
learned from Ctesibius about
hydraulics and compressed air.
Then he took this engineering
to amazing levels.
The idea that a piece of
engineering of this
sophistication could actually
have been produced such a long
time ago is stunning.
It's almost impossible
for us to believe.
But there's more to
Philon than robotics.
He also invented incredible
devices that could
astonish an audience.
The impact of one of them has
resonated through the centuries.
One of the inventions that I
find most remarkable is Philo's
invention of the 8-sided ink
pot, and in each of these faces
was drilled a hole.
Now, you could take your quill
and dip it into the top face and
get some ink out, but the
remarkable thing about Philo's
8-sided ink well was that you
could rotate it around 360
degrees in any direction and no
ink would spill out.
This had never been seen before.
The magic lay in hidden
suspended rings, with gravity
holding the ink bowl
level at all times.
Whoever owned this device would
have had their
guests dumbfounded.
And over 2,000 years later,
this invention is in use in the
skies all over the world.
It's the basis of an airplane's
gyroscope, which shows a level
horizon to the pilot.
At night or in poor visibility,
it's the most important
instrument in the cockpit.
All I can see is clouds.
My reference point's gone.
I'm flying blind.
Without this use of the
gyroscope, we wouldn't be able
to see how far we're pitching up
and how far we're turning.
We'd get completely
disorientated.
We could either flip
it or stall it.
Philon's mind was so
ahead of his time.
There just wasn't the
technology really to utilize it.
In fact, the technology
involved in Philon's
inkpot was used in putting
a man on the moon.
One of the frustrating things
about studying Philo is that so
much of what he wrote
has been lost.
We know of the eight chapters in
his compendium of mechanics,
this ancient textbook
of engineering.
We know that only three survive.
It's this missing bit, it's this
extra five chapters that we
don't know about, together with
what we know probably makes him
one of the great ancient
engineers and a hero of mine.
We can only imagine
what genius inventions of
Philon have been
lost to history.
What other mental leaps might he
have made that could have driven
technology to new levels?
There are many great
minds that we have to
thank for our modern technology.
Steve jobs, bill
gates, Thomas Edison.
And the man many consider to be
the greatest of them
all, Albert Einstein.
Now we are on a quest to find
the ancient Einsteins, and this
journey takes us straight to the
amazing library of
Alexandria in Egypt.
It wasn't just a
library with books.
It was a center of innovation
and technology.
It was the silicon valley
of the ancient world.
The ancient Greeks
weren't so constrained by
religion, so Philosophers and
inventors were free to think
about how the world works.
And it's because of this that
what we now call
science was born.
So they weren't just
inventing things.
They were inventing the actual
processes of science itself.
After Ctesibius and
Philon, in the 1st century a.D.,
another ancient genius
worked at the library.
He was a native of Alexandria,
and he taught math, mechanics,
pneumatics, and physics.
His name was Heron.
Could he be an ancient Einstein?
Heron certainly had
a scientific mind.
He was a man of reason.
This is what the
Greeks are famous for.
But they did have religion.
And in fact, Heron wasn't averse
to making a tidy
profit out of it.
Ancient Alexandria had
hundreds of temples.
And they each competed
with each other.
They wanted to get people
in and take their money.
So how do you separate yourself
from the crowd?
The priests always knew that
they could rely on Heron to come
up with an ingenious idea.
He was the one who could think
outside the box.
Building on the
work of Ctesibius and especially
Philon, Heron invented
incredible mechanized models
that were at the cutting
edge of technology.
Priests would demonstrate them
in the temples to show
their godly powers-
an archer magically shooting his
arrow at a hissing dragon, a
brass horse that appeared to
drink water, dancers revolving
around a fire.
These were sure signs that the
gods were present.
So Heron was very much like a
modern-day stage magician in Las
Vegas, achieving what was
seemingly impossible.
Many inventions seem
extraordinary at the time.
Television, the electric light
bulb- can you imagine in the
20th century coming across
automatic doors for
the first time?
They were magic.
Now imagine coming across them
2,000 years ago.
Surely impossible.
But Heron did the impossible.
Incredibly, he invented
automatic doors over
2,000 years ago.
This was one of the most remarkable
pieces of technology of ancient times.
Amazingly, the world's first
automatic doors were on an
ancient Greek temple, and they
appeared to be
opened by the gods.
I'm in the temple of serapis
in ephesus, and this is a
massive doorway to this temple.
Now with the doorway
also come massive doors.
You can see one of the sockets,
how it swings open right here.
Now Heron took such a setting
like this and did
something incredible.
Heron realized that
if you heat air, it expands.
This is a huge development of
Ctesibius' discovery that
air was a substance.
And expanding hot air could be
used to push water just like the
compressed air of
the water pump.
And it's this that lies behind
the magic of the
automatic temple doors.
Heron's automatic doors are a
work of absolute genius.
The priest lit a fire.
Now the worshippers couldn't
see, but that fire started to
heat a tank of water.
The water would boil, create
steam, which would push through
into a second tank which would
force water through a
pipe into a bucket.
The bucket was attached by a
series of ropes and pulleys to
the door, so as the bucket
filled and fell, the
doors would open.
The worshippers would
be absolutely amazed.
They think that the gods
themselves have opened
the temple doors.
They flood in awe-inspired.
The gods have given a sign.
This is a moment of epiphany.
This is a religious experience.
It's so incredible, and you
can't quite figure
out how it happens.
It must be the gods
that are responding.
It's that kind of innovation
that Heron is famous for.
He makes the automatic
door 2,000 years ago.
Today we take automatic
doors for granted,
along with lots of other
so-called modern inventions.
But Heron didn't stop there.
Just like Ctesibius and Philon,
he was always looking to
push technology forward.
His mastery of weights, pulleys,
and the flow of water, led to
his next invention, which was so
ahead of its time, it wasn't
until the 20th century that it
became commonplace- a
coin-operated machine.
Incredibly, even back then,
you could take a coin, place it
into a machine and this machine
would dispense you a
cup of holy water.
It's a precursor to
the vending machine.
You basically come up to this
machine, put in a coin, and it
releases the holy water.
After the coin drops through,
the water closes a valve
and the water stops.
So you've got everybody happy.
You've got the
temple-goers getting the
water and the temple
getting the money.
It's that kind of complex
solution to a complicated
situation that shows that Heron
is a genius and basically
inventing the vending
machine 2,000 years ago.
The discoveries of Albert Einstein
are amazing and awe-inspiring.
But could there have been
ancient Einsteins?
Astonishingly, the technology of
the ancient world is just as
incredible.
And just like today, some of the
most advanced technology
was used to entertain.
The Greek inventor Heron of
Alexandria was a showman.
If he could amaze an audience
with a spectacular display, then
there was money to be made.
In modern times, it's movies
that have given us
drama and spectacle.
But the great directors of the
20th century owe their
craft to Heron.
Heron was just as much the
inventor, the showman,
the creator of magic.
And it could have been at this
theater in Alexandria where
Heron put on a show
like no other.
Heron of Alexandria is quite
the innovator, but he also has
a flair for spectacle, putting
on a good show.
Heron created an automated
theater, the first in history.
Once running, it didn't need
anyone to touch it.
It's believed that the
show ran for 20 minutes.
It was new, it was incredible,
and it left its
audience dumb-founded.
Basically, he has a bunch of
figures that have
pre-programmed moves.
How does he do this?
With ropes and coils.
Everything's spun and wound up
and ready to go.
When he sets off a button, off
goes the entire spectacle, off
goes the entire play.
You've never seen anything like it,
you can't figure out how it was done.
This is the innovation, this is the
spectacle of Heron the innovator.
The word "cinema" comes from
the Greek for "movement."
So Heron's theater was truly a
cinematic marvel.
But there was more to
Heron than the showman.
He was fascinated by
technology for its own sake.
His most incredible discovery
wasn't used in the theater.
In fact, it wasn't put
to use in any way at all.
But today, it powers these
launching mechanisms.
Heron discovered the
power of steam.
We may attribute the invention
of steam power to the
industrial revolution a couple
of hundred years ago.
But like many modern inventions,
it's really more
of a rediscovery.
This intriguing copper ball
is known as an aeolipile.
It may not look like
much, but it could spin
at an incredible 1,500
revs per minute.
This was the world's
first steam engine.
Before me is Heron of
Alexandria's ball of wind,
what many consider to be the first
true steam engine, predating the
industrial revolution
by 1,800, 1,900 years.
The cauldron is airtight
and filled with water.
A fire underneath heats the
water, creating steam.
The steam has nowhere to go but
up into the ball and out through
the two opposing nozzles.
Then the power of the jets of
steam gets to work, forcing the
ball to spin on its axis.
So now the flame is heating
the cauldron and the
water trapped inside.
Once it's hot enough, we'll then
have steam, we'll start to see
those gases come out of these
nozzles right here and then once
that pressure builds up high
enough, we should
then have rotation.
The fact that Heron was able to
get this to work 2,000 years ago
makes me compare him
to Albert Einstein.
Imagine if this technology had
been put to use by the Greeks.
History would not
have been the same.
In fact, imagine where we might
be today if we'd had an industrial
revolution 2,000 years ago.
Automatic doors, the first steam
engine- working within the
limits of his day, Heron must
have had an amazing mind.
Heron of Alexandria didn't
have the tools or the knowledge
of modern engineers, but his
inventions were incredible.
His machines were the
wonder of Alexandria.
Like any genius, Heron was
way ahead of his time.
But just imagine what he could
have achieved in our world of
high-power computers
and nuclear energy.
We're on a search for the greatest
minds of the ancient world.
Were there minds as brilliant as
Albert Einstein's
2,000 years ago?
So far, we've met three towering
figures, but there's still one
more who looms above
them all... Archimedes.
Could he be the greatest
mind in history?
Archimedes has always
fascinated me.
I think that "genius" is a very
overused word, but there is
absolutely no doubt that
Archimedes was a living,
breathing genius.
Archimedes is still thought
of today as one of the greatest
inventors of all time and this
is even more impressive when we
consider that he was the very
earliest of all our
ancient Einsteins.
Archimedes was born in Syracuse
on the island of sicily in 287 b.C.
Has any greater man
been born since?
So much of modern science
begins with him.
The greatest scientific
discoveries, like Einstein's
theory of relativity, involve
huge leaps of imagination.
But you have to leap
from somewhere.
Archimedes set the mark.
Archimedes laid the foundations.
Archimedes was not
just a mere genius.
He was the greatest mind
in the ancient world.
So what did Archimedes
do that was so special?
Like Leonardo Da Vinci, he had
an incredible imagination.
He dreamt up terrifying weapons,
like the death ray, which used
the power of the sun...
A Cannon that used the
power of steam...
Immense catapults to attack
enemy ships and a giant claw
that would pull
them from the sea.
But his greatest legacy is
giving us inventions that are
not only still in use but help
run our modern world.
So much of our everyday modern
technology can be traced
back to Archimedes.
Take the screw, for example.
It looks so simple, but
it was revolutionary.
There had never been
anything like it.
And this model shows how the
Archimedes screw could do
something miraculous.
This thing can make
water travel uphill.
The world had never seen
anything like this before.
It seemed to go against
all the laws of nature.
The genius was in
its simplicity.
You turn the handle.
Because you're churning the
water down the bottom it really
is just simply winding the
water up the mechanism.
It's a very simple device, but
it's a really beautiful one.
The Archimedes screw
was a revelation.
It meant bilge water could be
pumped from ships, enabling
them to travel farther.
It meant fields could be
irrigated like never before.
This was ancient
technology at its best.
And the incredible thing is
that this exact mechanism is
still being used today.
Windsor castle, one of the official
residences of the queen of england.
What has a place like this got
to do with Archimedes?
Most of the electricity for the
castle comes from a
surprising source.
Less than a mile away is the
river thames, and here, in the
21st century, are Archimedes
screws in action.
They are just like the screws
used by the ancient
Greeks but with a twist.
The Archimedes screw that
we're using today is virtually
the same as it's always been for
2,000 years, but just
a little bit different.
Rather than using them to pump
water up out of a river into a
field, we now turn them in the
opposite direction, allow the
power of the water to turn a
gearbox and a generator.
So now instead of pumping water,
these screws are using the power of the
water to actually generate electricity.
So every time the queen
switches on a light switch or
snuggles up next to a radiator
or even turns on the telly, she
is benefiting from one of
Archimedes' inventions.
Our journey into the
ancient world has led us to
some staggering intellects,
astonishing inventors, and
eventually to the greatest of
them all, Archimedes.
The Archimedes screw is his most
famous invention, but there
was no end to his genius.
If anyone in history is a match
for Albert Einstein, then surely
it would be Archimedes.
Archimedes was a brilliant
inventor and a mathematician.
He says to the people around
him, "don't just live
in the lap of the gods.
Don't be dominated
by mother nature.
You as a man can take control
of your own destiny."
And in discovering
fundamental laws of nature,
Archimedes led the way, and in
doing so, changed the world.
He didn't just invent things
that changed his world but
things that have changed
our world, too.
Archimedes lived for invention.
According to legend, nothing
could get between him and his
work, and sometimes he
would even forget to eat.
Ideas would come to him at any
moment, and he would scribble
them on any available surface.
Famously, he was in the bath
when he discovered the laws of
buoyancy, leading him to run
naked through the streets
shouting "Eureka!"
Perhaps he was the
world's first mad scientist.
He certainly had a
brilliant mind.
It's because of his huge
advances in math that the Greeks
went on to become such
incredible inventors.
His own inventions can seem
simple to us today, but that's
because they've become so much a
part of our world we often
take them for granted.
And one, just as important as
the screw, we've
come to depend on.
In a stroke of genius,
Archimedes invented
the pulley system.
Before Archimedes, lifting heavy
weights depended on
muscle power alone.
That was a big problem
in the ancient world.
To lift a ton would take 40 men.
How could one man
do the job of 40?
Surely it was impossible.
But not for Archimedes.
Now in every workshop or
factory, the legacy of
Archimedes' discovery
is all around.
Galileo, another brilliant
mathematician and engineer,
called Archimedes superhuman.
But thanks to Archimedes, any
man can be a superman.
Any man can singlehandedly
lift a car.
And here, in hereford, england,
we're going to put
that to the test.
Archimedes, he got it.
He realized there was a problem.
And so he came up with a very
simple but very clever system of
the block and tackle.
Archimedes worked
out that using a pulley made it
considerably easier to lift a
heavy weight, and using two
joined together made
it twice as easy.
When I pull down here...
How easy is that?
Because this weight is now
divided between a number
of different lines.
And, all right, I have to pull
quite a long way to take it off
the ground, but this is the
principle of a block and tackle,
lifting heavy weights
very easily.
This is what I'm going to be
using to lift the car.
The more pulleys are
combined and the longer the
total length of rope, the more
weight can be lifted by one man.
There's a story that goes to
prove this, he single-handedly
hauled a ship up
on to the beach.
I believe it.
He could do it.
A similar principle
lies behind the lever.
The longer the lever,
the less force is needed.
In fact, Archimedes said that
with a lever long enough, one
man could lift the
weight of the earth.
We can't put that
theory to the test.
But we can see what's possible
for one man to achieve
with just a few pulleys.
Whoa, hey, steady.
You promised me a small car.
Right, gloves.
It's moving, but it's not
leaving the ground.
Right, Archimedes said heavy
weights, more pulleys.
I've got some more pulleys.
Here we go.
I've got my pulley set here,
which is another four to one,
which means instead of 400
pounds, if I pull on this, 100
pounds should go up in the air.
Archimedes would be proud of me.
Here we go.
It may have been more than 2,000
years ago that Archimedes had
his flash of genius, but the
technology still works.
That car weighs more than
a ton, and it's in the air.
One man.
Well done, Archimedes.
"Eureka" means "I have found it,"
and it could be
argued that Archimedes found out
more than anyone else
before or since.
And we can only guess at what he
might have gone on to
achieve had he lived longer.
Tragically for all of us, he was
cut down by a Roman soldier
because he refused
to stop working.
As a historian, I have so
much respect for Archimedes.
And he's one of these people
that I would just love
to have met for one hour.
He was stimulating, he was
intriguing, and above all, he
had a brilliantly original mind.
So brilliant and so
original that it's strongly
suspected he was behind what's
been called the world's first
computer, an unbelievably
advanced calculating machine.
It could only have been created
by a genius and possibly the
most incredible mind in history.
And that's why some attribute it
to Archimedes it is
one of the greatest
"what ifs" of history.
If Archimedes hadn't been killed
before his time, what
could have he achieved?
The industrial revolution could
have happened 2,000 years earlier.
He might have kickstarted
the modern age.
And I'm sure he would have
created worlds that we
can't even imagine.
And that is why he is
my ancient Einstein.
We can only imagine
what inventions of Archimedes
have been lost to history.
Much of his work, like that of
our other ancient geniuses, was
written on scrolls and kept at
the library of Alexandria.
In 48 b.C., when Julius Caesar
was attacking the city, it's
thought that much of the great
library was destroyed by fire.
What other works of
genius were destroyed?
We'll never know.
There may even have been ancient
geniuses of whom
we know nothing.
Is it possible that one day
we'll discover a new
ancient Einstein?
From what we do know, it's clear
that the ancient Greek inventors
were all extraordinary men.
They began modern science over