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The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Chapter 35: 30. An Automaton which will drink any quantity that may be presented to it.
By of Alexandria Hero
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About This Book

A systematic practical handbook of machines and demonstrations that uses air, steam, heat, and water to produce mechanical effects. The text gives clear descriptions, construction details, and diagrams for siphons, valves, pumps, fountains, jets, self‑acting mechanisms, and ritual or theatrical contrivances driven by pressure and temperature changes. Explanations focus on the mechanical principles behind pneumatic and hydraulic behaviors and on ways to control flow and timing, with numbered propositions that pair instructional steps with illustrative figures for building and operating each apparatus.

30. An Automaton which will drink any quantity that may be presented to it.

The animal may be made to drink without the aid of running water, or of any thing to move the figure of Pan. Let A B C D (fig. 30) be a pedestal, and E the mouth of the animal, through the breast and hinder foot or tail of which a tube, E F G, is inserted, leading from the mouth E to the interior of the pedestal. The pedestal having been first firmly fixed, let a hole, E, so fine as to be scarcely discernible, be bored in the tube E F G which passes through the animal, in a line with the extremity G. Now if we fill the siphon E F G with water through some pipe above it, the mouth of which is applied to E, the siphon will continue full since its two orifices lie in the same level. If, therefore, a drinking vessel be brought to the mouth E, and a portion of the mouth immersed in it, it will be found that the leg of the siphon towards G has become the longer, so that it will attract the water, and the water attracted is carried into the pedestal A B C D. In this construction it is not necessary that A B C D should be air-tight.