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The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Chapter 61: 57. Description of a Syringe.
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.

57. Description of a Syringe.

The instrument called a pyulcus acts on the same principle. A hollow tube, of some length, is made, A B (fig. 57); into this another tube, C D, is nicely fitted, to the extremity C of which is fastened a small plate or piston, and at D is a handle, E F. Cover the orifice A of the tube A B with a plate in which an extremely fine tube, G H, is fixed, its bore communicating with A B through the plate. When we desire to draw forth any pus we must apply the extreme orifice of the small tube, H, to the part in which the matter is, and draw the tube C D outwards by means of the handle. As a vacuum is thus produced in A B something else must enter to fill it, and as there is no other passage but through the mouth of the small tube, we shall of necessity draw up through this any fluid that may be near. Again, when we wish to inject any liquid, we place it in the tube A B, and, taking hold of E F, depress the tube C D, and force down the liquid until we think the injection is effected.