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The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Chapter 74: 70. Figures made to dance by Fire on an Altar.
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.

70. Figures made to dance by Fire on an Altar.

When a fire is kindled on an altar, figures shall be seen to dance: for the altars must be transparent, either of glass or horn. Through the hearth of the altar (fig. 70), a tube is let down turning on a pivot towards the base of the altar, and, above, on a small pipe which is attached to the hearth. Communicating with, and attached to, this tube are smaller tubes lying at right angles to each other, and bent at the extremities in opposite directions. A wheel or platform on which the dancing figures stand, is also fastened to the tube. When the sacrifice is kindled, the air, growing hot, will pass through the pipe into the tube, and be forced out of this into the smaller tubes; when, meeting with resistance from the sides of the altar, it will cause the tube and the dancing figures to revolve.