The Ancient EngineersSouvenir Press, 1970 - 408 páginas From the dawn of history to the rise of the scientific method in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, invention and technology advanced with painful slowness. The reason was not that men were stupid during those thousands of years—it was the fact that most people were simply too busy trying to keep alive. The imagination and daring that leisure and security could divert to other ends were limited to a tiny group. It is about these brave men—whose genius enabled the Egyptians to build their pyramids, the Phoenicians to cross stormy seas, the Romans to erect magnificent public buildings—that this carefully researched and fascinatingly written account of the advance of early technology has been written. Mr. de Camp describes the methods used by early irrigators, architects, and military engineers to build and maintain structures to serve their rulers' wants. He tells, for example, how the Pharaohs erected obelisks and pyramids, how Nebuchadnezzar fortified Babylon, how Dionysios' ordnance department invented the catapult, how the Chinese built the Great Wall, and how the Romans fashioned their roads, baths, sewers, and aqueducts. He recounts many intriguing anecdotes: an Assyrian king putting up no-parking signs in Nineveh; Plato inventing a water clock with an alarm to signal the start of his classes; Heron of Alexandria designing a coin-operated holy-water fountain; a Chinese emperor composing a poem to be inscribed on a clock invented by one of his civil servants. The Ancient Engineerswill delight students of technology and invention for its accurate portrayal of the foundations of modern engineering as well as lovers of history for its penetrating look at the material background of civilization and its unusual explanations of the world's social evolution. |
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Página 102
... Siege engines were already old at the start of the Golden Age of Greece ; the Assyrians had developed the art to a high degree . There is an old theory that Homer's " Trojan horse " was nothing but a battering ram , set up at the siege ...
... Siege engines were already old at the start of the Golden Age of Greece ; the Assyrians had developed the art to a high degree . There is an old theory that Homer's " Trojan horse " was nothing but a battering ram , set up at the siege ...
Página 108
... siege engines and dug deep ditches in front of these walls to keep the engines at a distance . Philip II of Macedon took a corps of siege engineers , headed by Polydos the Thessalian , on his forays . Later , Polydos ' pupils Diades and ...
... siege engines and dug deep ditches in front of these walls to keep the engines at a distance . Philip II of Macedon took a corps of siege engineers , headed by Polydos the Thessalian , on his forays . Later , Polydos ' pupils Diades and ...
Página 111
... siege began , they cut down trees and built their engines on the spot . With the fall of the West Roman Empire in + V , the two - armed tor- sion catapult drops out of sight . Perhaps the decline of European engineering at this time ...
... siege began , they cut down trees and built their engines on the spot . With the fall of the West Roman Empire in + V , the two - armed tor- sion catapult drops out of sight . Perhaps the decline of European engineering at this time ...
Contenido
Three The Mesopotamian Engineers | 53 |
Four The Greek Engineers | 86 |
Five The Hellenistic Engineers | 114 |
Derechos de autor | |
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Términos y frases comunes
Agrippa Alexandria ancient aqueducts Arabic arch Archimedes architect Aristotle armor army Assyrian Athens Babylon became began brick bridge bronze builders building built Byzantine called canal castle catapult centuries China Chinese civilization classical columns conquered Demetrios dome early Egypt Egyptian emperor Empire engineering Europe feet fire Frontinus galleys gear Greek Hadrian harbor Hellenistic Hence Herodotos Heron Heron of Alexandria High Middle Ages horse houses Imhotep India invention iron irrigation kings Ktesibios Lake land later Leonardo machine mechanical medieval Mediterranean Mesopotamia Mesopotamian Middle Ages miles mill modern Mongols mounted Muslim oars palaces Persian Philon Philon of Byzantium Phoenicians piers pipes Polybios probably Ptolemaios pyramid river roads Roman Rome roof rowers sail Sennacherib shaft ships side siege statue stone structure temple took tower Trajan treadwheel tunnel turned vault vessel Vitruvius wall water clock water wheel wind wooden