It would be interesting to see a reconstruction of a steam cannon. There's no mention in the article of anyone actually building one, and I'm at a loss to imagine how you'd use ancient metalworking technology to build the valve which holds back the pressure that's sufficient to fling a projectile any significant distance.
Also, if they were such a great weapon, able to set ships alight from the shore, why did nobody ever use them again?
However, whilst lost to the West, many of these traditions lived on in the Byzantine Empire and Arabic automatons and inventions (Al-Jazari), so there is some continuity. The migration of Greek scholars and texts from Byzantium to Italy at the behest of philhellenic sponsors then sets the stage for Da Vinci and others as the article notes. If anything it serves as a reminder that high technology and culture can be lost in the vicissitudes of human arrogance, conflict and oppression.
Although confined to the elites the Greeks knew the earth was round, and they had a theory of evolution and complex mechanical computation devices. Today we battle against people trying to insert creationism into schools and a massive and systemic attempt across the West to censor and control the Internet. The only thing we can be thankful for is that the flat-earth movement can't get any traction in the face of satellite imagery (although, the moon landing hoaxers are not too far off such a proposition and get quite a few people to believe them).
All of which is fine, but this wasn't lost in the dark ages, this was supposedly used once, never used again, and never even recorded or noticed by the invading Romans, who might have been very interested in the novel weapon which was setting their ships on fire.
which notes that there were various attempts to make a viable steam cannon during the heyday of the steam engine, but nobody managed to make a viable one until World War 2.
Also, Mythbusters apparently did an episode about Archimedes and steam cannons. I can't find out much about it, but it doesn't look like it was an overwhelming success.
In conclusion, I don't see a helluva lot of advantage for the steam cannon over the catapult.
In order to launch fire at a distance of 150m the old bow & arrow looks more practical too. Even if this steam cannon seems more plausible than the mirror hypothesis it looks more like an engineer's gadget than the future (at this time) of warfare.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 26.2 ms ] threadAlso, if they were such a great weapon, able to set ships alight from the shore, why did nobody ever use them again?
Other advanced Greek technology was lost and unmatched again for centuries. Note the Corinthian connection in the origins of the Antikythera mechanism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Origins
However, whilst lost to the West, many of these traditions lived on in the Byzantine Empire and Arabic automatons and inventions (Al-Jazari), so there is some continuity. The migration of Greek scholars and texts from Byzantium to Italy at the behest of philhellenic sponsors then sets the stage for Da Vinci and others as the article notes. If anything it serves as a reminder that high technology and culture can be lost in the vicissitudes of human arrogance, conflict and oppression.
Although confined to the elites the Greeks knew the earth was round, and they had a theory of evolution and complex mechanical computation devices. Today we battle against people trying to insert creationism into schools and a massive and systemic attempt across the West to censor and control the Internet. The only thing we can be thankful for is that the flat-earth movement can't get any traction in the face of satellite imagery (although, the moon landing hoaxers are not too far off such a proposition and get quite a few people to believe them).
Wikipedia has an article on steam cannons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_cannon
which notes that there were various attempts to make a viable steam cannon during the heyday of the steam engine, but nobody managed to make a viable one until World War 2.
Also, Mythbusters apparently did an episode about Archimedes and steam cannons. I can't find out much about it, but it doesn't look like it was an overwhelming success.
In conclusion, I don't see a helluva lot of advantage for the steam cannon over the catapult.