Ancient Science · Part 14 · Alexandria · B1–B2
Ctesibius and Philo of Byzantium: Water Clocks, Pumps and Machines of War
Part 14 of Ancient Science: Ctesibius, a barber’s son, built a water clock that kept even hours, a pump and an organ that ran on water; Philo of Byzantium wrote about catapults, sieges and machines of air and water. Sophia shows how their machines worked, how we know about them, and why they did not start a machine age. Water is poured in, the float is lifted and first, then, as soon as, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight we meet a barber’s son from Alexandria who became the first great engineer of the Museum: Ctesibius.
And there is another Philo! Philo of Byzantium. Are you related, Philo?
No! It is a common name. And he lived two hundred years before me.
He wrote about machines, mostly machines of war. Ctesibius built clocks, pumps and an organ that ran on water. Let me show you.
Ctesibius worked in Alexandria under the early Ptolemies. His father was a barber. He wrote a book on his inventions, but it is lost; we know his work from later engineers, especially the Roman architect Vitruvius and Hero of Alexandria.
His most famous invention was an improved water clock. Water flows into a tank at a steady rate; as the water rises, a float rises with it, and a pointer on the float shows the hour on a scale. He also built a force pump, which pushes water up a pipe with two pistons, and a water organ, in which water keeps the air pressure steady so that the pipes can sound.
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