The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

Abstract

This edition of The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria incorporates a facsimile of the extremely elegant Woodcroft edition published in 1851. If we exclude the Aristotelian Mechanical Problems, the Woodcroft edition represents the only English translation of any Greek technological work. The appearance of this translation in 1851 illustrates an important stage in Victorian sensitivity to the technological achievements of the Nineteenth century, and, of yet further interest to historians, the translation reveals an attempt during Roman times by a Greek inventor and mathematician to intermingle science and technology.The present volume is introduced by Marie Boas Hall in which she explains the circumstances surrounding the English translation, discusses the interest aroused during the Renaissance by Latin translations of this work, and gives a resume of the pneumatic devices described by Hero in his original treatise.At the end of the compilation, there is an additional section explaining the derivation of the illustrations in the 1851 edition, and for comparison, the illustrations from the earliest surviving Greek manuscript are reproduced. Captions indicate the corresponding illustrations in the facsimile; this is a very necessary tabulation, since the diagrams have been greatly transformed by successive copyings