Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

The Battle of Platea, 479 B.C.

After the delaying battle of Thermopyle, in which the 300 Spartans (and 8700 other Greeks) fought and delayed the massive army of Xerxes, and after the Persian navy was destroyed at Salimis, Xerxes departed for Persia and left a sizable Persian army in Greece to finish the conquest of Greece.  In the Spring of the next year, 479 BC, the Persian army of 300,000 met the assembled Greeks at Platea.  The Greeks, numbering roughly 50,000,  arranged their battle line first, and the Persians then placed their strongest forces opposite what they thought were the strongest Greek forces.  Thus the Persians were opposite the Spartans, and were eager to prove their valor.  Opposite the Athenians, Plataians and Megarians, were placed the Boeottians, Locrians, Thessalians, and Phokians.  And so the Persians arranged each of their many allied forces against the many independent Greek states.

Once the battle lines were set, both sides sought the advice of their diviners as to whether they should attack first or defend.  Diviners of both sides said they would win if they defended, but not if they attacked, so both sides waited for the other side to attack. They waited for eleven days, staring across the battle field. Each day the Greek forces grew more numerous, as small contingents arrived to participate.

On the twelfth day, the Greeks decided to rearrange their forces, and move the Athenians to a place opposite the Persians. The Persians saw this and moved their Persian forces to be opposite the Spartans again.  After night fell the Greeks decided to move back a small distance to take up a new battle like, for the purpose of  being closer to a water source. In the morning light the Persian general saw that the Greeks were gone, and assumed they had dispersed.  He led the entire Persian forces at a run after them, and came up against their reformed battle lines. The Persians attacked in an unorganized mass, and often in small groups, and being lightly armored, were slaughtered by the phalanx of the Greeks.  The Spartans held against the Persians, and they and the Athenians pressed forward.   The Persian general was killed, which caused panic among the Persian allies. 

When the Persians were put to flight, all of the Persian allies also fled. The Greeks pursued the surviving Persians and their allies, and captured their camp with many treasures.  About 3000 Persians of the army of 300,000 survived to return to Persia. 

The Pendulum Clock, and building a wooden gear clock from a kit made by Abong

The first pendulum clock was invented in 1656 by Christian Huygens in the Netherlands.  This clock was based on an escapement, a device which allows the first gear of the clock to advance only one gear with each swing of a pendulum.  The pendulum clock greatly improved clock accuracy, and led to the addition of minute and second hands to the earlier hour hand.  

I got the bug to build a wooden gear clock from a kit, and ordered a kit made by Abong. This clock was designed by Raymond Groothuizen in 2013.  He put a lot of research and trial and error into making the clock. They make other cool kits, which can be viewed here. 

It came in a box about half as big as a shoe box, and had all kinds of cool gear wheels.  These are cut by laser from plywood of several different thicknesses, so every edge is burned. The first task is to lightly sand each gear, and apply graphite as a lubricant between gears.  I made a sanding table by putting double sided tape to a marble tile piece, and putting 120 grit sandpaper on the marble slab.

The next task is to connect the large gears to their inner gears.  This is done using wooden dowels which are glued in place, then cut flush with the surface of the gears. 

I got ahead of myself and glued all the gears together in one day. 

After assembling the gears, the wooden axles are placed on a backing plate, and the gears are placed on the axles.   Graphite from a pencil is rubbed onto the axles for lubrication. I also smoothed the axles with fine sandpaper to reduce friction.  If all goes well, the gears will all turn freely.  Without the escapement holding the gears in check, the weight attached to the drive gear would spin all the gears in a furious tornado of spinning gears, until the weight hit the floor in about 5 seconds. 

When the gears are on the backing plate, the plate is mounted vertically, the weight is hung and wound up, and if you are lucky, the weight drives the gears and each cycle of the pendulum gets a bit of a push from the shape of the escapement and the gears it touches. 

If the clock is assembled correctly with minimal friction between the gears, a period of adjustment begins.  The movement of the gears on each axle has be centered, more graphite will probably be needed, and seemingly endless adjustments might be required.  My clock has been running for many days now, which is a big relief.  Its very pleasant to hear that tick tick tick of the gears and the escapement.

I was missing some parts that were lost in the built, and Abong was nice enough to send me replacements for free!  How nice.  Thanks, Raymond and Joanne! The quality of the cuts is excellent and the instructions are very complete.  Minimal equipment is needed, mostly sandpaper and glue.  I would recommend this kit to any person with some building skills.  

  

The Largest Stone Moved by Man, The Thunder Stone

The largest stone ever moved by man, as far as I know, is the stone moved to St. Petersberg to serve as the base for the equistrian statue of Peter the Great.  It was called the Thunder Stone, and was moved four miles by land from a swamp in Finland, to a waiting barge.  It weighed 1250 tons, by far the heaviest stone known to have been moved by man.  It traveled by barge to its resting place in St. Petersburg, and was carved to it's final shape as it was being moved.  It started out as 1500 tons, and was something like 1250 tons when in its finished form.

 

It was moved by placing metal tracks under the stone.  The tracks had grooves running their length, and were supported by 6" brass balls on a supporting track.  There were basically ball bearings, in a time before ball bearings had been invented.  Two large capstans were turned by teams of 36 men, to move the stone 150 meters per day.  They did the move in winter, so the soft ground would support the weight by being frozen.  They only had 100 meters of track, so the track has to be dissembled behind the stone and reassembled in front of the stone.  A comparison with other large stoves moved (heavier ones were cut, but not moved) in antiquity shows:

1000 tons, Ramsseum statue: 1000 tons, moved 170 miles

800 t each, three foundation stones atBaalbek, Lebanon,

700 t, Collissi if Memnon, transported 420 miles by land

600 t, Alexander Column, St. Petersburg

575 t, Western Stone of Temple, Jerusaleum

100 t, Puma Punku stones, at 12,000' elevation in Bolivia

26 t, Stonehenge sarsen stones, England

Constructing the Great Pyramid of Giza

Theories on how the Great Pyramid at Giza take various forms.  Most of them have involved some form of ramp, up which the large stone blocks were hauled.  The problem was that construction of some of the ramps would have taken more effort and material than the pyramid itself. 

Recently a French architect has proposed a theory that seems pretty logical, and solved a lot of the problems with the previous ramp theories.  Fleshing out a theory suggested by his architect father, Jean-Pierre Houdin spent most of a decade planning how he would build a pyramid, and developing 3D computer models to show how it could be done.  His plan involves the use of a ramp, but one which is internal to the pyramid, which is made of straight sections which turn at the corners and create a straight sided spiral to the top of the pyramid.

When the ramp reached a corner, there would be a platform and a crane, for turning the block of stone 90 degrees, so it could proceed up the next section of ramp. 

 

Of course, the ramp theory will not be proven until a pyramid is taken apart to verify that an internal ramp exists, which is not likely to happen anytime soon.  Mr. Houdin was resigned to that uncertainty, and had been making presentations of his theory.  After one of his presentation, he was approached by a member of a German team which in 1986 had undertaken a project of scanning the pyramid looking for internal passages and chambers, using a sensitive gravity sensing technology.  The member of the German team said that beside their published report, they had some images which they could not explain, so they were not included in the report.  The images are below, and show regions inside the pyramid which showed as low density zones.  Maybe they are internal tunnels, ramps, or tunnels filled with rubble from the building process.  They match almost exactly Houdin's calculated positions of the internal tunnels and ramps.

Another bit of supporting evidence is seen on the pyramid itself, where a notch on one of the corners appears to be an exposed turning platform theorized by Mr. Houdin.

When the notch was explored by Bob Brier, he found a small room behind the platform, inside the pyramid, on the notch.  This room appeared to be from the time of the construction of the pyramid, because the entrance to the room was smaller than the stones that would have been removed to form the room later.  The roof of the room also had stones which were shaped to a dome shape, to support the weight of the stone above the room.  A project has been proposed to penetrate the wall of the hidden room to see if behind it is an internal ramp.

This theory was presented by Mr. Houdin and Bob Brier in Secret of the Great Pyramid.  See these links for more information.

http://www.archaeology.org/0907/etc/khufu_pyramid.html

 

http://www.archaeology.org/0705/etc/pyramid.html

 

 

Alexander the Great, by Philip Freeman

Its not often that one runs across a history book that you can't put down until you have finished.  This new book about Alexander the Great is such a book.  It is very readable, unlike many other books on ancient history, and explains the ancient battles and tactics in a much more understandable style than other books. 

Alexander might have been better called Alexander the Bold, or Alexander the Lucky, or Alexander the Inheritor of Philip's Army.  It was Philip who developed a style of soldering that could allow an army of herdsmen to challenge the Greek phalanx staffed by soldiers wearing expensive bronze armor.  Philip also developed the battlefield tactic of advancing his army to strike a point to one side of the enemies line of infantry.  By striking with a wedge instead of a direct frontal attack, the enemy's line would inevitably be pulled out of formation, allowing the rest of Philips line to attack them when the unity of the Greek phalanx had been weakened.  Philip also drilled his army of herdsmen until they fought as a unit, could turn and defend from mulitple threats, and were hardened to forced marches and extremes of weather and terrain. 

Philip developed the innovative sarissa spear and the tactics of using it, and the training in its use in battle.  The sarissa was longer than the spear of the Greek phalanx, and made Macedonian lines a veritable porcupine of spears, and was specifically designed to defeat the Greek phalanx. 

Photo by permission of Simon and Schuster

Alexander was smart enough to use all that Philip had developed, and had the political genius to gather allies, eliminate threats, cojol reluctant troops, and added his own genius to the tremendous assets he had been given by his father.  Each of his three major battles with the Persian army, which always included a fair number of Greek mercanaries, involved an asymmetical battle line, which showed Alexander's confidence in the Macedonian battle tactic, and his father's wedge attacking style.  In each of the three battles against an overwhelmingly superior Persian army, the impenetrability of the sarissa armed Macedonians and the ability of the Macedonian cavalry to exploit weaknesses in the enemy's battle lines carried the day.

These topics and all of Alexander's battles, politcal intrigues, and his far thinking plans for his empire are presented in a very enjoyable style.   I'd highly recommend this book.  

Ancient Amplifier and Speaker Used in 512 BC

The Greek historian Herodotus tells of a Persian siege of a Greek colony called Barcus, in North Africa, in 512 BC.  During the siege the Persians would tunnel under the city walls, hoping to fill the tunnel with firewood, and when ready the fire in the tunnel would burn the wooden support bracing holding up the tunnel, and the tunnel would collapse, and hopefully the wall above it would also collapse. 
 

This graphic shows typical bronze shields used by the Greeks.  

A bronze worker in the city devised a method of detecting the location of hostile tunneling, using a bronze shield "covered over with bronze."  Maybe that means they stretched a thin layer of bronze over the back of the shield, to amplify any vibrations as sound.  If so, this would be an ancient world speaker, or amplifier. 

The defenders of the city would carry the speaker around the wall, and "applied it to the ground".  When the shield was near active tunneling activity, the shield made a sound.  The defenders of Barca then dug a tunnel from their side, and entered the tunnel and slayed the Persian tunnelers.

Ancient Ceramic Archimedes Screw Found

Below is a picture of a strange technology, that maybe some smart person can identify.  This is what appears to be a clay or ceramic Archimedes Screw.  This is one of several pieces of the devices, which were bound together.  They were found on a bluff overlooking the Savannah river, about 10 miles upstream.  There  was a settlement of people from Austria in the area who immigrated to the region in starting in about 1730.   They made a settlement about 100 yards from the river.

By the shape of it I am guessing it is an Archimedes screw, presumably made to lift water.  How would something this heavy be supported for turning?  I wonder if anyone has heard of ceramic screws of this type being made in Austria or anywhere else?

Babylon

The Greek historian Herodotus visited the city of Babylon in 460 BC, after it had been conquered by the Persian Cyrus, and stripped or treasures, but when its walls and temples were still standing, and he described the largest city of the ancient world.  The entire city was enclosed within a wall from 14 to 10.5 miles on each side (depending on which ancient historian is referenced).   The river Euphrates passed through the city walls, and the brick lined channel was lined by waterfront, wharves, and docks along its length inside the city.   Each of the four walls were pierced by 25 fortified gates, each guarded by massive bronze gates, through which the 50 thoroughfares of the city passed, forming 625 regular city blocks, each of at least 100 acres.  The famous Ishtar Gate was a gated entrance to an inner wall in the city. 

The area inside the walls included gardens and farms, as well as buildings and a full size pyramid, all made of bricks and palm wood. The walls enclosed up to 196 square miles!  The step pyramid was the temple of Belus.  It was 600 feet on each side at the base, and rose to a height of 480 feet, which compares to the 481 feet of the Egyptian pyramid at Giza.  Stairs around the pyramid allowed worshipers to travel to the top, to place offerings at the temple there.  The view from the top of the city laid out below, with the river, parks, walls, the hanging gardens, and the surrounding agricultural areas would have been in incredible sight to visitors and residents of the great city.

The most impressive structure of the city might have been the outer walls.  Herodotus stated the walls were 85 feet wide, and 335 feet tall, topped by 250 defensive towers.  The top of the walls included a road wide enough that a four horse chariot could turn around on the road.   The top of the walls were the site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were watered by a "huge hydraulic machine, working after the manner of the screw of Archimedes", which drew water tot he gardens.  The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which are described in the following links. 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesis
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Pyramids of Egypt
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Lighthouse at Alexandria  

Stonehenge

It is a huge mystery how the ancient stone age Britains moved massive stones, and stood them upright.  This was done before metals were available, so only timbers, ropes, and stones were available as materials.  A man in Flint Michigan named Wally Wallington has demonstrated some ingenious techniques for moving huge stones, and he says Stonehenge could have been built with similar techniques.  He goes a step further and moves some big stones singlehanded.  The link to his movie is below:

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/moving_big_rocks/   

Speaking of Stonehenge, people might be interested to know there is a full size replica of Stonehenge in Washington, overlooking the Columbia River near Goldendale.  These pictures are of some neo-Druids from a few years ago.

The Three Hundred Spartans

A new movie looks pretty interesting, about the story of the 300 Spartans who fought Xerxes army of 1.7 million men.  The trailer to the movie "300" is here, and this is one I want to see.  Below is an update of a post on the subject, with new information added.

In 481 BC when the Persian king Xerxes was going to invade Greece for conquest, he assembled a huge army from his tributary states. They were so numerous that it was hard to count them. So they counted out 10,000 and had them stand in a densely packed circle. Then they built a waist high wall around them. Then they had the rest of the troops enter the walled circle until it was full, and called it 10,000 per filling. The Persian army filled the circle 170 times, for a head count of 1,700,000!!  Of these there were 80,000 cavalry, 20,000 charioteers and camel riders.

This was and is the largest army ever assembled in the history of the world.  The Persian army was made up of armies from each province or satrapy of the kingdom, and my theory of the purpose of the head count is that this technique was to verify the number of soldiers that each provincial governor said he had contributed, which might have been an inflated number.

This illustration from The History of the World, by Ridpath, 1915.  The Persian navy sailed through a specially built canal in the Athos peninsula which had been in preparation for three years. 

The Persians continued via a land march to the Pass of Thermopylae, where they were faced by 300 Spartans and 8700 Greek soldiers from allied cities.  These were an advance force representing the Greek cities, because troops from the other cities were occupied and could not assemble in time.  Xerxes demanded the surrender of the Greek force, proclaiming that the Persian arrows would fill the sky.  The king of the Spartans replied "Good, then we'll fight in the shade." 

The Spartans, including the king of Sparta, held off the Persians assaults one after the other, with great slaughter of Persians.  The Persians finally got through the pass, at a loss of 20,000 killed, and the Spartans killed to a man.  The Persians found a mountain trail around the pass, and assembled a force behind the Spartans lines, and attacked from both sides. Before the final assault the Spartans sent most of the other Greeks to rally the other Greeks to oppose the Persians, but all the Spartans stayed to face the final Persian assault, and perished.

One thing the Spartans did, besides buy time for the Greeks to get organized,  was to throw off the Persian plans.  Xerxes had spent years preparing for the invasion, and had filled vast stores of food warehouses along the route.  When a marching army of 1.7 million men has to stay in one place and be fed, that can be a logistical problem.

The Persians then met the Athenian fleet, who they greatly outnumbered.  The Athenian fleet mauled the Persian fleet, and the main force of the Persians returned to Persia, leaving an army of 260,000 to finish the conquest in the Spring.  They were routed by a Greek force of 108,000 soldiers at Platea. What the Greeks  had discovered was a new strategy of fighting, the phalanx, and they had perfected its use during decades of Greek against Greek warfare.