hand held Hero's engine
Date1870-1930
Inventory Number1998-1-0072
ClassificationHero's Engine
Subject
Maker
American
?
Cultural Region
Dimensions19.5 × 8 × 44.5 cm (7 11/16 × 3 1/8 × 17 1/2 in.)
Material
DescriptionA rotor, consisting of two hollowed pipes, slightly bent, is connected to a sphere that would have contained water. A long handle was used to put the device over a heating source.
"HS" has been painted on a side sticker. There is also an old Harvard inventory number: "8.8.64" (?)
"HS" has been painted on a side sticker. There is also an old Harvard inventory number: "8.8.64" (?)
Signedunsigned
FunctionThis instrument, invented by Hero of Alexandria, is commonly described as the predecessor of the steam engine. Water would be poured inside the metallic sphere and then it would be heated. The steam produced by the heating of the water, having no where else to go, would come out of the hollowed pipes, which form a rotor. The pipes are bent in such a way that the vapor pressure coming out of the pipes would put the rotor in rotation.
For more information, go to the following website.
For more information, go to the following website.
Louis Heinrici
Date: 1876-1920
Accessories: small can of Sterno canned heat cooling fuel
Object number: 1998-1-0080
William N. Weeden
Date: circa 1885
Object number: 1998-1-0055
ECO Motor Industries Ltd.
Date: circa 1976
Accessories: box; brochure of <i>Stirling Hot Air Engine</i>
Object number: DW1978