![]() The model burst into flames after a few seconds. He redirected sunlight toward a mock plywood ship 200 feet away. In 1973, Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas performed an experiment in Skaramagas naval base near Athens using 7o copper-coated mirrors, the type that would have existed in Archimedes' day. ![]() One MIT team tried to ignite a mock wooden ship in 2005 but could only produce smoke. Researchers in the 20th century have tested whether such an ancient weapon was possible. Anthemius of Tralles first mentioned the use of mirrors only in the sixth century, and Tzetzes' account comes from the twelfth century. Lucian is the first to mention the weapon, but he wrote four centuries after the siege and was known as a satirist. Livy, Polybius, and Plutarch gave detailed descriptions of the Siege of Syracuse but make no mention of the heat ray. But is it fact or fiction? Historians note it is not recorded in the most ancient accounts of Archimedes' life. The Archimedes Death Ray makes for a thrilling account and depicts the Greek science as an ancient James Bond villain. He made the glass the center of the sun’s rays, successfully concentrating the energy into a beam and reducing ships to ashes. Archimedes set similar small mirrors with four edges, moving by links and a kind of hinge. The solar ray gained enough concentration to kindle a flame and burn the entire Roman fleet.Īccording to Byzantine author Tzetzes, he constructed a kind of hexagonal mirror and at an interval proportionate to the size of the mirror. The reflective surfaces concentrated the sun's rays on the wooden ships, building up to a primitive laser. Archimedes then roll out his pièce de résistance: a giant round mirror, flanked by smaller mirrors. The Sicilian mathematical genius first assaulted the Roman flotilla with catapults and enormous cranes equipped with grappling hooks. In 212 BC Rome had laid siege to Syracuse in the course of the Second Punic War. Archimedes Death RayĪccording to ancient accounts, Archimedes, already a famed inventor of the Mediterranean city-state of Syracuse, destroyed the naval might of the Romans with his ingenuity. The 3rd-century BC Greek scientist Archimedes once (allegedly) incinerated an entire Roman fleet using an array of mirrors to produce a death ray. That's not even the largest concentrated solar array in the ancient world. At least as far back as the Roman Empire, a primitive concentrated solar energy ovens were built with glass and polished metal. Solar energy is arguable the most primitive form of energy. Harnessing the sun, however, is nothing new. But did you know about the Archimedes Death Ray? ![]() It charges your Tesla, powers up your phone, and-as we love to point out at GoSun-cooks food quickly and easily. Solar energy is powering Planet Earth like never before. ![]()
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