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Secondary sourcePainting

Éolipyle de Branca

Louis Figuier

A nineteenth-century engraving from Louis Figuier's history of science depicting Branca's steam device, a later invention linked to Hero's ancient ideas about steam power.

This engraving illustrates a later steam device often connected in popular science writing to Hero's early ideas about steam power.

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Black and white engraving of a bust-like figure of a bearded man with a steam jet from its mouth, a boiler-like wheel with a fire beneath, and a machine with a drum, gears, and posts on the right with lettered labels.
Louis Figuier, Éolipyle de Branca, engraving.

About this source

What it is

This engraving by Louis Figuier appears in his history of science and shows a steam-driven machine attributed to Giovanni Branca, featuring a bust-like figure with steam jetting from its mouth connected to gears and a boiler.

Why it matters

Figuier's book was part of a wave of nineteenth-century popular science writing that traced the history of inventions back to ancient figures like Hero of Alexandria. This image shows how later generations imagined and illustrated the links between ancient and modern technology.

Look closer

  • What details in the engraving emphasize the steam-powered action of the machine?
  • Why might Figuier have included this image in a book about the history of science?
  • How does this picture compare with how Hero's own, much older device might have looked?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hero of Alexandria on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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