Secondary sourceDocumentary25 August 2024

Recreation of Hero's Aeolipile Steam Engine

Andy George · 25 August 2024

A modern video documenting an attempt to rebuild and test the aeolipile, the steam device described by Hero of Alexandria.

This video tests a modern recreation of the aeolipile, the steam device attributed to Hero of Alexandria.

Ask Hero of Alexandria about this source View the original

"Recreation of Hero's Aeolipile Steam Engine," How To Make Everything, hosted by Andy George, 2024.

About this source

What it is

This 2024 video, created and hosted by Andy George for the channel How To Make Everything, documents an attempt to recreate Hero of Alexandria's aeolipile and test whether it could actually function as a working engine.

Why it matters

Hero of Alexandria is often credited with describing one of the earliest known devices that used steam to create motion. This video explores a popular historical question: whether the ancient world could have developed steam power into something like the industrial revolution. It reflects ongoing modern curiosity about ancient technology and its limits, rather than being a historical record itself.

Look closer

What does the video's creator hope to find out by rebuilding the aeolipile?
Why do you think the industrial revolution did not start 2000 years earlier, even though a steam device existed?
How is this experiment different from historical evidence about what Hero actually built?

This documentary 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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Manuscript page with Greek text in brown ink at top and bottom, and colored line drawings in the middle showing Hero's hydraulic bird-singing apparatus: several birds perched on pipes and arches, a tall cylindrical water vessel, a horizontal tank, and a bell-shaped weight on a chain.

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Pneumatica

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Page from a Greek manuscript showing a colored line drawing of a temple-like structure with columns, arches, and a dome-like roof, with hidden tanks and mechanisms below. Greek handwritten text fills the lower part of the page.

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Automata (Bacchus diagram)

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Painted miniature from a Greek manuscript: a bearded man with long grey hair in a golden-brown cloak extends his right hand toward the left, beside a dark archway. Red Greek lettering reads 'ΗΡΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟ' beside him.

Secondary source

Hero of Alexandria in the Codex of Saint Gregory Nazianzenos

Unknown author · 9th century AD

Illuminated manuscript page with colored design drawing of a large siege engine or cannon in red, blue, green and tan, with a vertical arrow-like beam at top, surrounded by Greek text in brown ink on parchment.

Secondary source

Belopoiika (design drawing of a siege engine)

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Title page of a 1589 Italian book, engraved in black and white with an ornate architectural border of columns, scrolls and a central medallion. Printed text reads Di Herone Alessandrino De gli automati, ouero Machine se moventi, libri due, tradotti dal greco da Bernardino Baldi, with a small shield reading In Venetia, appresso Girolamo Porro, 1589.

Secondary source

De gli automati, ouero Machine se mouenti

Hero : Alexandrinus · 1589

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