What could Heron's steamship have been like?
"Heron's Steamboat" - illustration by Angus McBride
“…or unknown newly created fierce beasts, or breathing fiery breath, or spewing clouds of smoke…”
The Book of Wisdom of Solomon, 11:19
The Book of Wisdom of Solomon, 11:19
Alternative story The ancient world in artistic images and paintings. Today we will skip the artistic part of our story, but we will tell you, dear readers of VO, about two things at once: the possible appearance of Heron’s hypothetical “steamboat” and how, if you wish, to make its model.
Let's start with the fact that Heron's "turbine" was high-speed and could make up to 3500 revolutions per minute. In any case, this is what modern models of Heron's sphere, built according to his drawings, do. This means that paddle wheels cannot be installed on the axis of the sphere, which is also a branch pipe for feeding steam from the boiler. And if so, then the drawing by the famous English illustrator Angus McBride can hardly serve as a basis for a model of "Heron's steamboat", since it is too fantastic. This means that our task is to "reduce the fantasy", but "add realism". But is it possible to do this?
In principle, this is possible if... the ball rotating due to the reactive force is placed in the ship's hull not across, but along, and only on one branch pipe, which should also be the axis of its rotation. The axis itself should come out of the ball on the opposite side - and it is on it that you can install a bronze "worm" that engages with a large-diameter gear mounted on the shaft of the paddle wheels. The force transmitted by the ball will immediately increase sharply, so that with such a device, the steam turbine, in theory, could well rotate the paddle wheels. Although, of course, everything needs to be calculated here. But this is precisely what we will not do, but simply assume that this system will be operational.
The steam boiler and the hearth underneath it should be located inside the body. Ordinary firewood could serve as fuel, but it can be assumed that in this case, artificial air could be used to intensify combustion in the hearth. Since bellows for supplying air to smelting furnaces had long been used at that time, and besides, the burning firewood could also be doused with some kind of oil.
An aeolipile wheel positioned lengthwise would spray superheated steam over the entire deck. But if it were positioned transversely, its zone of influence would be relatively narrow, so that it would be quite possible to isolate the crew from it with shields made of metal, say, bronze sheets.
It is clear that the worm gear would only work to move the ship forward. In battle, therefore, ancient ships rammed each other. But how could one move back after ramming, having such an engine on board? To do this, it would be necessary to turn off the paddle wheel drive, without “turning off” the rotating ball itself. This can be done quite easily by making the steam supply pipe to the ball rotatable, and the shaft with the “worm” long enough and resting on some well-oiled support.
It would be enough to turn this shaft together with the ball to the left or to the right, as the teeth of our worm gear would disengage, after which the paddle wheels would immediately stop rotating. True, in this case, oars and rowers would have to be used for reversing, but they would be quite capable of developing the maximum possible rowing speed and quickly moving the "steamboat" away from the ship it had rammed, after that... rest again - and so on until the next ram. Well, and sailing in the usual mode could well be done under sails, which most often happened, while rowers were usually used in battle.
Of course, it would have been necessary to figure out how to control the shaft of the rotating ball, to move it and push it onto the gear on the shaft of the paddle wheels. But, I think, there would have been nothing particularly complicated in this for the mechanics of that time. After all, they made the "Antikythera mechanism", and the gears in it are much more delicate than those that could have been on "Heron's steamboat".
Well, now we will tell you how to make a model of this hypothetical “steamboat”, which can become both an excellent pastime, and as its result an equally interesting souvenir, and… a visual aid for the history classroom. The assembly model is produced “tank Leonardo da Vinci”, although in the form in which he drew it, it is also… completely inoperative.
Let's start with the fact that the basis for such a ship at that time could well have been a monera - a Roman warship with one row of oars, each of which was rowed by several people. The basis of the hull of such a ship is a semi-cylinder with added sides, which greatly simplifies the manufacture of the model.
The skeleton of the middle part of the ship
The part shown in our photo can be made from anything, including packing cardboard and cut strips of thick paper. The outside of the frame is pasted with two rows of coffee stirrer sticks using PVA glue. Then all internal fastenings except the end bulkheads are removed, after which the hull is pasted from the inside with strips of veneer 2 mm wide.
Plasticine extremity shapes
The ends of the bow and stern are easier to mold from plasticine, then freeze them in the refrigerator and, having greased them with oil, fill them with melted paraffin. In this way, we will get four forms into which we will need to press self-polymerizing clay (sold in the same Leonardo stores) and leave until it hardens completely. The finished ends are glued together, after which they are glued to the middle part of the hull.
The middle part of the body with the ends made of self-polymerizing clay. The inner lining of the body is clearly visible
And this is the hull sheathing with slats from the outside
It is best to paint the sheathed hull with "Wood Oil with Wax"
This coating allows you to get a very beautiful texture and rich color!
The steam boiler is half a wooden ball, painted bronze. The hearth is the same self-polymerizing clay…
And this is what our steam turbine will look like. The tanks, the pipes from which go to the furnace, can be intended for liquid oil
Our body is gradually acquiring details...
And this is... firewood! Thinly chopped branches!
Main deck
Paddle wheels and paddle wheel housings
The details of the battle towers, as well as the paddle wheels, are cut from 1 mm thick polystyrene on a CNC wall. However, they are not at all difficult to cut from thin cardboard, even greeting cards and tea boxes! On the finished towers, strips of veneer imitate bronze sheets…
The fully assembled hull of the ship before painting. Note the "bronze sheets" of the aeolipile fence and... the firewood stacked next to them.
Fully assembled and painted model with mast and sails installed
Top view. The stand is a piece of chipboard covered with strips of veneer. The decking is varnished. The railings and hull parts are acrylic paint in red and blue.
On the sail is the emblem - the Greek letter "gamma" with wings under the name of the ship - "Heronia"
The model stands themselves are cardboard cones cut out of egg cartons, filled with epoxy resin and painted to look like bronze. The oars are Chinese toothpicks. The railings are glued together from 2x2 mm slats. The beautiful curls on the bow bulwark are cut out of a polystyrene fan, just like the parts of the New Year's carriage, which was already mentioned here. It seems completely impossible to draw the eyes on the bow by hand. But they can be ordered from a printing house that makes iron-on stickers, and transferred into place using a soldering iron set to the lowest heat.
It is clear that if this were a real ship, it would be possible to find fault with it and find fault with it – and this is not so, and the other is not… so. But it should be considered precisely as an illustration of what we call a “flight of fantasy”, nothing more. Well, and for children, when they study Greek culture as part of a school textbook and get acquainted with Archimedes, it would not hurt at all to also see Heron’s aeolipile and even fantasize on the topic: “And what could his ship actually look like if it had been built?”
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