The Water Screw, ARCHIMEDES (287 - 212 B.C) Options

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ARCHIMEDES: THE WATER SCREW (287 - 212 B.C)



The discovery of the water screw (atermon cochlea), commonly ydrobida or “Archimedes screw”, it was a simple but also very important invention that contributed in the resolution of many daily and practical problems. Undeniably, inventor of this particular screw was, Archimedes many philological reports certifying it, as an example is the one of Moschion in his work “Athenaeus,Dipnosophistae” declares that in order Archimedes launch “Syrakousia” he manufactured the water screw.
“Syrakousia” was a gigantic boat that had manufactured the architect Archias from Corinthus for the tyrant of Syracuses Ierona B' (270-216 B.C). In the text of Moschion is described with details the particular boat. Unfortunately, the original text of Moschion was lost, but rescued summary of his description by the Athenian. In the Athenian¢s summary Archimedes is reported three times for three different inventions by referring the boat, between which they were also the water screw: “….The pump (that it drew impure waters from the depth of boat) although it had big length however it was operating by one man man via a cochlea, which was invented by Archimedes….”. The invention attribute in Archimedes so much Agatharchides the Knidian (180 - 116 B.C) according to Diodoros the Sikelian, as Posidonios from Apamia too, according to Stravon.
Concretely, Agatharchides the Knidian marks: “… the persons irrigate the whole region via a machine, that invented Archimedes the Syracousian, and because of its form was named cochlea (snail)”. Stravon, while he was referring in theroman mines of Spain and in the efforts that became for their desiccation, he stresses that they used for this purpose the egyptian cochleas that had been invented by Archimedes when he had visited Egypt. Other sources that certify the fatherhood of the cochlea are the reports in the manuscript of the ancient writers such as: Diodoros, Eustathios], Filon of Alexandrian, Filon of Byzantium, Stravon, Vitrouvios, Psellos
The reason (as it was mentioned before) for the invention of the screw was given to the great mathematician when he visited Egypt after having been invited by Ptolemaio B¢ the Filadelfo. In Egypt he was inspired the cochlea and manufactured it in his effort to help the villagers to draw water from Nile.
Soon enough the use of the Archimedes¢ screw expanded in whole Mediterranean even in Near East and was maintained for a lot of centuries without improvements. In certain regions of Northern Africa it continues be used up to our days, for instance in Egypt. The spread of the use of Archimedes was due to the fact that the Roman Empire, via the peace that ensured in the territories that it had conquered, facilitated the exchange of informations as precisely it happened and later with the conquest of the North-African coasts and a part of Europe from the Arabs. This explains the appearance and use of the cochlea up to Middle Ages in many regions of Europe.
The name “cochlea” is owed to the drawing, the form of the screw, that resembles with the nutshell of a snail (cochlea/êï÷ëßáò in greek language). With the name “cochlea”, it was also transported in the Latin language as coclea-cochlia, while very often was called as “elix” (coil) too. We meet this instrument in the Greek papyruses that have been saved, with different names, for example instrument (üñãáíïí), wooden instrument (îõëéêüí üñãáíïí) , kikleutirion (êõêëåõôÞñéïí), pigmata (ðÞãìáôá), valani (âÜëáíïé), kykleutis (êõêëåõôÞò), while its operators were called organistai (ïñãáíéóôáß), kykleutai (êõêëåõôáß)...

Due to the perishable materials of its manufacture it has limited in minimal the archaeological discoveries of cochlea. Nevertheless exist elements so much from representations as from modern uses that remained immutable in the pass of centuries. In a fresco of Pompei we see the representation of an egyptian cochlea that can be dated in 80 B.C approximately. This representation and the two terra-cottas of Hellenistic period (that there are, the one in the British Museum and the other in the Archaeological Museum of Cairo) show us the way in which was used the cochlea: a person supported in a horizontal beam that was between two vertical pillars moved with his legs the cochlea, that was in horizontal place. This way of use was for the transport of water from a horizontal point to another, otherwise any bent of cochlea did not allow the “by the foot” rotation of the machine.


Due to the fact that cochlea was used in almost all the Mediterranean and was maintained identical for many centuries, we find even today, this machine, to be used in its initial form in countries of North Africa and mainly in Egypt. The extensive use and spread of cochlea, that is dated by 220 B.C, it is owed mainly (as it was mentioned before) in the fact that the roman empire incorporated in its conquests almost all the Mediterranean facilitating in that way the exchange of information and knowledge. The same happened later with the arabic spread that reached up to Spain and because of which we find the cochlea to be used in many European regions until the end of Middle Ages, but also much later in 1475, when we discover desiccative windmills with Archimedean cochleas to be used in the Holy Land.


In the arabic conquest of Spain we should attribute the presence of many of the archimedean cochleas in mines of Iberian peninsula for instance in the regions Linares Posadas, Sotiel Coronada, Cordoba … For the use of cochlea in the Spanish mines, is mentioned below, a description of the machine from Diodoros the Sikelian:

. . . "at a depth they sometimes break in on rivers flowing beneath the surface whose strength they overcome by diverting their welling tributaries off to the side in channels and what is the most surprising thing of all, they draw out the water of the streams they encounter by means of what is called by men the Egyptian screw, which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse at the time of his visit to Egypt; and by the use of such screws they carry the water in successive lifts as far as the entrance, drying up in this way the spot where they are digging and making it well suited to the furtherance of their operations. Since this machine is an exceptionally ingenious device, an enormous amount of water is thrown out, to one's astonishment, by means of a trifling amount of labour, and all the water from such rivers is brought up easily and from the depths and poured out on the surface...»


We also find this machine with certain variants for example: combined with a drawing machine it gives us the winch or we meet it to be used with the use of an additional foot-operated wheel.

Source : A.G. Drachmann, «The screw of Archimedes», 1956, vol.3, Vinci (Firenze) et Paris, 1958
J.G Landels, «Engineering in the Ancient World», London 1980
J.P Olenson «Greek and Roman Mechanical Water-Lifting Devises: The History of a Technology» University of Toronto Press 1984
Diodoros the Sikelian, Historical Library
T.A. Rickard «The Mining of the Romans in Spain», Journal of Roman Studies, 1928

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THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WATER SCREW


Below is mentioned the description of the Archimedes screw (cochlea) by Vitrouvio:

«1. There is also the method of the screw, which raises a great quantity of water, but does not carry it as high as does the wheel. The method of constructing it is as follows. A beam is selected, the thickness of which in digits is equivalent to its length in feet (note: Pous=0,296m. during the roman years. Daktylos=0,019m. Consequently the relation Pous - Daktylos it is roughly 15,58m. which means that If the length of joist is 5m. then the thickness is received 0,32m…. the international foot is defined to be equal to 0,3048m. so in 5m.=16,4041feet length the thickness is received 1,05 feet approximately).This is made perfectly round. The ends are to be divided off on their circumference with the compass into eight parts, by quadrants and octants, and let the lines be so placed that, if the beam is laid in a horizontal position, the lines on the two ends may perfectly correspond with each other, and intervals of the size of one eighth part of the circumference of the beam may be laid off on the length of it. Then, placing the beam in a horizontal position, let perfectly straight lines be drawn from one end to the other. So the intervals will be equal in the directions both of the periphery and of the length. Where the lines are drawn along the length, the cutting circles will make intersections, and definite points at the intersections.

2. When these lines have been correctly drawn, a slender withe of willow, or a straight piece cut from the agnus castus tree, is taken, smeared with liquid pitch, and fastened at the first point of intersection. Then it is carried across obliquely to the succeeding intersections of longitudinal lines and circles, and as it advances, passing each of the points in due order and winding round, it is fastened at each intersection; and so, withdrawing from the first to the eighth point, it reaches and is fastened to the line to which its first part was fastened. Thus it makes as much progress in its longitudinal advance to the eighth point as in its oblique advance over eight points. In the same manner, withes for the eight divisions of the diameter, fastened obliquely at the intersections on the entire longitudinal and peripheral surface, make spiral channels which naturally look just like those of a snail shell.

3. Other withes are fastened on the line of the first, and on these still others, all smeared with liquid pitch, and built up until the total diameter is equal to one eighth of the length. These are covered and surrounded with boards, fastened on to protect the spiral. Then these boards are soaked with pitch, and bound together with strips of iron, so that they may not be separated by the pressure of the water. The ends of the shaft are covered with iron. To the right and left of the screw are beams, with crosspieces fastening them together at both ends. In these crosspieces are holes sheathed with iron, and into them pivots are introduced, and thus the screw is turned by the treading of men.

4. It is to be set up at the inclination corresponding to that which is produced in drawing the Pythagorean right-angled triangle: that is, let its length be divided into five parts; let three of them denote the height of the head of the screw; thus the distance from the base of the perpendicular to the nozzle of the screw at the bottom will be equal to four of those parts.»

Source : Vitruvius «De Architectura» Book X, chapter VI