ANSWERS ACTIVITY 356

ANSWERS ACTIVITY 356

HERON OF ALEXANDRIA

Heron of Alexandria was one of the greatest of all time. He lived	INVENT

around AD 60 in Alexandria, Egypt, then the centre of discovery	SCIENCE

in the Greek and Roman world. Heron was skilled at designing	EXTREME

machines, some of which had practical purposes and others which	MARVEL

were created just to astonish. His inventions included birds which	MACHINE

sang, an solar-powered fountain and a coin-operated slot machine	AMAZE

which gave out holy water at temples. His most famous was the	CREATE

first steam engine. The engine could achieve the speed of 1,500	BELIEVE

revolutions per minute, but it was not very efficient. To generate	FORTUNATE

power equal to the of one man required an enormous amount of	STRONG

fuel. If he had not his health by doing dangerous experiments,	WEAK

Heron might have gone on to develop a better steam engine.