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.