Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Is it possible the ancient world had geniuses

greater than ours today?

RICHARD WINDLEY: The greatest scientific discoveries involve

huge leaps of imagination, but you

have to leap from somewhere.

NARRATOR: Who were these ancient geniuses,

and what did they create?

This thing can make water travel uphill.

NARRATOR: Were there really minds so great that they were

a match for Albert Einstein?

Monuments more colossal than our own.

Ancient super-weapons as mighty as today's.

Technology so precise it defies reinvention.

The ancient world was not primitive.

Their marvels are so advanced, we still use them now.

Travel to a world closer than we imagine-- an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.

Many consider Albert Einstein to be the greatest

mind of all time.

His discovery of the energy contained in the atom

led to the nuclear age.

His theories still resonate throughout modern science

and have influenced devices that are essential parts

of our everyday lives, including televisions, digital cameras,

and GPS.

But could thinkers over 2,000 years ago

have had equally revolutionary ideas?

Is it possible that our modern world

was created by ancient minds?

It was Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists

of all time, who famously said that if he'd seen further

than others, it was because he was standing

on the shoulders of giants.

But it was the ancient Greeks who were the real giants.

The ancient Einsteins and what they achieved

was truly staggering.

NARRATOR: Our search for these ancient Einsteins

begins at the greatest seat of knowledge and learning

in the ancient world--

the Library of Alexandria in Egypt.

It was here where the most amazing minds of the time

came to think, to imagine, to invent.

And it was here, 2,300 years ago,

where our first ancient genius came to work and study.

His name was Ctesibius, an ingenious inventor

who discovered something that is an integral part

of our modern world, the power of air.

Today, we use compressed air for all kinds of things.

We take it for granted.

When you fill your tires, you're using compressed air.

These modern racing cars depend on it,

but have you ever thought, who came up with this idea?

Thank Ctesibius.

These cars go over 200 miles per hour,

but they're not the fastest machines in the workshop--

far from it.

The turning speed is between 10,000 and 15,000 RPM,

so it's a seriously powerful [inaudible]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: And this power all comes from compressed air.

There's nothing more effective.

KARL UDE-MARTINEZ: To watch a pit crew work as they do,

changing the tires as quickly as possible using this technology,

is one of the most incredible sights.

It's amazing to think that the technology in this

was being used over 2,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: And it was Ctesibius who came up with the idea

in ancient Alexandria.

He discovered that air had mass and pressure.

This was a giant scientific leap,

much like Einstein's incredible insights into space and time.

But how did this little-known ancient genius

make this breakthrough?

It all started in a barber shop.

MICHAEL SCOTT: Ctesibius grew up as the son of a barber,

working in a barber shop.

And one of the things he seems to have invented early on

is a mirror that could be raised up and down to help

with the job of shaving people.

And that invention led him on to discover something else--

that when the mirror on its lead counterweight

moved up and down, there was this noise,

the noise of air as it escaped and rushed back into the casing

around the lead weight.

And that led Ctesibius to realize

that air was a substance.

Air was a thing that could be compressed

and which would expand.

NARRATOR: Ctesibius was quick to realize that compressed air

could be used as a source of power,

and that it could power water.

It wasn't long before he came up with this--

the water pump.

It was so ahead of its time.

It was a truly remarkable invention.

Today, we'd basically call this a two-cylinder

reciprocating force pump.

To explain it, I'll probably turn it around,

and we can actually see the mechanism.

As the piston comes up, the suction draws in water

through this bottom flap valve.

Then on the downstroke, the force of the pressure

closes the bottom flap valve so the only place for the water

to go is through this orifice here and into the receiving

chamber through another valve.

NARRATOR: The other piston is doing exactly the opposite.

As the one on the left is filling, the one on the right

is pushing the water out.

And with constant pumping, a continual flow of water

is forced from the receiving chamber

up through a nozzle at the top.

Incredibly, Ctesibius's water pump was the world's first fire

engine.

In Alexandria, it was rushed out in emergencies

all over the city.

RICHARD WINDLEY: It seems very effective.

I think it would be useful in a fire.

It would certainly enable a jet of water to get where people

couldn't.

NARRATOR: In the ancient world, a directed jet

of water like this was something new and amazing.

But after the Romans, the firefighting water pump

disappeared.

The idea was lost.

And it's not until the 15th century that it's reinvented.

It's amazing to think the fire engine was invented over 2,000

years ago.

And thanks to Ctesibius, today we

still fight fires in the same way.

But for Ctesibius, this was just the beginning.

Like all geniuses, his thinking knew no limits.

MICHAEL SCOTT: Well, Ctesibius was one of the paid

intellectuals in Alexandria, and he

was part of a select group that were really pushing

the boundaries in all sorts of areas-- in astronomy, in maths,

in geography, in history.

And they were all being paid by Ptolemy II, who

was keen to have his own reputation imbued

with the amazing-ness of these people's discoveries.

NARRATOR: Ctesibius began to wonder.

He had learned how to manipulate air pressure.

Now could he do the same with water?

2,000 years before Einstein's own investigations,

he decided to try to crack one of the most difficult

questions.

What's the time?

This was going to be Ctesibius's greatest achievement.

His goal was to invent, for the first time, something that

would accurately tell the time.

NARRATOR: Sundials were useless at night,

or when it was cloudy.

And for the Greeks, it was most important to measure time

inside, especially in the law courts.

Justice depended on giving lawyers equal amounts of time.

We know from, say, ancient Athens

in the 5th and 4th century, BC.

In the law courts, they'd had a kind of a water clock.

Now this was a very simple invention where you had

a bucket full of water with a hole in the bottom,

and the water went out to a bucket that was lower down.

When the bucket was empty, the lawyer's time

was said to be up.

NARRATOR: But there was a problem.

As the height of the water changed,

it didn't run out at a steady rate.

Ctesibius came up with a brilliant answer,

and he changed the history of timekeeping forever.

He took clocks from a couple of buckets to this.

Something intricate, remarkable, and completely groundbreaking--

the first ever accurate and fully automatic clock.

Now what Ctesibius did is particularly cunning.

He makes sure that the height of water in this chamber

never changes.

NARRATOR: Ctesibius did this by continually feeding water

to the top and attaching an overflow pipe.

The water then flowed into a second chamber, which

would rise at a steady and precise rate,

allowing time to be measured accurately.

This was genius, but Ctesibius still wasn't happy.

The second chamber had to be emptied when full,

and he wanted a clock that would run and run.

Surely, this was impossible.

What he did was, he fitted a siphon to the system,

and this may well be the first time a siphon was ever

fitted to a machine.

NARRATOR: With a siphon, the clock emptied and reset itself

automatically.

This was revolutionary.

The world had never seen a machine like this before.

But there was still one remaining problem.

The Greeks divided the daylight hours into 12,

so their hours were shorter in winter than in summer.

Even our modern clocks would struggle with that.

Using a water wheel and a series of cogs,

a cylinder turned a tiny amount every day,

the hour lines becoming nearer or farther apart depending

on the time of the year.

The precision involved is simply astonishing.

MARTY JOPSON: So overall, Ctesibius's water clock

ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

And for over 2,000 years, this was the most accurate clock

in the world.

NARRATOR: So all modern clocks, even London's Big Ben,

can trace their origins back to this incredible machine.

Now imagine what Ctesibius might have invented if he had been

alive in modern times with all the resources

that are available today.

Would he have been a match for Albert Einstein himself?

Ctesibius built the first accurate clock.

He built the first fire engine.

And of course, he discovered pneumatics.

That's why, for me, he is an ancient Einstein.

[music playing]

[music playing]

The ancient world had its colossal thinkers,

but could they have had minds to match Albert Einstein?

We are on a journey to find out.

Over 2,000 years ago, Ctesibius mastered the power

of air and water, and invented the first accurate clock.

And now we are about to meet another brilliant mind.

Many consider this man to be the father of robotics.

His name was Philon of Byzantium.

He was also known as Philo or Philo Mechanicus

because when it came to mechanics,

he was thousands of years ahead of the game.

RICHARD WINDLEY: Philon of Byzantium

was one of the most mysterious characters of antiquity.

We know very little about him, but what we do know

is that he was responsible for some of the most impossible

inventions of his day.

NARRATOR: We also know that Philon was drawn

to the library at Alexandria around the same time

as Ctesibius.

And it's here where he wrote his masterpiece, "A Compendium

Of Mechanics."

Most of this work has been lost, but we

know that Philon's brilliance in math and mechanics

led him to invent some of the most lethal weapons of the day,

like this repeating crossbow, an ancient machine gun.

He also worked out how to project huge missiles

from a catapult. But Philon is most famous for being

the inspiration for this.

Talking to me?

I'm the only one here.

NARRATOR: Machines like this can trace their origins

all the way back to Philon.

Meet Philon's maid, an automaton that could pour a goblet

of wine and mix it with water.

Is this the world's first robot?

The invention that really makes me think of Philo

as a hero of ancient engineering is his wine-pouring maid.

Now this was a device shaped like a woman

with an outstretched hand and holding a jug of wine.

Someone would come up and place their empty cup

in the outstretched hand, and under the force of gravity,

the hand would descend.

And through a series of very clever valves,

the air pressure inside of the device

would change, allowing wine and water

to be poured into the glass.

NARRATOR: The serving maid was built to astonish and amaze.

And at a dinner party in ancient Greece,

this was just what a rich host wanted.

It was a party piece like no other.

It had human characteristics and performed human tasks.

Guests to this dinner party had witnessed

history in the making.

They'd been given wine by the world's first robot.

And 2,000 years after Philon created the serving maid

for some wealthy client, we have brought the robot back to life.

RICHARD WINDLEY: I'm going to place the chalice in the hand,

and we'll see if it works.

NARRATOR: If it does work, first,

we'll get a precise measure of wine followed

by a precise measure of water.

Oh, there we go.

That's the start of it.

The wine stopped, and now there's the water.

There we go.

And it's stopped.

The cup would have then been taken out and handed

to an astonished and mystified guest.

NARRATOR: The wine is released into the goblet

by the movement of the arm.

And then, when the goblet reaches an exact weight,

the wine valve closes and the water valve

opens, diluting the wine, just how the ancient Greeks liked

it.

This was all incredibly sophisticated.

It seems likely that Philon learned from Ctesibius

about hydraulics and compressed air.

Then he took this engineering to amazing levels.

The idea that a piece of engineering

of this sophistication could actually

have been produced such a long time ago is stunning.

It's almost impossible for us to believe.

NARRATOR: But there's more to Philon than robotics.

He also invented incredible devices that

could astonish an audience.

The impact of one of them has resonated

through the centuries.

One of the inventions that I find most remarkable is

Philo's invention of the eight-sided ink pot.

And in each of these faces was drilled a hole.

Now you could take your quill and dip it into the top face

and get some ink out, but the remarkable thing about Philo's

eight-sided inkwell was that you could rotate it

around 360 degrees in any direction,

and no ink would spill out.

NARRATOR: This had never been seen before.

The magic lay in hidden suspended rings

with gravity holding the ink bowl level at all times.

Whoever owned this device would have had their guests

dumbfounded.

And over 2,000 years later, this invention

is in use in the skies all over the world.

It's the basis of an airplane's gyroscope, which shows a level

horizon to the pilot.

At night or in poor visibility, it's

the most important instrument in the cockpit.

All I can see is clouds.

My reference point's gone.

I'm flying blind.

Without this use of the gyroscopes,

we wouldn't be able to see how far we're pitching up

and how far we're turning.

We'd get completely disorientated.

We could either flip it or stall it.

Philon's mind was so ahead of his time.

There just wasn't the technology really to utilize it.

NARRATOR: In fact, the technology

involved in Philon's ink pot was used

in putting a man on the moon.

[music playing]

One of the frustrating things about studying Philo

is that so much of what he wrote has been lost.

We know the eight chapters in his "Compendium of Mechanics"--

this ancient textbook of engineering.

We know that only three survive.

It's this missing bit-- it's these extra five chapters

that we don't know about together

with what we know probably makes him

one of the great ancient engineers and a hero of mine.

NARRATOR: We can only imagine what

genius inventions of Philon have been lost to history.

What other mental leaps might he have

made that could have driven technology to new levels?

There are many great minds that we have to thank

for our modern technology--

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, and the man many

consider to be the greatest of them all, Albert Einstein.

Now we are on a quest to find the ancient Einsteins,

and this journey takes us straight to the amazing Library

of Alexandria in Egypt.

DARIUS ARYA: It wasn't just a library with books.

It was a center of innovation and technology.

It was the Silicon Valley of the ancient world.

NARRATOR: The ancient Greeks weren't so constrained

by religion, so philosophers and inventors

were free to think about how the world works.

And it's because of this that what we now call "science"

was born.

So they weren't just inventing things.

They were inventing the actual processes of science itself.

NARRATOR: After Ctesibius and Philon in the 1st century, AD,

another ancient genius worked at the library.

He was a native of Alexandria, and he taught math, mechanics,

pneumatics, and physics.

His name was Heron.

Could he be an ancient Einstein?

Heron certainly had a scientific mind.

He was a man of reason.

This is what the Greeks are famous for.

But they did have religion, and in fact, Heron

wasn't averse to making a tidy profit out of it.

Ancient Alexandria had hundreds of temples,

and they each competed with each other.

They wanted to get people in and take their money.

So how do you separate yourself from the crowd?

The priests always knew that they could rely on Heron

to come up with an ingenious idea.

He was the one who could think outside the box.

NARRATOR: Building on the work of Ctesibius

and especially Philon, Heron invented

incredible, mechanized models that were at the cutting

edge of technology.

Priests would demonstrate them in the temples

to show their godly powers.

An archer magically shooting his arrow

at a hissing dragon, a brass horse that

appeared to drink water, dancers revolving around a fire--

these were sure signs that the gods were present.

RICHARD WINDLEY: So Heron was very much

like a modern-day stage magician in Las Vegas,

achieving what was seemingly impossible.

NARRATOR: Many inventions seem extraordinary at the time--

television, the electric light bulb.

Can you imagine in the 20th century

coming across automatic doors for the first time?

They were magic.

Now, imagine coming across them 2,000 years ago--

surely impossible.

But Heron did the impossible.

Incredibly, he invented automatic doors

over 2,000 years ago.

This was one of the most remarkable pieces of technology

of ancient times.

Amazingly, the world's first automatic doors

were on an ancient Greek temple, and they appeared

to be opened by the gods.

DARIUS ARYA: I'm at the temple of Serapis in Ephesus,

and this is a massive doorway to this temple.

Now with a doorway also come massive doors.

You can see one of the sockets, how it swings open right here.

Now Heron took such a setting like this

and did something incredible.

NARRATOR: Heron realized that if you heat air, it expands.

This is a huge development to Ctesibius's discovery

that air was a substance.

And expanding hot air could be used to push water,

just like the compressed air of the water pump.

And it's this that lies behind the magic

of the automatic temple doors.

Heron's automatic doors are a work of absolute genius.

The priest lit a fire.

Now the worshippers couldn't see,

but that fire started to heat a tank of water.

The water would boil, create steam, which would push through

into a second tank, which would force water through a pipe

into a bucket.

The bucket was attached by a series of ropes and pulleys

to the door.

So as the bucket filled and fell, the doors would open.

The worshippers would be absolutely amazed.

They think that the gods themselves

have opened the temple doors.

They flood in awe-inspired.

DARIUS ARYA: The gods have given a sign.

This is a moment of epiphany.

This is a religious experience.

It's so incredible, and you can't quite

figure out how it happens.

It must be the gods that are responding.

It's that kind of innovation that Heron is famous for.

He makes the automatic door 2,000 years ago.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Today, we take automatic doors for granted,

along with lots of other so-called modern inventions.

But Heron didn't stop there.

Just like Ctesibius and Philon, he

was always looking to push technology forward.

His mastery of weights, pulleys, and the flow of water

led to his next invention, which was so ahead of its time

it wasn't until the 20th century that it became commonplace--

a coin-operated machine.

Incredibly, even back then, you could take a coin,

place it into a machine, and this machine would dispense

you a cup of holy water.

It's a precursor to the vending machine.

You basically come up to this machine, put in a coin,

and it releases the holy water.

After the coin drops through, the water closes a valve,

and the water stops.

So you've got everybody happy.

You've got the temple-goers getting

the water and the temple getting the money.

It's that kind of complex solution

to a complicated situation that shows that Heron is a genius

and basically inventing the vending machine 2,000

years ago.

NARRATOR: It's amazing to think that there

were coin-operated vending machines in ancient Alexandria.

The discoveries of Albert Einstein

are amazing and awe-inspiring, but could there

have been ancient Einsteins?

Astonishingly, the technology of the ancient world

is just as incredible.

And just like today, some of the most advanced technology

was used to entertain.

The Greek inventor, Heron of Alexandria, was a showman.

If he could amaze an audience with a spectacular display,

then there was money to be made.

In modern times, it's movies that have given us

drama and spectacle.

But the great directors of the 20th century

owe their craft to Heron.

Heron was just as much the inventor, the showman,

the creator of magic.

And it could have been at this theater

in Alexandria, where Heron put on a show like no other.

DARIUS ARYA: Heron of Alexandria is quite the innovator,

but he also has a flair for spectacle, putting

on a good show.

NARRATOR: Heron created an automated theater, the first

in history.

Once running, it didn't need anyone to touch it.

It's believed that the show ran for 20 minutes.

It was new.

It was incredible, and it left its audience dumbfounded.

Basically, he has a bunch of figures that have

pre-programmed moves.

How does he do this?

With ropes and coils, everything's spun and wound up

and ready to go.

When he sets off a button, off goes the entire spectacle.

Off goes the entire play.

You've never seen anything like it.

You can't figure out how it was done.

This is the innovation.

This is the spectacle of Heron the innovator.

NARRATOR: The word "cinema" comes from the Greek

for "movement," so Heron's theater was truly

a cinematic marvel.

But there was more to Heron than the showman.

He was fascinated by technology for its own sake.

His most incredible discovery wasn't used in the theater.

In fact, it wasn't put to use in any way at all.

But today, it powers these launching mechanisms.

RICHARD WINDLEY: We may attribute the invention

of steam power to the Industrial Revolution a couple hundred

years ago.

But like many modern inventions, it's

really more of a rediscovery.

NARRATOR: This intriguing copper ball is known as an aelopile.

It may not look like much, but it

could spin at an incredible 1,500 reps per minute.

This was the world's first steam engine.

Before me is Heron of Alexandria's ball of wind,

what many consider to be the first true steam

engine predating the Industrial Revolution by 1,800, 1,900

years.

NARRATOR: The cauldron is airtight and filled with water.

A fire underneath heats the water, creating steam.

The steam has nowhere to go but up into the ball

and out through the two opposing nozzles.

Then, the power of the jets of steam gets to work,

forcing the ball to spin on its axis.

So now, the flame is heating the cauldron

and the water trapped inside.

Once it's hot enough, we'll then have steam.

We'll start to see those gases come out of these nozzles

right here.

And then once that pressure builds up high enough,

we should then have rotation.

The fact that Heron was able to get this

to work 2,000 years ago makes me compare him to Albert Einstein.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Imagine if this technology had

been put to use by the Greeks.

History would not have been the same.

In fact, imagine where we might be today

if we'd had an Industrial Revolution 2,000 years ago.

Automatic doors, the first steam engine--

working within the limits of his day,

Heron must have had an amazing mind.

Heron of Alexandria didn't have the tools or the knowledge

of modern engineers, but his inventions were incredible.

His machines were the wonder of Alexandria.

Like any genius, Heron was way ahead of his time.

But just imagine what he could have achieved

in our world of high-powered computers and nuclear energy.

We are on a search for the greatest

minds of the ancient world.

Were their minds as brilliant as Albert Einstein's

2,000 years ago?

So far, we've met three towering figures.

But there's still one more who looms above them all--

Archimedes.

Could he be the greatest mind in history?

Archimedes has always fascinated me.

I think that genius is a very overused word,

but there is absolutely no doubt that Archimedes was a living,

breathing genius.

RICHARD WINDLEY: Archimedes is still thought of today

as one of the greatest inventors of all time.

And this is even more impressive when

we consider that he was the very earliest of all

our ancient Einsteins.

NARRATOR: Archimedes was born in Syracuse on the island

of Sicily in 287 BC.

Has any greater man been born since?

So much of modern science begins with him.

The greatest scientific discoveries,

like Einstein's theory of relativity,

involve huge leaps of imagination.

But you have to leap from somewhere.

Archimedes set the mark.

Archimedes laid the foundations.

Archimedes was not just a mere genius.

He was the greatest mind in the ancient world.

NARRATOR: So what did Archimedes do that was so special?

Like Leonardo da Vinci, he had an incredible imagination.

He dreamt up terrifying weapons like the death ray, which

used the power of the sun; a candidate

that used the power of steam; immense catapults

to attack enemy ships; and a giant claw that would pull them

from the sea.

But his greatest legacy is giving us

inventions that are not only still in use,

but help run our modern world.

So much of our everyday, modern technology

can be traced back to Archimedes.

Take the screw, for example.

It looks so simple, but it was revolutionary.

There had never been anything like it.

And this model shows how the Archimedes' screw could

do something miraculous.

This thing can make water travel uphill.

NARRATOR: The world had never seen anything like this before.

It seemed to go against all the laws of nature.

The genius was in its simplicity.

You turn the handle.

Because you're churning the water down at the bottom,

it really is just simply winding the water up the mechanism.

It's a very simple device, but it's a really beautiful one.

NARRATOR: The Archimedes' screw was a revelation.

It meant bilge water could be pumped from ships,

enabling them to travel farther.

It meant fields could be irrigated like never before.

This was ancient technology at its best.

And the incredible thing is that this exact mechanism

is still being used today.

NARRATOR: Windsor Castle, one of the official residences

of the queen of England.

What does a place like this got to do with Archimedes?

Most of the electricity for the castle

comes from a surprising source.

Less than a mile away is the River Thames,

and here in the 21st century are Archimedes screws in action.

They are just like the screws used by the ancient Greeks,

but with a twist.

DAVID DECHAMBEAU: The Archimedes' screw

that we're using today is virtually the same as it's

always been for 2,000 years, but just a little bit different.

Rather than using them to pump water up out of a river

and to a field, we now turn them in the opposite direction,

allow the power of the water turn a gearbox and a generator.

So now instead of pumping water, these screws

are using the power of the water to actually generate

electricity.

[music playing]

BETTANY HUGHES: So every time the queen

switches on a light switch or snuggles up next to a radiator

or even turns on the telly, she is benefiting from one

of Archimedes' inventions.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Archimedes was known as the great geometer,

the master, and the wise one.

But was he as brilliant as Einstein?

Our journey into the ancient world

has led us to some staggering intellects,

astonishing inventors, and eventually, to the greatest

of them all, Archimedes.

The Archimedes' screw is his most famous invention,

but there was no end to his genius.

If anyone in history is a match for Albert Einstein,

then surely it would be Archimedes.

BETTANY HUGHES: Archimedes was a brilliant inventor

and a mathematician.

He says to the people around him, don't just

live in the lap of the gods.

Don't be dominated by Mother Nature.

You, as a man, can take control of your own destiny.

NARRATOR: And in discovering fundamental laws of nature,

Archimedes led the way, and in doing so, changed the world.

BETTANY HUGHES: He didn't just invent

things that changed his world.

They're things that have changed our world, too.

NARRATOR: Archimedes lived for invention.

According to legend, nothing could

get between him and his work, and sometimes he would even

forget to eat.

Ideas would come to him at any moment,

and he would scribble them on any available surface.

Famously, he was in the bath when he discovered the laws

of buoyancy, leading him to run naked through the streets,

shouting, "eureka!"

Perhaps he was the world's first mad scientist.

He certainly had a brilliant mind.

It's because of his huge advances in math

that the Greeks went on to become

such incredible inventors.

His own inventions can seem simple to us today,

but that's because they've become so much

a part of our world we often take them for granted.

And one, just as important as the screw,

we've come to depend on.

In a stroke of genius, Archimedes

invented the pulley system.

Before Archimedes, lifting heavy weights

depended on muscle power alone.

That was a big problem in the ancient world.

To lift a ton would take 40 men.

How could one man do the job of 40?

Surely, it was impossible.

But not for Archimedes.

[music playing]

Now in every workshop or factory,

the legacy of Archimedes' discovery is all around.

Galileo, another brilliant mathematician and engineer,

called Archimedes "superhuman."

But thanks to Archimedes, any man can be a superman.

Any man can single-handedly lift a car.

And here in Hereford, England, we're

going to put that to the test.

Archimedes-- he got it.

He realized there was a problem.

So he came up with a very simple, but very clever,

system of the block and tackle.

NARRATOR: Archimedes worked out that using a pulley

made it considerably easier to lift a heavy weight.

And using two joined together made it twice as easy.

When I pull down here, how easy is that?

Because this weight is now divided between a number

of different lines.

And, all right, I have to pull quite a long way

to take it off the ground, but this is the principle

of a block and tackle--

lifting heavy weights very easily.

This is what I'm going to be using to lift the car.

NARRATOR: The more pulleys are combined

and the longer the total length of rope,

the more weight can be lifted by one man.

There's a story that goes, to prove this,

he single-handedly pulled a ship up onto the beach.

I believe it.

He could do it.

NARRATOR: A similar principle lies behind the lever.

The longer the lever, the less force is needed.

In fact, Archimedes said that with a lever long enough,

one man could lift the weight of the Earth.

We can't put that theory to the test,

but we can see what's possible for one man

to achieve with just a few pulleys.

Whoa, whoa.

You promised me a small car.

All right.

Gloves.

[grunting]

It's moving, but it's not leaving the ground.

All right.

Archimedes said, heavy weights, more pulleys.

I've got some more pulleys.

Here we go.

I've got my pulley set here, which is another 4 to 1,

which means instead of 400 pounds, if I pull on this,

100 pounds should go up in the air.

Archimedes would be proud of me.

Here we go.

[music playing]

It may have been more than 2,000 years ago that Archimedes

had his flash of genius.

The technology still works.

That car weighs more than a ton, and it's in the air.

One man.

Well done, Archimedes.

NARRATOR: "Eureka" means "I have found it."

And it could be argued that Archimedes found out

more than anyone else before or since.

And we can only guess at what he might have gone on

to achieve had he lived longer.

Tragically for all of us, he was cut down by a Roman soldier

because he refused to stop working.

As a historian, I have so much respect for Archimedes.

And he's one of these people that I would just

love to have met for one hour.

He was stimulating.

He was intriguing.

And above all, he had a brilliantly original mind.

NARRATOR: So brilliant and so original that it's strongly

suspected he was behind what's been called the world's

first computer, an unbelievably advanced calculating machine.

It could only have been created by a genius and possibly

the most incredible mind in history.

And that's why some attribute it to Archimedes.

It is one of the greatest what-ifs of history.

If Archimedes hadn't been killed before his time,

what could he have achieved?

The Industrial Revolution could have happened 2,000 years

earlier.

He might have kick-started the modern age.

And I'm sure he would have created worlds

that we can't even imagine.

And that is why he is my ancient Einstein.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: We can only imagine what inventions of Archimedes

have been lost to history.

Much of his work, like that of our other ancient geniuses,

was written on scrolls and kept at the Library of Alexandria.

In 48 BC, when Julius Caesar was attacking the city,

it's thought that much of the Great Library

was destroyed by fire.

What other works of genius were destroyed?

We'll never know.

There may even have been ancient geniuses

of whom we know nothing.

Is it possible that one day we'll discover

a new ancient Einstein?

From what we do know, it's clear that

the ancient Greek inventors were all extraordinary men.

They began modern science over 2,000 years ago.

They were truly ancient Einsteins.