Hero's Steam Turbine @grandillusions

Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com
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Hero's Steam Turbine is considered to be the first recorded steam engine or reaction steam turbine. The Greek-Egyptian mathematician and engineer Hero of Alexandria described the device in the 1st century AD, and many sources give him the credit for its invention. However, Vitruvius was the first to describe this appliance in his De architectura (ca. 30–20 BC).

It is a simple, bladeless radial steam turbine which spins when the central water container is heated. Torque is produced by steam jets exiting the turbine.

Although it demonstrated a principle, it is neither a practical source of power nor a direct predecessor of the type of steam engine invented during the Industrial Revolution.

$Tim Meets His Match! Visit Tims Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ Tim welcomes Gerard Darby again, who brings an array of items with him that are all made from items that are often discarded. A peacock made from old chewing gum wrappers. Normally these would just end up in the bin, but here someone has collected thousands of these paper wrappers, and created this amazing peacock. A couple of intriguing sculptures made from discarded Paris Metro tickets... Then some amazing playing cards that have been cut and folded by Angus Lavery into impossible looking structures... Finally some matches which have been used to make some incredible structures, just held together by fraction - no glue! Finally a matchstick sculpture that has been created inside a decanter. As Gerard says, all of these items are based on the principle of taking the ordinary and making something extraordinary...$

Grand Illusions Christmas Pack 2023/2024