On Automata, or Self-Moving Machines

Around the times of Archimedes flourished Ctesibius, son of an Alexandrian barber, who—by that counterweight which he adapted in his father's shop to cause the mirror, when pulled down, to return upwards, as lamps do today in churches—penetrated with his genius, from the percussion of the air made by the counterweight in the channel where he had enclosed it, to the invention of pneumatic machines and hydraulic ones, that is, for raising water. He also found the Self-moving machines, such as water clocks and organs, and other delights of such kind. We find also that a Philo of Byzantium was excellent in this genre, of whom mention is made by Hero in these books. Shortly after him flourished our Hero, after whom, from hand to hand, wits have gone on refining themselves, and more things have been discovered little by little; for we do not find that our Author makes mention of toothed wheels, of pinions, of springs, of pins, of timing-devices, of worms, and of certain other small things, which are almost the soul and the perfection of these machines. I find, nonetheless, mention made of toothed wheels in Vitruvius as discovered by the same Ctesibius, by the motion of which he gave motion to small figures, to markers, and to other things of such kind; at which authority of Vitruvius others might marvel, not understanding in what manner, Hero having been a disciple of Ctesibius (as we shall show below), he did not speak a word of them; and they being such convenient things, he did not make use of them. Nonetheless, it is manifest by the testimony of Pappus that toothed wheels and pinions were known by Hero and by the others; and for this reason it is to be believed that in these machines, moved by some