a correction: I misquoted heros dedcription of the castor wheel, what he actually described was a wheel in a small frame with a small axle, the axle he mentions might be for the wheel itself, and not actually for the frame to move on.
if u replaced the sand with greek fire it would make a pretty nasty weapon just program it to role at phalanx then light the greek fire trail once it was close and boom land based fire ship :P ps a tripod should be wider at bottom than top. if he called it a tripod im pretty sure he meant for it to have a ~20* or higher angle on the tripods legs. it would be a lot more stable if the base was wider than top/tripod shape
@@hamasmillitant1⚠️ God has said in the Quran: 🔵 { O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous - ( 2:21 ) 🔴 [He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him]. ( 2:22 ) 🔵 And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. ( 2:23 ) 🔴 But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.( 2:24 ) 🔵 And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom, they will say, "This is what we were provided with before." And it is given to them in likeness. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally. ( 2:25 ) ⚠️ Quran
bro they had gears. Power turns the small one connected to the big one with rope tied to the wheel. All this automaton technology and you missed gear ratios?
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307You may recall that these were made for entertainment purposes, both for the engineer, and an audience. Functionality is not the focus.
I am so glad the algorithm made me stumble upon this channel. It a beautiful mix between craftmanship and history made possible through the classic approach of manual labour. Great videos
Bro that is INSANE! Well done. A small robot from wood and copper, using principles of ancient Greece. That's nuts. I'm a blacksmith and i'm using a lot of ancient and sometimes forgotten techniques, such as making your own polishing compound at home, stuff like that. Ancient techniques are so simple, yet so effective. Congrats!
yeah it also shows we are just repeating the same actions for the last 3000yrs/casts further doubt on our free will :P i also like to play around with smithing, i suspect thats the tag the alg used to send me here, although it could have also been my interest in finding evidence that we have done all this before ad nausium with just small variations/updates on materials through the millenia
I've always been fascinated by automatons and other ancient attempts at "thinking engines". A machine acting under it's own power without the electrical components that are ubiquitous for our modern world is always an amazing feat of engineering. I would love to see more of Hero's automatons and other such inventions brought to life.
It really never ceases to amaze me how creative and curious these ancient mechanicians were. Always eagerly pushing the boundaries of their technology. Im working on more of Hero's devices at the moment! hopefully I'll have more videos on them soon :)
Well this channel is to those people with refined interests. There are not much subscribers for now. But I am eager to see your numbers grow. It will make me happy to see people not watching other unimportant things (reality shows alike) and instead see these interesting stuff. Keep up the good work ❤
My favorite thing about these videos is the historical anecdotes spread throughout the video. The mythological and historical background perfectly complements the construction process and makes the video far more interesting and entertaining to watch. Absolutely wonderful :) (And yes, you're seeing me a lot the last couple days. I *am* binging your whole channel. Great stuff! Let me know when you get a Patreon!)
Thank you so much! :) I greatly enjoy making these projects and it means alot to me to see them embraced by the community! I hope youll like the projects I have to come!
This is absolutely one of the most interesting things I've ever seen on UA-cam. The fact that the Greeks had access to simple gravity-powered technology like this, to the point that it was sufficiently advanced enough to appear as magic, is genuinely incredible. Thank you for taking the time to show this project, as well as educating people about a side of Greek history most people seem to gloss over.
Gotta say, this is therapeutic from beginning to end. Your narration of history while building & troubleshooting with resources at hand was a joy to observe. Our Grandpa b.1910, was a carpenter, I've fond memories of him patiently teaching a young me. Seeing the details you put into this made me gasp when it toppled, but be in ore when it worked !!
this is so amazing, though thousands of years separate people, we share the same hands, the same earth, from which to make our tools. trying to imagine these creations in how they would have been presented to their historical audience, and their delight and amusement, and the craftsman’s artistry, i mean, this is humanity! this is what history is about! thank you‼️‼️ i will be excited to see what’s next!
I normally skip over videos of this type because mainly the use of modern techniques and parts, which I find boring You on the other hand caught and held my attention, not only at your skills building from raw materials. But also your knowledge and narrative on the subject. It reminded me of watching my Grandpa working in his shop. He was a woodsmith from the old country(what he called home in Germany). He owned a sawmill (cut the wood for the Wright Brothers plane) he also made furniture and clocks. If he needed something, he made it! It's really impressive to see your valuable skill level at such a young age, gives me hope for the next generation! Bravo on your achievement! Thank you for sharing!
That was beautiful! I cannot even begin to describe my elation as your little automaton starting moving. What a magical moment... Amazing work, a truly captivating video!
Fraser reminds me a little of Max Miller's Tasting History, except it's technology. You learn about the process, the history, and usually the chemistry of these devices from the guy. Really outstanding work.
This was an absolutely amazing watch! I imagine you could construct an entire person looking robot with moving arms and blinking eyes and moving mouth if you hid the interior with cloth and had one common trigger for several mechanisms, might have to have something like a smooth marble floor in that case for it to look somewhat smooth with such weight but amazing to think that it was possible so far back.
I could easily see how the entire upper portion could become an hourglass as well, then the lower portion could catch the seeds, while all the strings run along the outer body, at least for a longer running version. So many ways this could have been used, I love it
It may have been implied in that time, but the various axles might benefit from a little grease, which the greeks had. It will tighten up the tolerances and reduce the friction. I would also experiment with adding extra weight to the body generally to see if that fixes the wheel lift issue at all. Also, see if a perfectly flat surface makes a difference. Great work!
I love your channel. Insight into a world I don’t know enough about. Wisdom of the ages. Tragedy that the library at Alexandria burnt down. How much wisdom did we loose? Nothing under the sun is new. Not our so called ”modern” technology. The more I learn the more I realise that. Exactly the opposite. The pyramids at Giza, with all the technology, all the heavy lifting by machines, we could not replicate it. We can learn so much, beyond our wildest dreams by learning from ancient civilisation. I am all ears to your channel now. Thank you for sharing.
I know this is late but you couldn't be more mistaken. Monkeys can literally stack rocks. We modern humans built the Burj Kalifa. We modern humans built a dam, The Three Gorges, so big it changed our planets spin rate. WE SLOWED OUR PLANET DOWN. What the Egyptians did is impressive to be sure but they had literally nothing but time. It took them 26 years to build ONE pyramid and all of that was built on what our predecessors did, but it's stacking rocks.
@@BiscuitWaite Most humans today are brainwashed to buy into the modern tech world, as well as being dummed down. Universities are the breeding grounds of conformity olthough they make themselves out to be the new creative intellectual wave. You are ignorant. End of discussion. Anything else, I mean facts, would lead this comment to be deleted. YT just pushes the same stupid agenda. The “new golden age” is upon us. Give me a break. Time on their hands, built by slave labour. Give me a break. LOL I will not be responding after this.
This video made me realise I should recontextualise the era this is from in my mind as one where people where people did a lot of experimenting with weird physics toys. Thanks!!
Truly amazing content. The time and effort gone into not only making it, but learning traditional methods of making is impressive. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your builds!
So you're just casually a woodworker, blacksmith, historian ans philosopher? Your work is amazing, your angles are even better. Love the hypothesis on the snails... one of the more fascinating takes on those appearances. Hope you find more about them. I'm in awe, but more so, much inspired.
Great video, the automaton looked extremely cool, I also really liked the small stories of greek mythos you had in the video. So all in all as statet earlier this was a great video.
@fraserbuilds, the reason why there are ancient manuscripts of knights fighting snails has to do with how horrible snail infestations were in gardens. Monks who took care of gardens and who also wrote the manuscripts could do literally nothing as snails ate their crops and they sought to employ knights to take care of it as a joke. the same goes with illustrations of knights fighting rabbits. After a while it sort of became a meme to draw knights fighting snails and rabbits in manuscripts because of how often they destroyed gardens.
I think this is the answer, and is by far the most plausible Ive seen suggested. Though I think its very funny that everyone who has responded to this video about the snail thing has come up with a different answer
@@fraserbuilds fur sure! haha I seen someone suggest what I suggested in another video here on youtube a few years ago. Medieval history is my favorite. I seen your video BTW and instantly subscribed. Ancient greek stuff is awesome.
I hope your channel gets huge because these are easily some of the best videos with factual and informationally dense videos ive ever seen on UA-cam. Thanks for sharing! I was looking for a lot of the documents you linked so i appreciate that too!
Previously i read into Charles Babbage's analytical engine and Ada Lovelace's algorithm to use the engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers. I was surprised how much computer science goes way back in time and appreciate modern tech even more. But this Hero fella is clearly on another level. My reaction of seeing the automaton turning direction is as much as you did. You did an absolutely amazing job recreating that from minimal sources and period accurate processes. I think one particular reason why automaton field was not pursued is because there was no need for it. today our industrial society necessitates carefully timed and repetitive actions; a niche quickly filled by modern automatons, robots (from germanic word 'arbeit' meaning work/worker). It is likely similar as to why gunpowder is rarely used in Avatar Last Airbender, because it's not needed.
Robot is a SLAVIC word not German at all, it's from Robota/Rabota meaning drudgery slave work (another word from the same root is robotnik, a manual worker at a factory). The word robot was invented by a Czech author Karel Capek who wrote a sci Fi novel about bots in the start of the 20th century
As a Hellenist, your inscriptions of the hymn to Hephaestus warmed my heart. Hephaestus is often overlooked by many, especially in the modern day, i’m sure he appreciates the gesture! May he bless all your future creations with success ♥️ (( There is no requirement of total belief in the gods to receive their blessing, even acknowledging that they may exist is more than enough. )) You are a very talented and driven craftsperson even without the hymn inscription I’m sure Hephaestus would smile upon you ♥️ :,)
@@fraserbuilds dude, you need to start yourself a pat r eon (lol, comment gets auto-removed if i do not alter, merely combine)! i am certain there are lots of people who would be willing to contribute, your channel is AMAZING. you are like a combination of primitive technology, and clickspring, and carl sagan. *respect*
thank you! i really appreciate that sentiment. it was important to me to try to reflect positively on Hero, as i had a feeling people might judge the performance of his work off the performance of my imitation
Amazing! Maybe using a non-stretch string would help? It is possible that now the weight pulls the string until the force breaks the rolling resistance of the wheels, after which the energy stored in the string is converted into a jerking motion of the machine (BTW, I became 500th subscriber of your amazing channel, lets celebrate!)
thats a really good observation! hero actually wrote about that problem specifically in his book! and he recorded a special method of making strings as inelastic as possible for his automatons by repeatedly stretching and waxing them. lately as ive been working on testing the automaton ive been using kevlar string, which i thought would work well because it is very inelastic. i might try to make a more authentic chord with heros description, but the kevlar seems to work pretty well for now. Also thanks for bringing the channel to 500!!
This is honestly so cool and impressive, and the little celebration after the first successful run sent me! Can't wait to watch more of your stuff and hope you'll thrive for a long time
I would suggest making your base wider than your top, with the legs angled outwards. That should increase the stability of the overall design, though your expansion arm is definitely a good add on! All in all, this is very cool to see, and I'd love to see more work on ancient Automata!
This is very cool! I saw your post on r/maker, you do such cool stuff and explain it well, I watched this and your spirit lamp video from last year and now I can't wait to watch the rest of your videos and to see what you do next!
I love machines like this and might try to make something like this myself! And a lot of people are saying things about your pronunciation of some words and i honestly think your saying fine. Dont let the haters get to you. Good work!
Back in 2012 I was at MS&T in an intro to engineering course. We had to make something move across a table and knock over a foam castle without electric or chemical power. My group let me design basically a six foot siege tower based entirely on this concept except for the programmability and with absolutely nothing to slow the weight. Man, I wish I'd have known about Hero's automaton back then! That thing could have been WAY cooler!
This is really cool. One small note on Daedalus' statues. There is a text-interpretation school that has taken to imagine Socrates' mention of Daedelic or Daedalus' creations as being a reference to particularly life-like marble statues. So that the metaphor isn't suggesting the uncertainty of the construct (of knowledge and memory in this case), but that it suggests the fleeting nature of perfect ideals (depicted by the marble statues we are misled to believe might walk away in the night). But that school is simply not supported by the text(Socrates is talking about something that does actually move about if it's not fastened), by the fact that daedelic statues were very abstract, or by the overall message in Meno.. of for example how virtue is not an ideal, or a seemingly random fleeting thought - but something you have to work carefully at. Like you do here :D Really great stuff.
Amazing. Utterly amazing! I'm properly floored on the simple ingenuity of these machines! I do want to say one thing about Hero's thoughts on (maybe) why he believed that showing the inner workings would draw less interest. Simply put, I think it could have been that the average ancient person would (because of the way that they thought about nature being part supernatural) were more amazed by the idea that something magical and thought to even to have been utilized by a God they believe had power over the nature of making things by hand. Or it could just be all about proprietary knowledge. Even though its simplicity is, from our own perspective, the most amazing thing, I'm not sure the ancient average joe is gonna look at this the same as us.
I see what you mean.. it's like telling someone today 'this wheel spins because it's attached to a battery-powered motor'. Not very impressive to us, but very impressive to an ancient Greek person:p meanwhile this is very impressive to me because Hero invented this without the modern tools we take for granted.
@@Moocow2003 Indeed. And adding to your last bit, that is the coolest thing about machines. At one point, humans were making mechanical inventions with the modern equivalent of every dude and dudette's garage tools lol.
That was so much fun to watch, as it came to life. The surprise you mention when I successfully followed a program you put into the wheels to turn left and then proceed straight was pretty cool to witness. Bit clunky and awkward, but fascinating, and I hope you do more experiments with these. I wonder if pulleys ability to transfer weight ratio could potentially work like gears in energy transfer. Anyway fun project. Love your storytelling and deep dive into the research.
i definitely intend to keep experimenting with automata! I think I learned more lessons about making from this project than any of my others. Im very confident hero's own automaton would glide much more smoothly and travel much further than mine, i really think this prototype just scratches the surface of whats possible, and of what they may have actually built so long ago.
It's crazilly surprising ! I knew greeks was that close to invent steam power devices but i would never have imagined this. Thanks a lot and please continue ! (maybe with more consideration for torque, wheels diameters and the diferents heavy parts inertia ? )
I adore this channel. Thank you for your incredible craftsmanship and thank you for sharing it with us. I feel the need to thank you for the inspiration you've given me, as it is very helpful to see someone creating things with their own hands in the age of machines. I also just like the way you pronounce certain words, language sure is a funny thing.
The snails in the parchments and books have been studied. It's more or less memes or mockery, from the ppl about the nobles or something. Do not quote me on any of this but the reaserach is here on YT. Awesdome build bro. Truely a genuine craftsman. And what a giant project!
Love your content. Fyi, if you quench your copper in water it will be much more malleable. Annealing ferrous metals require slow cooling and heating with a greasy flame. However other metals want a red heat and a fast cold quench. Then they are easily workable! Keep up the great content.
Great job using era appropriate tools and techniques. Now-a-days, most builders would probably use modern tools, buying or adapting parts from the hardware store and 3D printing what they couldn't buy. And I would probably be included in that group so I ain't throwing stones at anyone so inclined. 😉 I noticed that the caster wheels were "sticking" once in a while as the Automaton moved contributing to the jerky movement. A little lubrication might help. I would suggest Aqua Relocation XL which is an ancient concoction still in use today.
Love's watching this! Just stumbled upon one of your blow torch vids and watched this one. Looking forward to exploring your channel. Have you thought about making an ancient lathe for turning round objects for you projects?
it's awesome that you're using the blow torch along side modern tools 😂 i just saw your torch video after watching some automata vids. all this stuff, this era of innovation, is the start of everything we have today and my favorite thing to think about. i mean everything came from this era! it's so fascinating the millions of tiny things that came together, with science, chemistry, and glass! (glass being the absolute most important thing in physics amd chemistry, even science as a whole) and that this all was the start of robotics and programmable machines, astonishing to think of. all from the minds of men and some women who just sat around obsessively thinking and tinkering, with the only knowledge base to refer to being word of mouth and hand written books and notes. imagine creating these things, thinking, man. i need to write this down for future generations, not having even the slightest clue of how grand the implications would be in the future. and that is us now to an extent, still out here innovating tinkering learning and inventing! 😂❤ amazing stuff
Hello, just bumped into your video. Have to say it is very interesting and beautifully handcrafted. I, too, like to build my own automata, not to many at this point, but enough to understand perfectly how Hero's Automaton works. To get more autonomy, I suggest a mechanism that can unfold the weight instead of the seeds. Use a mechanism more like that of a grandfather clock. A heavier weight whose force can be deployed as in a transmission. There are very simple ways to do this. I am sure you know what I'm writting about. Best regards. Keep up the good work. Just subscribed and liked.
What a great project and a lot of technical stuff is coming together for making one of these amazing automatons 😀. I have been a machinist and engineer for most of my career and even though I cringe when i see how you make parts ( and i realize that's my problem 🤣) , i can see how a project like this is a valuable way to teach youngsters on how things move mechanically and the skills that they learn when making one 👍😀.
Thank you! And its not your problem, its totally mine! Im a complete novice when it comes to all of these skills. I think Ive improved significantly since making this video, and I hope to keep improving, but I think it's important to recognize that the genuine thing would have been built by someone much more skilled than me and would have been more functional and better for it! advice is always appreciated😅
Would it be easier and more precise to bend the flat copper with a couple pair of linemens pliers? Hammering it into shape is always fun in my opinion but it would be faster and more precise to use the pliers. I haven't made it through the whole video but this is MUCH better than I was anticipating it to be. Great work!
That is freaking amazing, man! It's incredible to see history come to life. It's also satisfying to see your project come to completion, but the feeling must be amped up when it's something this detailed and complex. 😊 Edit: Do you have any videos that show how you made the simpler stuff you use, such as that dark walnut stain?
13:13 I for one welcome our new Automatic slime spittin GIANT SNAIL overlords 🤭🤭🤭🤭 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌 those Greek Pride parades were something else, am I right lol
Nice work, Fraser. That's an interesting way to control weight descent rate. However, a correction at 6:50 "After brazing...", no, that's soft soldering. Brazing, using molten brass, requires a much higher temperature, with parts at red heat.
a correction: I misquoted heros dedcription of the castor wheel, what he actually described was a wheel in a small frame with a small axle, the axle he mentions might be for the wheel itself, and not actually for the frame to move on.
if u replaced the sand with greek fire it would make a pretty nasty weapon just program it to role at phalanx then light the greek fire trail once it was close and boom land based fire ship :P
ps a tripod should be wider at bottom than top. if he called it a tripod im pretty sure he meant for it to have a ~20* or higher angle on the tripods legs. it would be a lot more stable if the base was wider than top/tripod shape
@@hamasmillitant1⚠️ God has said in the Quran:
🔵 { O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous - ( 2:21 )
🔴 [He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him]. ( 2:22 )
🔵 And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. ( 2:23 )
🔴 But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.( 2:24 )
🔵 And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom, they will say, "This is what we were provided with before." And it is given to them in likeness. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally. ( 2:25 )
⚠️ Quran
How dare you get that wrong! SHAME!
;) no problemo hombre.
bro they had gears. Power turns the small one connected to the big one with rope tied to the wheel. All this automaton technology and you missed gear ratios?
@@TheCorruptionKing Hero didn't use gears in his builds, that's probably why
These videos need to be archived. The information presented here is far more valuable than merely watching the process.
So it can move forward 60% of its height!
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 Well yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how physics works.
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 It is techincally still a prototype as the designs Hero made were not specific.
@@Victor-056 Oh you would make it 10 miles high so you can travel 6 miles forward! your very smart!
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307You may recall that these were made for entertainment purposes, both for the engineer, and an audience. Functionality is not the focus.
I am so glad the algorithm made me stumble upon this channel. It a beautiful mix between craftmanship and history made possible through the classic approach of manual labour. Great videos
true, i just wish his inclination to the mechanical was a little more adequate
Bro that is INSANE! Well done. A small robot from wood and copper, using principles of ancient Greece. That's nuts. I'm a blacksmith and i'm using a lot of ancient and sometimes forgotten techniques, such as making your own polishing compound at home, stuff like that. Ancient techniques are so simple, yet so effective. Congrats!
yeah it also shows we are just repeating the same actions for the last 3000yrs/casts further doubt on our free will :P
i also like to play around with smithing, i suspect thats the tag the alg used to send me here, although it could have also been my interest in finding evidence that we have done all this before ad nausium with just small variations/updates on materials through the millenia
@@hamasmillitant1Amazing observation/hypothesis my like minded "time traveler."
Key words are "forgotten techniques!" Today we make the newest iterations of things, but nothing new. Lol
I've always been fascinated by automatons and other ancient attempts at "thinking engines". A machine acting under it's own power without the electrical components that are ubiquitous for our modern world is always an amazing feat of engineering. I would love to see more of Hero's automatons and other such inventions brought to life.
It really never ceases to amaze me how creative and curious these ancient mechanicians were. Always eagerly pushing the boundaries of their technology. Im working on more of Hero's devices at the moment! hopefully I'll have more videos on them soon :)
Well this channel is to those people with refined interests. There are not much subscribers for now. But I am eager to see your numbers grow. It will make me happy to see people not watching other unimportant things (reality shows alike) and instead see these interesting stuff. Keep up the good work ❤
@fraserbuilds I'll be sure to catch them when they post. Your other videos are also great and definitely deserving of more subscribers.
Great storytelling alongside great ingenuity and craftmanship . A great channel in the making.
thank you! I really appreciate that
My favorite thing about these videos is the historical anecdotes spread throughout the video. The mythological and historical background perfectly complements the construction process and makes the video far more interesting and entertaining to watch. Absolutely wonderful :)
(And yes, you're seeing me a lot the last couple days. I *am* binging your whole channel. Great stuff! Let me know when you get a Patreon!)
Thank you so much! :) I greatly enjoy making these projects and it means alot to me to see them embraced by the community! I hope youll like the projects I have to come!
@@fraserbuilds Already subscribed!
This is absolutely one of the most interesting things I've ever seen on UA-cam. The fact that the Greeks had access to simple gravity-powered technology like this, to the point that it was sufficiently advanced enough to appear as magic, is genuinely incredible. Thank you for taking the time to show this project, as well as educating people about a side of Greek history most people seem to gloss over.
Gotta say, this is therapeutic from beginning to end. Your narration of history while building & troubleshooting with resources at hand was a joy to observe. Our Grandpa b.1910, was a carpenter, I've fond memories of him patiently teaching a young me. Seeing the details you put into this made me gasp when it toppled, but be in ore when it worked !!
Thank you! Im glad it conjured pleasant memories :)
this is so amazing, though thousands of years separate people, we share the same hands, the same earth, from which to make our tools. trying to imagine these creations in how they would have been presented to their historical audience, and their delight and amusement, and the craftsman’s artistry, i mean, this is humanity! this is what history is about! thank you‼️‼️ i will be excited to see what’s next!
That's amazing! Never imagined ancient people could have legit robots. 🤯
I'm so glad I found this channel, its fantastic!
Thank you :)
I normally skip over videos of this type because mainly the use of modern techniques and parts, which I find boring You on the other hand caught and held my attention, not only at your skills building from raw materials. But also your knowledge and narrative on the subject. It reminded me of watching my Grandpa working in his shop. He was a woodsmith from the old country(what he called home in Germany). He owned a sawmill (cut the wood for the Wright Brothers plane) he also made furniture and clocks. If he needed something, he made it! It's really impressive to see your valuable skill level at such a young age, gives me hope for the next generation! Bravo on your achievement! Thank you for sharing!
That was beautiful! I cannot even begin to describe my elation as your little automaton starting moving. What a magical moment...
Amazing work, a truly captivating video!
Fraser reminds me a little of Max Miller's Tasting History, except it's technology. You learn about the process, the history, and usually the chemistry of these devices from the guy. Really outstanding work.
This was an absolutely amazing watch!
I imagine you could construct an entire person looking robot with moving arms and blinking eyes and moving mouth if you hid the interior with cloth and had one common trigger for several mechanisms, might have to have something like a smooth marble floor in that case for it to look somewhat smooth with such weight but amazing to think that it was possible so far back.
I could easily see how the entire upper portion could become an hourglass as well, then the lower portion could catch the seeds, while all the strings run along the outer body, at least for a longer running version. So many ways this could have been used, I love it
I am astonished at your love of handicraft and your skill and dedication to the process as much as the created piece. Astonished.
It may have been implied in that time, but the various axles might benefit from a little grease, which the greeks had. It will tighten up the tolerances and reduce the friction.
I would also experiment with adding extra weight to the body generally to see if that fixes the wheel lift issue at all. Also, see if a perfectly flat surface makes a difference.
Great work!
Thanks! Interestingly Hero says to oil the axles with olive oil.
@@fraserbuilds olive oil builds up gunk pretty fast though. Hmm. Maybe it was a thicker sort of olive oil?
I love your channel. Insight into a world I don’t know enough about. Wisdom of the ages. Tragedy that the library at Alexandria burnt down. How much wisdom did we loose? Nothing under the sun is new. Not our so called ”modern” technology. The more I learn the more I realise that. Exactly the opposite. The pyramids at Giza, with all the technology, all the heavy lifting by machines, we could not replicate it. We can learn so much, beyond our wildest dreams by learning from ancient civilisation. I am all ears to your channel now. Thank you for sharing.
I know this is late but you couldn't be more mistaken. Monkeys can literally stack rocks. We modern humans built the Burj Kalifa. We modern humans built a dam, The Three Gorges, so big it changed our planets spin rate. WE SLOWED OUR PLANET DOWN. What the Egyptians did is impressive to be sure but they had literally nothing but time. It took them 26 years to build ONE pyramid and all of that was built on what our predecessors did, but it's stacking rocks.
@@BiscuitWaite Most humans today are brainwashed to buy into the modern tech world, as well as being dummed down. Universities are the breeding grounds of conformity olthough they make themselves out to be the new creative intellectual wave. You are ignorant. End of discussion. Anything else, I mean facts, would lead this comment to be deleted. YT just pushes the same stupid agenda. The “new golden age” is upon us. Give me a break. Time on their hands, built by slave labour. Give me a break. LOL I will not be responding after this.
This is so neat, like watching a retro-futuristic time traveler trying to get back to their time while documenting it with modern technology.
This video made me realise I should recontextualise the era this is from in my mind as one where people where people did a lot of experimenting with weird physics toys. Thanks!!
Truly amazing content. The time and effort gone into not only making it, but learning traditional methods of making is impressive.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your builds!
So you're just casually a woodworker, blacksmith, historian ans philosopher?
Your work is amazing, your angles are even better.
Love the hypothesis on the snails... one of the more fascinating takes on those appearances. Hope you find more about them.
I'm in awe, but more so, much inspired.
Great video, the automaton looked extremely cool, I also really liked the small stories of greek mythos you had in the video.
So all in all as statet earlier this was a great video.
thanks! im glad you liked it :)
This is an absolute gem of a channel. I would absolutely love to see how far you can go with this particular power source or others.
I wasn't aware of this ancient Greek technology!
Many thanks for your video!
Literally the.most.mind blowing thing I've ever seen on youtube. Ancient Greeks programmed an analogue computer make robots do certain things.
@fraserbuilds, the reason why there are ancient manuscripts of knights fighting snails has to do with how horrible snail infestations were in gardens. Monks who took care of gardens and who also wrote the manuscripts could do literally nothing as snails ate their crops and they sought to employ knights to take care of it as a joke. the same goes with illustrations of knights fighting rabbits. After a while it sort of became a meme to draw knights fighting snails and rabbits in manuscripts because of how often they destroyed gardens.
I think this is the answer, and is by far the most plausible Ive seen suggested. Though I think its very funny that everyone who has responded to this video about the snail thing has come up with a different answer
@@fraserbuilds fur sure! haha I seen someone suggest what I suggested in another video here on youtube a few years ago. Medieval history is my favorite. I seen your video BTW and instantly subscribed. Ancient greek stuff is awesome.
So the killer rabbit in Monty pythons holy grail wasn’t random?
The monks could 'literally' (or even metaphorically) remove the snails, surround their plants with ash, or poison the snails with things like copper!
Lol so scary to watch move lol. Great work. Love your build so much fun and very informitive. The first roomba build lol
I hope your channel gets huge because these are easily some of the best videos with factual and informationally dense videos ive ever seen on UA-cam. Thanks for sharing! I was looking for a lot of the documents you linked so i appreciate that too!
Previously i read into Charles Babbage's analytical engine and Ada Lovelace's algorithm to use the engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers. I was surprised how much computer science goes way back in time and appreciate modern tech even more. But this Hero fella is clearly on another level. My reaction of seeing the automaton turning direction is as much as you did. You did an absolutely amazing job recreating that from minimal sources and period accurate processes.
I think one particular reason why automaton field was not pursued is because there was no need for it. today our industrial society necessitates carefully timed and repetitive actions; a niche quickly filled by modern automatons, robots (from germanic word 'arbeit' meaning work/worker). It is likely similar as to why gunpowder is rarely used in Avatar Last Airbender, because it's not needed.
Robot is a SLAVIC word not German at all, it's from Robota/Rabota meaning drudgery slave work (another word from the same root is robotnik, a manual worker at a factory). The word robot was invented by a Czech author Karel Capek who wrote a sci Fi novel about bots in the start of the 20th century
As a Hellenist, your inscriptions of the hymn to Hephaestus warmed my heart.
Hephaestus is often overlooked by many, especially in the modern day, i’m sure he appreciates the gesture! May he bless all your future creations with success ♥️
(( There is no requirement of total belief in the gods to receive their blessing, even acknowledging that they may exist is more than enough. ))
You are a very talented and driven craftsperson even without the hymn inscription I’m sure Hephaestus would smile upon you ♥️ :,)
Thank you :)
I really love your low tech and educational approach.
Hits the sweet spot between primitive technologies and clickspring for me, if I may say so.
Thank you! :)
lol, i hit algorithm *_gold_* when this channel was suggested!...much thanks.
Thank you so much! Its amazing to me to have these videos reach such a supportive community!
@@fraserbuilds dude, you need to start yourself a pat r eon (lol, comment gets auto-removed if i do not alter, merely combine)! i am certain there are lots of people who would be willing to contribute, your channel is AMAZING. you are like a combination of primitive technology, and clickspring, and carl sagan. *respect*
Thank you! thats high praise :) I intend to launch a patreon soon!
Man is guiding the craft with his arms out like his baby taking his first steps!
Wonderful observation.
Excellent video. You have truly poured your soul into this project.
thank you! i really appreciate that sentiment. it was important to me to try to reflect positively on Hero, as i had a feeling people might judge the performance of his work off the performance of my imitation
Amazing!
Maybe using a non-stretch string would help?
It is possible that now the weight pulls the string until the force breaks the rolling resistance of the wheels, after which the energy stored in the string is converted into a jerking motion of the machine
(BTW, I became 500th subscriber of your amazing channel, lets celebrate!)
thats a really good observation! hero actually wrote about that problem specifically in his book! and he recorded a special method of making strings as inelastic as possible for his automatons by repeatedly stretching and waxing them.
lately as ive been working on testing the automaton ive been using kevlar string, which i thought would work well because it is very inelastic. i might try to make a more authentic chord with heros description, but the kevlar seems to work pretty well for now. Also thanks for bringing the channel to 500!!
This is honestly so cool and impressive, and the little celebration after the first successful run sent me! Can't wait to watch more of your stuff and hope you'll thrive for a long time
Your perseverance for this project is inspiring. Sub and shared
Thank you!
I’m so invested and blown away by your efforts and achievements
Very interesting video. We found this video while looking up Heron's inventions. This real-life look suited us well. You did an awesome job
I would suggest making your base wider than your top, with the legs angled outwards. That should increase the stability of the overall design, though your expansion arm is definitely a good add on! All in all, this is very cool to see, and I'd love to see more work on ancient Automata!
I do believe your a budding genius , the video was the best I’ve ever watched on UA-cam , absolutely fascinating .
It takes a special kind of person to not only be a good craftsman, but document it in an exceptional way, clearly effectively…
This is very cool! I saw your post on r/maker, you do such cool stuff and explain it well, I watched this and your spirit lamp video from last year and now I can't wait to watch the rest of your videos and to see what you do next!
thanks! I really appreciate that!
I love machines like this and might try to make something like this myself!
And a lot of people are saying things about your pronunciation of some words and i honestly think your saying fine. Dont let the haters get to you. Good work!
Dude i nearly got a heart attack just from watching you do all that effort with the glass and the see it fall 24:08 👀🙈
Back in 2012 I was at MS&T in an intro to engineering course. We had to make something move across a table and knock over a foam castle without electric or chemical power.
My group let me design basically a six foot siege tower based entirely on this concept except for the programmability and with absolutely nothing to slow the weight. Man, I wish I'd have known about Hero's automaton back then! That thing could have been WAY cooler!
Awesome video, loved the thoroughly researched narrative that accompanied the process!
This is really cool.
One small note on Daedalus' statues. There is a text-interpretation school that has taken to imagine Socrates' mention of Daedelic or Daedalus' creations as being a reference to particularly life-like marble statues. So that the metaphor isn't suggesting the uncertainty of the construct (of knowledge and memory in this case), but that it suggests the fleeting nature of perfect ideals (depicted by the marble statues we are misled to believe might walk away in the night). But that school is simply not supported by the text(Socrates is talking about something that does actually move about if it's not fastened), by the fact that daedelic statues were very abstract, or by the overall message in Meno.. of for example how virtue is not an ideal, or a seemingly random fleeting thought - but something you have to work carefully at. Like you do here :D Really great stuff.
excelent video! i couldnt look away!
I can not express how amazed I am by this. The only words I can think of are: Good job!
Thank you!
This is honestly among the coolest things I have seen on youtube! Keep it up!
Amazing. Utterly amazing! I'm properly floored on the simple ingenuity of these machines! I do want to say one thing about Hero's thoughts on (maybe) why he believed that showing the inner workings would draw less interest. Simply put, I think it could have been that the average ancient person would (because of the way that they thought about nature being part supernatural) were more amazed by the idea that something magical and thought to even to have been utilized by a God they believe had power over the nature of making things by hand. Or it could just be all about proprietary knowledge. Even though its simplicity is, from our own perspective, the most amazing thing, I'm not sure the ancient average joe is gonna look at this the same as us.
I see what you mean.. it's like telling someone today 'this wheel spins because it's attached to a battery-powered motor'. Not very impressive to us, but very impressive to an ancient Greek person:p meanwhile this is very impressive to me because Hero invented this without the modern tools we take for granted.
@@Moocow2003 Indeed. And adding to your last bit, that is the coolest thing about machines. At one point, humans were making mechanical inventions with the modern equivalent of every dude and dudette's garage tools lol.
That was so much fun to watch, as it came to life. The surprise you mention when I successfully followed a program you put into the wheels to turn left and then proceed straight was pretty cool to witness. Bit clunky and awkward, but fascinating, and I hope you do more experiments with these. I wonder if pulleys ability to transfer weight ratio could potentially work like gears in energy transfer. Anyway fun project. Love your storytelling and deep dive into the research.
i definitely intend to keep experimenting with automata! I think I learned more lessons about making from this project than any of my others. Im very confident hero's own automaton would glide much more smoothly and travel much further than mine, i really think this prototype just scratches the surface of whats possible, and of what they may have actually built so long ago.
It's crazilly surprising ! I knew greeks was that close to invent steam power devices but i would never have imagined this. Thanks a lot and please continue ! (maybe with more consideration for torque, wheels diameters and the diferents heavy parts inertia ? )
I adore this channel. Thank you for your incredible craftsmanship and thank you for sharing it with us. I feel the need to thank you for the inspiration you've given me, as it is very helpful to see someone creating things with their own hands in the age of machines. I also just like the way you pronounce certain words, language sure is a funny thing.
You've opened a giant rabbit hole with Greek Automata thanks! :D
The snails in the parchments and books have been studied. It's more or less memes or mockery, from the ppl about the nobles or something. Do not quote me on any of this but the reaserach is here on YT. Awesdome build bro. Truely a genuine craftsman. And what a giant project!
Love your content. Fyi, if you quench your copper in water it will be much more malleable. Annealing ferrous metals require slow cooling and heating with a greasy flame. However other metals want a red heat and a fast cold quench. Then they are easily workable! Keep up the great content.
Great job using era appropriate tools and techniques. Now-a-days, most builders would probably use modern tools, buying or adapting parts from the hardware store and 3D printing what they couldn't buy. And I would probably be included in that group so I ain't throwing stones at anyone so inclined. 😉
I noticed that the caster wheels were "sticking" once in a while as the Automaton moved contributing to the jerky movement. A little lubrication might help. I would suggest Aqua Relocation XL which is an ancient concoction still in use today.
Fascinating. I love how you use historical techniques. It add a whole dimension to the process.
Absolutes wonderful .... entirely made by hand ... I can say that your glasswork is correct ... I want more!!!
The caster wheel has to had a caster angle. Funny mistake.
I really enjoy the content. It really makes you appreciate how far we have come.
Wow - this was spectacular, thank you so much for sharing with us! Looking forward to your future automatic successes 😊
thank you! :)
Love's watching this! Just stumbled upon one of your blow torch vids and watched this one. Looking forward to exploring your channel. Have you thought about making an ancient lathe for turning round objects for you projects?
it's awesome that you're using the blow torch along side modern tools 😂 i just saw your torch video after watching some automata vids. all this stuff, this era of innovation, is the start of everything we have today and my favorite thing to think about. i mean everything came from this era! it's so fascinating the millions of tiny things that came together, with science, chemistry, and glass! (glass being the absolute most important thing in physics amd chemistry, even science as a whole) and that this all was the start of robotics and programmable machines, astonishing to think of. all from the minds of men and some women who just sat around obsessively thinking and tinkering, with the only knowledge base to refer to being word of mouth and hand written books and notes. imagine creating these things, thinking, man. i need to write this down for future generations, not having even the slightest clue of how grand the implications would be in the future. and that is us now to an extent, still out here innovating tinkering learning and inventing! 😂❤ amazing stuff
Wow this is just fantastic. I just discoverd your channel, this is super amazing stuff!
Thank you!
Fantastic. How satisfying to see it successfully turn and move
This chanel is a hidden gem!!!
your video kept me glued to the screen, thanks for posting. And, your glass crafting is correct, it's akeen to the art of Tiffany glass work...
really amazing to see it drive around on its own! very impressive build!
Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing your work with the world.
Thank you! :)
Way cool. I admire your dedication to your craft.
thank you! :)
This is amazing, a history lesson and entertaining videos. You're work is inspiring.
Really amazing work both technically and historically.
that's really really cool, i can't believe robots were a thing back then. i'd love to see as much of this as possible
Hello, just bumped into your video. Have to say it is very interesting and beautifully handcrafted. I, too, like to build my own automata, not to many at this point, but enough to understand perfectly how Hero's Automaton works. To get more autonomy, I suggest a mechanism that can unfold the weight instead of the seeds. Use a mechanism more like that of a grandfather clock. A heavier weight whose force can be deployed as in a transmission. There are very simple ways to do this. I am sure you know what I'm writting about. Best regards. Keep up the good work. Just subscribed and liked.
What a great project and a lot of technical stuff is coming together for making one of these amazing automatons 😀.
I have been a machinist and engineer for most of my career and even though I cringe when i see how you make parts ( and i realize that's my problem 🤣) , i can see how a project like this is a valuable way to teach youngsters on how things move mechanically and the skills that they learn when making one 👍😀.
Thank you! And its not your problem, its totally mine! Im a complete novice when it comes to all of these skills. I think Ive improved significantly since making this video, and I hope to keep improving, but I think it's important to recognize that the genuine thing would have been built by someone much more skilled than me and would have been more functional and better for it! advice is always appreciated😅
This is superb work. So well done. Good job. 👍🇬🇧
Thank you!
Would it be easier and more precise to bend the flat copper with a couple pair of linemens pliers? Hammering it into shape is always fun in my opinion but it would be faster and more precise to use the pliers.
I haven't made it through the whole video but this is MUCH better than I was anticipating it to be. Great work!
Thanks! I tried both and like the sharp edges the anvil gave the bends, its possible Im just not very good at bending with pliers though😅
@@fraserbuilds fair enough! Your channel is amazing and I'll be catching up and looking forward to what comes next.
I thought you were at least a 200k channel i wish you the best
Absolutely fascinating! Very nice video production too!
I am amazed. Beautiful build. Incredible channel.
i love this content. it feels like a celebration of inventing
You’re videos are awesome! You are one interesting guy!
thanks! I really enjoy making them :)
Very good content.hope the algorithm will one day push content like this.. took me way to long to find it.
Incredible. Well done and thank you for sharing this.
Thank you!
Awesome video, creation, and history lesson! Thank you.
Great job, very interesting. Maybe less height for the hour glass but wider. So the center of gravity is lower.
Brings history to life 👍
thank you!
this like the engineering equivilant of those primitive construction channels, but so much more ethereal; i think ive fallen in love
Incredible stuff. Very exciting!
This video was just insanely good. Wow! x Thank you. Can’t wait to show my gf, she will love this!
That is freaking amazing, man! It's incredible to see history come to life. It's also satisfying to see your project come to completion, but the feeling must be amped up when it's something this detailed and complex. 😊
Edit: Do you have any videos that show how you made the simpler stuff you use, such as that dark walnut stain?
13:13 I for one welcome our new Automatic slime spittin GIANT SNAIL overlords 🤭🤭🤭🤭 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌 those Greek Pride parades were something else, am I right lol
i found my new favourite youtube chanel!
Nice work, Fraser. That's an interesting way to control weight descent rate. However, a correction at 6:50 "After brazing...", no, that's soft soldering. Brazing, using molten brass, requires a much higher temperature, with parts at red heat.
Thanks! My mistake, Im afraid Ive made that mistake in pther videos as well 😅 I'll avoid it in the future
Id love to have one of these in my house, its amazing that this is what the greeks could do with simple materials like that
Love the combination of craft and knowledge!