Geron brief biography

Geron of Alexandria, an unrecognized genius of his time, Geron from Alexandria is a fairly famous person who caused many disputes. He invented such devices that humanity uses to this day, having improved them a little - for example, automatic gates. But, unfortunately, some works were in vain. The years of the life of the famous Greek mathematician and mechanics have become the subject of many disputes, but still they are attributed to the second half of the first century AD.

Since the exact date is unknown, qualified historians and biographers expressed assumptions, built various versions. Everyone agreed that he lived after Archimedes, because in his writings, Geron relies on the knowledge set forth in his works. In addition, in his works, the Alexandrian figure mentions the lunar eclipse on March 13, 62 in such a way that it can be concluded - he personally observed the above phenomenon.

The details of the life of this scientist are unknown, the exact data related to his biography has not been preserved. Perhaps historians of that time were not too interested in this person, but one way or another, all dates are approximate. The birth of the great inventor was the city of Alexandria. Geron is considered a great and talented engineer of the history of mankind.

He is credited with the invention of automatic doors, a crossbow that is charged independently, a steam turbine, as well as an automatic puppet theater. From this we can conclude that he devoted especially much time to automation. With all his soul, Geron loved the exact sciences, his thoughts were completely occupied by geometry, mechanics, and optics. The teacher of this famous inventor is considered the no less famous scientist of Ancient Greece - Ctesibia, because it was his name Geron who repeatedly mentioned in his records.

Although he also used the inventions of his predecessors - Euclid and Archimedes. The most important property of the hero of Alexandria is the books that remained after him. These works describe not only the innovations of the author himself, but also the knowledge and discovery of his contemporaries, other ancient Greek discoverers. The most famous works of Heron are works called Metric, Pneumatics, Assembly, Mechanics.

The descendants saw the latest notes only in Arabic, moreover, not all of the above -mentioned works of the author were preserved in the original, copyright version. For example, the manuscript in which Geron describes mirrors exists only in Latin. In his works in geodesy, the author talks about the first odometer. This is the name of the device that measures the distance.

In the year, the work of the hero “On the Diopter” was published, where it sets out the land survey parameters, which are based on the use of rectangular coordinates. The diopter is an elementary device for measuring the corners, and it is the hero’s opening that it is opened. The bright head of this famous scientist was visited by truly brilliant thoughts, but most of his innovations in the Middle Ages were rejected by contemporaries.

This was explained by the fact that such phenomena were not of practical interest. In his work under the name “mechanics”, which consists of 3 parts, Geron described 5 types of elementary mechanisms - gate, lever, wedge, block and screw. The above devices made up the base for more complex structures, and the “golden rule of mechanics” was associated with them - an increase in force when using these mechanisms, and is achieved by increasing the time spent.

In his writings are also mentioned the ball of Eola - the progenitor of modern steam turbines. It can also be considered the first heat engine. The aforementioned device was essentially a bronze boiler, which was held on the supports. A pair of tubes was attached to his lid, and they held the sphere. Steam was going on the pipe from the boiler into the sphere, and when he exit the tubes, he rotated the sphere.

A fire-water pump, which was also discussed in the manuscripts of the discoverer from Alexandria, continuously pumped water, and the miraculous Fontane was also called the heroic fountain, without using energy. A lot of works of the scientist concerned the optics. He set experiments and analyzed the tasks of refraction of light rays, built assumptions. For example, in the Capoptrica treatise, the famous researcher explained the straightforwardness of light rays by an incredibly high speed of their spread, as well as the type and shape of the mirror that participated in the experience.

Treatises in mathematics contained a large number of formulas. The scientist also had descriptions of geometric shapes. From school, the heroon formula is known to everyone - with its help, the area of ​​the triangle is determined by a half -perimeter and three sides. And, although Archimedes still brought her out, this theorem is the name of a scientist from Alexandria. A talented inventor created another incredibly useful device - an automatic oil lamp.

In antiquity, an oil lamp was used for lighting, namely, a bowl that contained a burning wick previously soaked in oil.The wick was a small piece of fabric, which burned very quickly. The main disadvantage of such a lighting device was that it was necessary to constantly regulate the oil level in the bowl. And if one such lamp could still be controlled, then several similar devices had to be assigned a servant who constantly added oil to the lamp and changed the burned piece of tissue to a new one.

Geron improved this design, attaching a float and a gear wheel to the bowl. When the oil in the bowl ended, the float dropped to the bottom, and the gear wheel turned and handed a new wick. Geron paid a lot of attention to theorems and formulas, but in his works he only gave examples of these formulas, and did not describe their proof or application. Therefore, not all of them were in demand in ancient Greece.

In the same way, the mechanisms created by the hero did not immediately find application, because in the ancient world, slaves performed all the hard work. And the work of the mechanics of that time was not appreciated, he was equated with the work of slaves. That is why the majority of the hero’s inventions for several centuries moved aside. Some inventions of the scientist were subsequently opened again, but other scientists who did not attribute to themselves other people's discoveries, but simply did not hear anything about the inventor from Alexandria and his achievements.

The name of the hero to this day is in hearing, and this is connected not only with his theorem. There is another reason. In the year, the International Astronomical Union called the name of the great physicist and mathematics Crater on the back of the moon, perpetuating it for all times. So, Geron of Alexandria made many discoveries, but only their small part was appreciated. Articles on the topic.