250 BC

Events in 250 BC 2

• 250 BC Archimedes invents the Archimedes screw A helical pump to raise water — still in use today King Hiero II commissioned Archimedes to design the Syracusia, the largest ship in classical antiquity. One problem was pumping bilge water from the enormous hull. Archimedes's solution was the screw pump: a helix inside a hollow cylinder, turned by a handle, which lifts water from a lower to a higher level. The device was so effective that it spread throughout the ancient world for irrigation and drainage. It is still manufactured and used today in water treatment plants and agricultural irrigation across the developing world.
• 250 BC On the Equilibrium of Planes — law of the lever "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth" In his treatise On the Equilibrium of Planes, Archimedes proved the law of the lever mathematically: that weights balance when they are inversely proportional to their distances from the fulcrum. He also identified the concept of the centre of gravity — the single point at which an object's entire weight can be considered to act. To demonstrate the lever's power to King Hiero, he single-handedly hauled a fully loaded merchant ship along the dock using a compound system of pulleys. His famous boast — "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth" — captures the principle perfectly.