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Document Max. Freq Min. Freq
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology (ed. William Smith) 63 63 Browse Search
Polybius, Histories 19 19 Browse Search
Samuel Ball Platner, Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 5 5 Browse Search
Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita, books 23-25 (ed. Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University) 3 3 Browse Search
Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita, books 31-34 (ed. Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh) 2 2 Browse Search
Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita, books 26-27 (ed. Frank Gardner Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University) 2 2 Browse Search
Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita, books 23-25 (ed. Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University) 2 2 Browse Search
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (ed. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.) 2 2 Browse Search
M. Tullius Cicero, De Officiis: index (ed. Walter Miller) 2 2 Browse Search
Titus Livius (Livy), Ab Urbe Condita, books 28-30 (ed. Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University) 1 1 Browse Search
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Browsing named entities in Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight). You can also browse the collection for 217 BC or search for 217 BC in all documents.

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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), A. (search)
ogress, in contradistinction to one operated by the positive action of a part of the machinery. Au-toma-ton. A machine whose motivepower is concealed within itself, or, as the term is more generally understood, a machine which imitates the actions of men or animals, and, being moved by clock-work or other similar instrumentality, appears to perform certain acts by its own volition. Among the most remarkable of antiquity were the automatons of Hero of Alexandria, who flourished about 217 B. C. They were made to move, as if alive, by machinery under the floor, and to utter sounds by the action of air driven by water through small pipes, or by means of air rarefied by heat. His works are extant in Greek, and have been frequently translated. They contain many curious anticipations of modern devices, as well as many curious tricks and effects no doubt intended as a part of the machinery of the priests to amuse the speculative and astound the ignorant. Archytis's flying dove was m