“The Inventions of Archimedes: A First Person Perspective”
By: Chase D. USA

Greetings! I am Archimedes. I am the inventor of the screw, the magnifying glass, and the catapult. I am not just an inventor; I am also an engineer, a mathematician, and an astronomer, making me a scientist. I studied in Alexandria, Egypt under the follows of Euclid. I was one of the first great scientists.

I was born in Syracuse, Sicily. I was born in 287 B.C. getting ready to brighten the whole world. As I grew to be a young man, I decided that I wanted to be an inventor. Being an inventor allowed me to also be all sorts of things that I dreamed of being.

I had a father named Phidias who was an astronomer. I have a relative that was a close friend named Hiero II. He was the king of Syracuse during the time I lived. I lived in Syracuse my whole life except when I went to Alexandria, Egypt to study. Being a Greek boy growing up, I learned poetry, astronomy, politics, mathematics, music, art, and military tactics.

One of my really famous inventions is still used today. That invention was my one and only screw, for as today you have more than one. I invented the screw for several things like Greek boats, Greek houses, and some heavy and light weapons.

I got the idea when the king’s ships kept falling apart and soldiers were drowning. So, I came up with the solution to put metal bolts in the wooden planks to keep the ships from falling apart and drowning soldiers.

My screw has been used to lift higher levels of water since ancient times. My other screw that isn’t very well known had a container and an object to twist all the water out. They don’t use that one anymore, but they do use the one you hammer or drill into items to keep wooden planks together.

The old screw was mainly just for boats to help get the water out of the ship. On the other hand, the screw for drilling or hammering was used for wooden boats and for wooden shacks or houses. The screw was used for more purposes than the one we use today.

Another really important and famous invention that I invented and is still used today to see images closer is the magnifying glass. I actually made one bigger than the normal ones today, but I still had the idea. When I tried it out on my smallest handwriting, I could read it when I put the magnifying glass up to it.

Again, I got the idea from one of my problems. It all started when I grew old and couldn’t read my small handwriting. So, my solution was to find something that made my handwriting bigger while writing the same size as usual. So one day, I used a flat piece of glass to make it bigger and it worked! Then, I showed the king and he was very impressed.

Another reason I used it was to set the Roman ships on fire that were invading our city. Back then, I called it the burning mirror, which was a bunch of mirrors using the reflection of the sun to set objects on fire. This magnifying glass was much bigger and I used Syracuse 212 B.C. to set many objects on fire. We now use the magnifying glass to look at close or distant objects through it.

My last important invention was the old fashioned catapult. I used it to launch heavy objects far away to crush enemies. It was one of the most popular siege or defense weapons.

The king told me to invent a weapon to defend the castle. Our kingdom was under siege by the Roman Empire. We gathered rocks and launched them at the Romans. The catapult was successful.

Another one of my famous war machines was called the giant claw. The giant claw was very brute and very strong. After we used all of the stones for my famous catapult, I attached the giant claw to a chain and secured the claw on the bow of the enemies’ ship. Then a whole bunch of warriors would pull a lever that picked the boat entirely out of the water and it would drop the boat making it land on its stern and a whole bunch of water would come flowing in. We continually used this process until too many enemy ships had been boarded on the shore. We don’t use the catapult any more, but if you see a giant claw in the air it’s usually attached to a crane that takes one man to use.

Even though the catapult was successful we still couldn’t defend eat their strong forces. The kingdom was lost everybody was enslaved or killed. Unfortunately, I was one of the ones who were killed. A confused Roman soldier killed me without knowing who I was. They never knew that they killed one of the smartest men alive on the earth. So, I died on 212 B.C. at seventy-four years of age.

When the city was taken by siege and I was killed, the Roman solier’s boss, Marcelle, wanted me to have a proper burial for what I achieved in my life. Many guards were taken to be executed, taken to be gladiators of Rome, or they were taken from Greece and then trained to be an official Roman soldier. Marcelles was so distressed he let my whole family go free. Then, Marcelles gathered around me. They held it in honor in one of the greatest and smartest men alive. My friend, Hileon II was also slaughtered by the Romans while fighting for his and his father’s kingdom of Syracuse.

The city was burned and no one ever made another city anywhere close to the great city of Syracuse. Houses were burnt. Walls were destroyed. People were killed. The great Archimedes was dead.

“Archimedes.”  http://www.famousscientists.org/archimedes/.   January 17, 2013.

“Archimedes War Machines.” www.brighthubeducation.com. January 17, 2013.

“The History of Archimedes.” www.archimedespalimpsest.org. January 25, 2013.