WE MAY NOT HAVE THESE THINGS IF IT WASN'T FOR ANCIENT GREECE

CLOCK TOWERS (AND WEATHER STATIONS)

When people think of clock towers, they usually think of medieval

Europe, but in reality the first clock tower was built in ancient Greece.

The Tower of the Winds in Athens, right under the Acropolis, was

the first clock tower and weather station. It helped local merchants

estimate the time of delivery for their products and, at the

same time, helped them protect their freight from extreme

weather conditions.

CENTRAL HEATING

Before the Romans came up with the hypocaust system, the Greeks,

specifically the Minoans, had a system of their own. The Greeks would

place pipes under floors in their homes through which they passed

warm water in order to keep the rooms and floors heated during the

winter season. For this reason they usually built their homes so that

the tile floors were supported by cylindrical pillars, creating a space

beneath the floor where hot vapours from a central fire could

circulate and spread through flues in the walls.

SINKS

The ancient Greeks were the first to have an automated sink with

running water, so both hands could be washed at the same time.

They washed themselves with lumps of clay, had steam baths

and rubbed their skin with oil, which they then scraped off with

an instrument called a strigil, along with any dirt.

ANCHORS

The ancient Greeks were the first to use baskets of stones, large

sacks filled with sand, and wooden logs filled with lead as anchors.

Such anchors held the vessel merely by their weight and by

their friction along the bottom. Iron was afterwards introduced for

the construction of anchors, and an improvement was made by

producing them with teeth to fasten themselves to the bottom.

SHOWERS

The ancient Greeks were the first people to have showers.

Their aqueducts and sewage systems made of lead pipes allowed

water to be pumped into and out of large communal shower

rooms used by the elite and common citizens alike.

AUTOMATIC DOORS

When you think of an automatic sliding door you probably think it’s

a fairly modern thing, but that’s not true. The Greeks invented

automatic sliding doors for temples in order to add mystic

qualities to them and to assist their polytheistic culture.

The first automatic doors worked via compressed air or water.

ALARM CLOCK

The first awakening device in human history, also known as

“Plato’s Alarm Clock,” was a contribution of the famous philosopher

and bears his name. This genius device worked with water.

FLYING MACHINE

According to the Smithsonian, the “Pigeon” of Archytas was a

wooden bird that could flap its wings and fly (up to two hundred metres),

powered by some sort of compressed air or internal steam engine.

Archytas created the artificial bird to study what gives birds the

ability to fly and ended up accidentally giving to the world the

first flying machine in history.