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Mechanical Engineer, Scientist, Inventor Philo of Byzantium was a Greek scientist and mechanical engineer that invented, in the field of the mechanics, was machines and automata. About his biography very few is known, we just know that he was born in Byzantium, lived some years in Rhodes in and several years in Alexandria, probably at the great Library. Very probably was scholar of Ctesibius. He was author of several tratises the most important of which is Mechanike syntaxis (Compendium of Mechanics) in 9 books in which mainly war techniques, port building, pneumatic machines and automata were exposed. Unfortunately, only the books IV-V translated in Arabic language and some extracts of the books VII e VIII are available. The books of main interest for the mechanics were: Belopoeica on the throwing war machines, Pneumatica, on the pneumatic machines (that reached us in its translation in Arabic language), Automatopoeica on the automata making. Of particulat interest are the catapult powered by bronze spring and the ballista powered by air spring; a reconstruction of those machines is allegated to this biographical file. Also the invention of the Cardan joint is credited to Philo. Some inventions by Philo are cited by Vitruvius |
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variant spelling: Filone di Bisanzio |
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