More engines: the machines are on the record

Year: 2015 · Places: Europe, Africa

SUMMARYMore engines: the machines are on the record (Nov 6, 2026). Record: Tikal's reservoirs had zeolite water filters by about the 1st century BCE, the oldest known in the world (Tankersley et al., Scientific Reports 2020). Record: Nazca puquios, spiral-shaft aqueducts still running. Record: liquid mercury under Teotihuacan's Feathered Serpent temple (INAH, 2015); purpose OPEN. Record: Ctesibius's force pump and feedback water clock (3rd c. BCE); Hierapolis sawmill relief, the oldest known crank and connecting rod (3rd c. CE); Barbegal's 16 stepped waterwheels; Han cast iron and Du Shi's water-powered bellows (31 CE); the south-pointing chariot's differential gearing. Record: ScanPyramids muon scans found a large void (Nature 2017) and a hidden corridor (2023); purpose OPEN. Record: Petrie measured tube-drill cores in granite (1883); cutting rate Disputed. Record: Baalbek blocks of about 800 tonnes in the wall and about 1,650 tonnes in the quarry (DAI, 2014); who started the platform Disputed. Record: Polynesian wayfinding, Hōkūleʻa Hawaiʻi to Tahiti with no instruments (1976). Disputed: Archimedes's ship-lifting "claw." Lens: the Americas and Africa carried engineering the textbook gives to Europe; Rule 14, who set the "first" dates. Layer: chronoseer/oldtech (53 rows).
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