Hero of Alexandria, who lived in the second century BC, might be described as the Heath Robinson of his generation.
It must be said, of course, that he made several memorable contributions to science and mathematics. He devised, for example, a novel method for calculating the area of a triangle, in order to resolve boundary problems which arose between neighbouring farmers when the flooding of the Nile had washed away the usual landmarks.
But his forte was the invention of ingenious and fantastic contraptions of various kinds, among them a forerunner of the steam engine and an automatic fountain worked by air pressure.
Hero seems to have worked closely with the established priesthood of the day and he invented little gadgets which allowed them to conjure up a miracle or two.
One such involved using a lamp placed in front of a sacred effigy to create steam, which in turn pressed down upon the surface of a volume of wine; the wine was thus forced from its container into a tube which led it to the high altar, giving the impression that the effigy had miraculously provided a contribution towards the sacrifice to the god being worshipped at the time.
Hero is also allegedly responsible for the mysterious "voice of thunder" emanating from the doors of the Temple of the Labyrinth at Crocodilopolis. Crocodilopolis was the name given by the ancient Greeks, for reasons about which we can only speculate, to the ancient Egyptian town of Arsinoe.
It was the centre of worship of the Egyptian god Sobek, who was depicted as a human form with the head of a crocodile and who had the Temple of the Labyrinth as his inner sanctum. The "voice of thunder" was described by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who noted: "When the priests open the doors, a thunder springs up terrible within."
This mimicry of the sound of one of nature's most powerful forces obviously provided a potent voice of authority for the ruling priests as they tried to manipulate the masses, and Hero's device for achieving it was most ingenious.
Apparently a cord, hidden from the view of supplicants entering the temple, ran from the door over a pulley to a lever which was attached to a large, trumpet-like musical instrument. In place of a normal mouthpiece, however, the trumpet had attached to it a large hollow brass hemisphere, which was suspended above a cistern of water.
As the door of the temple opened, the cord lowered the ensemble into the cistern. The pressure under the inverted hemisphere then forced air through the trumpet's throat. Voila! - the thunder.