clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> (A modern-times alternative, which can reach quite astonishing lifting 
> heights even when just a small height difference is available in the 
> water source, would be a hydraulic ram.)

  Good to see that not all ingenuity has died with modern times... :)

  A more complicated invention of antiquity is the so-called south-pointing
chariot. A Chinese invention which is, basically, a chariot with a figure
on top which always points in the same geographical direction regardless of
how the chariot is moved and turned. In other words, the figure acts as a
non-magnetic compass, obviously very useful for travelling long distances.
The invention might be as old as from 2600 BC (although with certainty it's
at least from 200 AD).

  Now that one requires a bit more engineer ingenuity to build.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pointing_Chariot

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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