According to the popular historical legend, the famous ancient Greek scientist defended his native Syracuse and created a system of mirrors, thanks to which the rays of the sun ignited the corps of Roman warships.

Here's what Vladimir Fortunatov writes about this case in his book "World History in Persons":" The work of Archimedes was clearly manifested in military affairs. He first arranged loopholes in the walls, and after all, firearms appeared only after a half millennium after his death! He is credited with the creation of radial weapons: with the help of thousands of mirrors, the Archimedes managed to focus the rays of the sun and direct them to the enemy’s wooden ships, which burned down. In the siracuse besieged by the Romans, throwing machines acted, which accurately beat on the enemy. The mighty "iron paws", moving out of the fortress, captured enemy ships and turned them over. In modern scientific documentary films, you can find the reconstruction of Archimedes inventions and understand the outrage of Titus Libya. Such people cannot be killed. In the worst case, they can be kept in "sharashki", as Stalin and Beria did. "

The poet turned to legend in his works Valery Bryusov. She is mentioned "Gazeta.ru","RBC","Russian newspaper","Radio Liberty" Lenta.ru And many other media.

Siege of siracuse The Roman army lasted about two years (214–212 BC) and ended with the seizure of the ancient Greek port. Archimedes, according to a number of sources, participating in the defense of his hometown, was killed by a Roman soldier after the siege.

In the works of ancient historians, the times of Archimedes, there are no mentioning his mirrors. In three famous descriptions of the Syracuse storm - - Polybia (II century BC), Titus Libya (I century BC) and Plutarch (I century n.) - the use of fire does not appear at all. Plutarch mentions defensive machines designed by Archimedes, but he is talking about throwing stones and arrows. But the Greek satirist Lucian reportsthat Archimedes "burned enemy ships with the help of his art." To him echoes And the Roman doctor Galen: "They say, and Archimedes settled triremes of the enemy with incendiary mirrors." Both authors lived in the II century n. e., when the legend of mirrors, apparently, gained great popularity.

The description of the mirror structure was preserved in two free Byzantine retelling of the uniting part of the "Roman history" Diodorus of Sicilian - historian of the 1st century BC. e.

1. “Archimedes ... The Roman fleet burned in the most incredible way. Having directed a special kind of mirror in the sun, he collected the beams of its rays and, thanks to the thickness and smoothness of the mirror, managed to light the air so that a colossal flame arose. He directed the rays to the ships standing, and they burned to the ground. "

2. “When Marcellus removed the ships to a distance exceeding the flight of the arrows, the old man built a special hexagonal mirror; At a distance, proportional to the size of the mirror, he arranged similar quadrangular mirrors that could be moved using special levers and hinges. He turned the mirror to the semi -divided sun - winter or summer - and when the beams of rays were reflected in it, a huge flame broke out on ships and turned them into ashes from the distance of the shooting of the arrow. ”

Later Byzantine scientist of the VI century Anfimiy from the trail He also developed, according to a number of sources, built a system of 24 incendiary mirrors. However, there is no reason to believe that Anfimiya mirrors were identical to Archimedes's mirrors, if the latter existed at all.

In modern times, one of the first attempts to implement the system of Anfimiya was undertaken by a German mathematician and philologist Athanasius Kirher. In a treatise published in 1646 "Great art of light and shadow" He reports that he tried to combine the reflection of the sun from five flat mirrors and received significant heating, although not enough for ignition of a tree. Here it is necessary to clarify that Archimedes, according to Kirher, was supposed to apply a bunch of concentrated rays, supposedly able to light a tree at any distance.

That's just 40 years before the publication of Kirher, the famous French mathematician Rene Descartes in his Dioptrick proved that it is impossible to reduce sunlight at one point, as well as to create a parallel bunch of burning rays. “The incendiary mirror, the diameter of which is smaller than the hundredth of the distance between it and the place where the sun's rays are concentrated ... even if it were polished by an angel, it cannot ... heat the place more than the rays radiated directly by the Sun, - Writes Descartes. - Only people who are not too knowledgeable in optics are convinced of the reality of many fables; These mirrors, with the help of which Archimedes supposedly burned out the ships from afar, were extremely large, or, more likely, did not exist at all. ”

A century later, the famous natural scientist Georges-Louis Buffon turned to this topic. In his work, the “Invention of Mirrors to ignite objects over long distances”, he spoke about a series of experiments in which he managed to achieve certain success - up to the ignition of a spruce targeted board at a distance of 150 feet (45 m) with the help of 128 mirrors.

The experiments of the Buffon, a rather influential scientist of his time, revived the faded interest in the story of Archimedes's mirrors. And in the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI centuries, representatives of modern science decided to give their answer to many generations that excites many generations.

In the work “Reflections on“ Last mining mirrors of Archimedes ”, published in 1992 in the“ European Physical Journal ”, scientists Mills and Clift Counted: To just make wood flush at a distance of 50 m, 440 flat mirrors with an area of 1 m will be required² Each. However, in this case, the smoldering tree can be easily extinguished, dousing it with salty water. Scientists doubted that in 214 BC. e. On Sicily, it could be produced, perfectly polished and effectively used as many as 440 mirrors, despite the fact that it was a rare and scarce product during the times of antiquity.

Cesare Rossi, a mechanical engineer from the University of Neapolitan, He thinksthat mirrors were unlikely to support the correct focus on ships, which not only moved on the water, but also swayed on the waves. He calls a much more likely to use Archimedes of a steam gun. Such guns could shoot with hollow balls of clay filled with incendiary chemical mixture - “Greek fire”. When heated, the barrel of the gun would turn 30 g of water into steam sufficient to throw a whole shell. Many years later, another great scientist and artist - Leonardo da Vinci, depicted and attributed to the authorship of Archimedes many years later.

In October 2005, a group of students of the Massachusetts Technological Institute conducted an experiment with a layout of a wooden ship at a distance of about 100 feet (30 m). The flame was called with great difficulty - only after the sky became cloudless, and the ship remained motionless for about ten minutes. Later, the same people repeated the experiment for the famous television show "Destroyers of Legends", using a wooden fishing boat in San Francisco as a target. And again in the end succeeded achieve carbonization and small flame. However, in the end, the experiment fell into the category “failed” for a number of reasons, namely:

1) Syracuse in which the legend takes place, look to the east. Therefore, their inhabitants could not use the most intense midday rays, instead relying on less powerful morning rays.
2) “Archimedes mirrors” are useless in at least a little cloudy weather.
3) Most likely, the enemy ships were in motion, so the mirrors had to be re -focus every second.
4) Neither fire nor the mirror for a long time were mentioned in historical sources when describing the battle.
5) For arson of ships, a huge amount of mirrors and auxiliary products would be required at that time.

The Mythbusters team concluded that it would be much more effective to use ordinary burning arrows or analogues of Molotov cocktail. It should be noted that this was the second attempt by the creators of the program to confirm the myth, however, the first one at one time It failed. And in 2010, US President Barack Obama He called The creators of the show conduct the third experiment. This time, 500 students tried to focus mirrors on the sail of a layout of a Roman ship, located at a distance of 120 m from them. However, the sail could not reach a temperature of 210 ° C necessary for ignition. In the program, it was decided that the main effect of mirrors could only be the blinding or distraction of the crew of the ship.

Thus, both most modern experiments (requiring compliance with a number of conditions), as well as the lack of information about Archimedes mirrors in the most ancient sources about the siege of Syracuse, they say about one thing: most likely, this legend does not have real reasons.