In Ancient Greece, inventor and mathematician Archimedes created three simple machines: The Archimedes Water Screw, the compound pulley, and the lever. The Archimedes Water Screw, invented in 234 B.C.E, was thought up by Archimedes while he was walking on a beach in Alexandria, Egypt. He saw a conch shell, and the shape of it gave him the idea of an endless screw that could carry water. After building it, the invention became very popular in Syracuse since it meant that people wouldn’t have to carry heavy buckets full of water up and down hills - they could simply turn a lever and collect it at the top. It was also used to get water out of the bottom of boats, which worked much more quickly and effectively than using containers or bowls.

Around this same time he fabricated the compound pulley, used to lift large objects that would normally take multiple men to lift. While the Romans were attacking Syracuse, Archimedes combined the idea of the compound pulley and the lever to create the Archimedes Claw. This was used by throwing a grappling hook over the cliffs to the sea; then they would hook on, and the people above would turn a crank which would lift whole Roman boats up vertically, oftentimes hitting the cliff walls, and then dropping them back in the water. Hundreds of Romans died or were severely injured because of this invention. Archimedes invented multiple other weapons, and eventually the Greeks could simply lift up a mirror or a piece of wood and the Romans would be scared away, thinking it was another one of his inventions. 

-EJR