Ctesibius: The Father of Pneumatics and Inventor of the Hydraulis

Ctesibius, a Greek inventor and mathematician from Alexandria, was known for his groundbreaking inventions, including the hydraulis, a precursor to the modern pipe organ, and his pioneering work on pneumatics. He was also a skilled engineer, improving water clocks and developing force pumps, leaving a lasting impact on technology and science.

Greek inventor and mathematician

Ctesibius
Born	Before 285 BCE
Died	c. 222 BCE Alexandria, Egypt
Nationality	Alexandrian Greek
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics

Ctesibius' water clock, as visualized by the 17th-century French architect Claude Perrault

Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius (Greek: Κτησίβιος; fl. 285–222 BCE) was a Greek inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. Very little is known of Ctesibius' life, but his inventions were well known in his lifetime. He was likely the first head of the Museum of Alexandria. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps (and even in a kind of cannon). This, in combination with his work On pneumatics on the elasticity of air, earned him the title of "father of pneumatics." None of his written work has survived, including his Memorabilia, a compilation of his research that was cited by Athenaeus. Ctesibius' most commonly known invention today is a pipe organ (hydraulis), a predecessor of the modern church organ.

Inventions

Ctesibius was the son of a barber, born c. 300 BCE, probably – but not certainly – in Alexandria. He began his career as a barber, following his father.

During this first career, he invented a counterweight-adjustable mirror. Another of his inventions was the hydraulis, a water organ that is considered the precursor of the modern pipe organ and the first keyboard instrument. He and his wife Thais were reputed to be highly-skilled players of the instrument. He improved the water clock or clepsydra ('water thief'), which for more than 1,800 years was the most accurate clock ever constructed, until the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens' invention of the pendulum clock in 1656. Ctesibius described one of the first force pumps for producing a jet of water, or for lifting water from wells. Examples have been found at various Roman sites, such as at Silchester in Britain. The principle of the siphon has also been attributed to him.

Hydraulic clock of Ctesibius, reconstruction at the Technological Museum of Thessaloniki

Reputation

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Ctesibius was miserably poor. Laërtius details this by recounting the following concerning the philosopher Arcesilaus:

When he had gone to visit Ctesibius who was ill, seeing him in great distress from want, he secretly slipped his purse under his pillow; and when Ctesibius found it, "This," said he, "is the amusement of Arcesilaus."

Ctesibius's work is chronicled by Vitruvius, Athenaeus, Pliny the Elder, and Philo of Byzantium who repeatedly mention him, adding that the first mechanicians such as Ctesibius had the advantage of being under kings who loved fame and supported the arts. Proclus (the commentator on Euclid) and Hero of Alexandria (the last of the engineers of antiquity) also mention him.

Commemoration

In 1976, the crater on the far side of the Moon was named Ctesibius by the International Astronomical Union.