What's New To See In Greece? More on Archimedes' Museum and Semaphore

Greek flag from Wikipedia

Water, water, everywhere in Greece, also in the Archimedes Museum. What's new to see in Greece?  After the Acropolis and all that. Archimedes' Museum, in the centre of ancient Olympia, where you can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. That's the modern part and the link between old and new is fascinating. The modern museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls and columns. There's a lot of that in Greece, every city has something, several. But most fascinating if you head south west of Athens, to the Kalamata airport and onwards, is the Archimedes Museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a spiral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was a prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things. Our Greek friends, Ancient world Archimedes uses water to do everything.

Semaphore
Most amusing to me is the semaphore. You probably know modern semaphore as signalling with flags using levers. Archimedes system was more primitive but quite amazingly simple and effective.

Archimedes realised that you only want to send twenty urgent messages. (Assuming you don't want to say, hello, I love you or come home darling, twenty miles up and downhill for dinner.)

You are sending simple messages, probably something urgent like: the city is in trouble, flee, dragons are killing everybody, the enemy is approaching, has reached us, is killing us, fire, we are flooded, send help immediately (as fast as you can within 3 days, 2 days if you can make it), storms over us will reach you soon, Gods are angry, I am dying, goodbye.

You (Archimedes) stood on one hilltop next to a large water container. Inside were the twenty vital messages written on something waterproof.

You signalled to the person on the next hilltop to start ladling out the water into a second container. When the message you wanted rose to the top and could be read, you signalled stop.

What about the removed water? You just tip the container of removed water so it fills up the bigger one again.

This relies on having somebody at the other hill to read. But that applies to all messaging and signalling.

If you are technically minded, you may be interested in pulleys and belts, perpetual screws and gears, bolts and nuts, sprockets and roller chains. If you are more interested in daily life and amusements, you might be amused by the 'cinema, the hydraulic clock, the catapult and the puppet-show (a bit like the clocks you see over town gates and on buildings in France and Germany and the UK in Cardiff, Wales, where the little figures move on the hour or every day at noon).

Three linked museums may interest you:

Archimedes' Museum

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

The museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments and Toys

www.kotsanas.com

Read my earlier and later posts on the Greek alphabet and Greek food and wine.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, speaker.

What's New To See In Greece? Archimedes' Museum, Ancient Olympia

What's new to see in Greece? Archimedes' Museum is in the centre of ancient Olympia. You can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. The museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls, columns and so on. There's a lot of that in Greece. But most fascinating is the Archimedes museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a viral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was aa prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things.

The Names Olympia and Peloponnese
Where is Ancient Olympia? On the Peloponnese peninsular. (How do you remember the spelling? Which is the double letter? I think of Pelop on knees. Double N.)

In Greek the site is known as Olympia Archaia. (From the Greek word root we get our English word archaic meaning old).

I searched on the internet to see how many places are known as Olympia. The modern city of Olympia is the capital of Washington state on the west coast of the USA.

In London, Olympia is a large exhibition hall.  The railway station alongside is known as 'Kensington (Olympia)'.

Flights to Olympia from London
British Airways goes from Heathrow to Kalamata. The fare was under £100 one way. Strangely the return was not £200 but nearer £400. However, an internet search revealed a flight on Easy Jet back from Kalamata to Gatwick for about £100.

Now, British Airways sounds a bit grander than Easy Jet. But for convenience, why not book both ways on Easy Jet? Because the flight from Gatwick left too early in the morning - one would have had to leave London before the underground trains started running.

(If you were starting from the USA, or from London, not on a budget, you might fly to Heathrow or Gatwick and stay at a hotel overnight.)

However, our travellers were starting from London. The trains back to north London or the north of England from Gatwick went one of two routes involving a change in south or west London. (Two passengers who took the trip via London were carrying rucksacks - on a budget one week trip on a walking holiday around Greece.)

More details on the museums from:

www.kotsanas.com

visitgreece.gr

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, speaker.