- Artificial Limb
The earliest written reference to an artificial limb occurs in an epic Indian poem, the "Rig-Veda," which was compiled between 3500 and 1800 B.C.E. Written in
Sanskrit, the poem includes a description of the amputation of the warrior Queen Vishpla's leg during battle. Later fitted with an iron prosthesis by the Ashvins (celestial physicians), she returned to combat.
Most authorities doubt the story of Queen Vishpla, and turn to the Histories of Herodotus for the first plausible reference to a prosthetic limb. Herodouts describes how, in the mid sixth century B.C.E., Hegesistratus of Elis, a Persian soldier and seer imprisoned by the Spartans, was sentenced to death, and cut off part of his foot to escape from the stocks. Hegesistratus fashioned a wooden prosthesis to help walk the 30 miles (48 km) to Tregea, but unfortunately was captured by Zaccynthius and beheaded.
In the first century B.C.E., Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History of Marcus Sergius, a Roman general who led his legion against Carthage in the Second Punic War (218 to 210 B.C.E). The general sustained twenty-three injuries, necessitating the amputation of his right arm. An iron hand was fashioned to hold his shield, and he returned to battle. He fought four more battles, and had two horses killed from beneath him.
The oldest known prosthesis was discovered in a tomb in Capua, Italy, in 1858. Made of copper and wood, it dates to 300 B.C.E., during the period of the Samnite Wars. Regrettably, the Capua leg did not survive another war-it was destroyed in 1941 when the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons was seriously damaged in an air raid.
SEE ALSO: CARPENTRY, ANESTHESIA, SPECTACLES, JOINTED ARTIFICIAL LIMB, ARTIFICIAL HEART
- Astrolabe
An astrolabe is a device with which astronomers solved problems relating to time and the position of the sun and stars in the sky. Its main element is a two dimensional circular stereo graphic projection of the hemispherical sky. The projection was most probably formalized by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.E.), who worked on the island of Rhodes.
The astrolabe was suspended vertically and a cross-arm was used to measure the altitude above the horizon of the sun (in the day) and bright stars (at night). The rim of the astrolabe is marked off in months, days, and hours, and most astrolabes have a series of longitude specific circular main plates each marked off with lines of constant altitudes, azimuths, declinations, and right ascensions. Fitting over the plate is a cutaway fretwork (a “rete") that delineates that portion of the celestial sphere that can be seen above the horizon at any specitic time at a specific latitude. The rete contains pointers that mark the positions of about twelve of the brightest stars.
By noting the elevation of the sun, or these bright stars, the traveller can tell the time of day or night. By nothing how well the observed star positions correspond to a specific plate, the travellers can estimate their latitude. The stellar positions also enable the accurate establishment of north on the horizon.
Claudius Ptolemy (c. 85-165 C.E.) wrote about the stereographic projection and probably Owned an astrolabe. The astrolabe was popular n the Islamic world because it enabled Muslims to ascertain prayer times and the direction of Mecca. The oldest existing instruments date from the tenth century C.E.
SEE ALSO: MAP, MAGNETIC COMPASS, GYROCOMPASS,
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)