Archimedes and partners are still in business after 2000 years. Using a device invented in the 3rd century B.C., a derelict power plant in the Yorkshire Dales starts doing business again.

Archimedes was born 287 B.C. in Syracuse in Sicily, Italy. Syracuse was a rich Greek colony at that time. He is best known for his calculation principle on density of objects. He also formulated the principles and laws governing lever forces. Attributed to him are the Archimedean screw and the use of mirrors to use sunlight as an energy source.

The screw as envisioned by him was rather a spiral put onto a cylinder. It was tightly fitted into a tube. Putting one end into water and the other on dry land, it could be used to pump water upwards over short distances simply by turning the screw by hand. Such devices are used to this day in the Middle East by farmers watering their fields.

The screw is also widely used in modern machines. Powered by electricity, you might find them anywhere in the world. They are used in water irrigation systems, water drainage systems, where sludge has to be moved, or for upward transport of powders and dry corn type materials.

Image credit: Public Schools in Regensburg

These days, power technology rediscovered the old man’s screw to produce electricity. In a reversed principle, the water flowing downstream is forced to run through an Archimedean screw. The screw is turned by the force of the water and the end result is electricity.

British Heritage owns a power plant dating from 1909 at Linton Falls in the Yorkshire Dales. It was decommissioned in1948 and has been preserved for the sake of being one of the first power plants in the country. Now it will be fitted with two such screws to produce 510,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

As the river Wharfe is a small watercourse with no spectacular gradient, this could prove to be a future source of energy for many countries around the world. The screws are wide enough to let fish through unharmed should they get caught in it. There is no need to build a dam and thereby no restriction for fish from going upstream. Such a power plant could be built on almost all little rivers that carry more water than a trickle.

Image credit: wikimedia

Besides Archimedes there were many other Greek, Roman, and Arabian thinkers who came up with energy efficient ways of doing things. History is a good teacher, and it may be hoped that more scientists will feel the need to copy old wisdom.