First Steam Powered Machine, aeolipile

"The invention of the first steam-propelled mechanism, the aeolipile, dates to the first century [BCE] and can be credited to Hero of Alexandria, an Alexandrian scientist and inventor . . . Hero named his steam-powered machine after Aeolus, the Greek god of wind. His description of the device and how to use it was relatively brief. "Place a cauldron over a fire: a ball shall revolve on a pivot, “began the brief passage in his Pneumatics. The aeolipile’s operator was then instructed to light a fire” under a cauldron containing water and covered at the mouth by the lid; with this, the bent tube communicates, the extremity of the tube being fitted into a hollow ball . . . As the cauldron gets hot, it will be found that the steam entering the ball passes out through the bent tubes towards the lid and causes the ball to revolve.”"