The modern cam is a complex and sophisticated organ. Early cams, on the other hand, were quite rudimentary. At first they were widely used because they were the simplest means of converting a continuous rotary motion into an alternating motion. The oldest documented camshafts in Europe are those described by Heron in the Greco-Roman era. These devices were used for amusement or spectacle. It is possible to attribute the lack of evidence for industrial applications of cams to a lack of interest on the part of writers. However, it is more likely that such applications did not exist due to the cultural attitudes of the ancients. Indeed, it appears that the ancients were not interested in using machines to alleviate the fatigue of manual labor or to increase production. Machines were used only to perform operations that were otherwise impossible, such as lifting heavy loads. In fact, the only machines powered by external sources of energy and designed for production are the grain mills necessary to supply flour to the large populations of cities. China claims a temporal priority over other countries in the invention and use of cams. It would be interesting to delve deeper into the history of cams in China and follow their possible spread to neighboring countries. However, the scarcity of available documentation would make this analysis extremely difficult and beyond the scope of this book. In the following chapters, therefore, we will resume the history of cams, most of which are based on European technology.

1. 1.

   Gies F & J, pp. 36, 37, say: “The Roman economy, in short, was weak in the dynamics that make for the creation and diffusion of technological innovation. The succeeding age, developing different social and economic structures, created a new environment more congenial to technology.”

Authors and Affiliations

1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

   Umberto Meneghetti

Appendix: The Mill and the Water Nymphs

It is certainly true to say that the ancients had no great interest in alleviating human fatigue. However, it is always possible to find a contradiction when statements are too rigid. In fact, a Greek poet of the Hellenistic age, Antipater of Thessalonica, who lived in the first century A.D., wrote verses which, according to the Italian version (Pontani1980), can be translated as follows:

• There on the millstones stop, you miller girls, your hand! Sleep,

• Even if the cock announces the dawn, long sleep!

• Behold: imposed upon the Nymphs your toil Demeter:

• By jumping on the top of the wheel

• They turn the axle, which imprints at the concave mass

• Of Nisyros’ millstones the impulse.

• Without fatigue, enjoying what Demeter produces,

• We return to the taste of the primeval age

As we can see, these verses are a celebration of the myth of the water nymphs who made possible the transition from the mill moved by maidens to the mill moved by water, thus making human work easier. A small contradiction, however: the statement comes from a poet, and it is no coincidence that the work in question is that of a mill for grinding wheat.

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