Claw of Archimedes Claw of Archimedes The Claw (, "harpágē", "snatcher") of Archimedes (also known as the "iron hand") was an ancient weapon devised by Archimedes to defend the seaward portion of Syracuse's city wall against amphibious assault. Although its exact nature is unclear, the accounts of ancient historians seem to describe it as a sort of crane equipped with a grappling hook that was able to lift an attacking ship partly out of the water, then either cause the ship to capsize or suddenly drop it. These machines featured prominently during the Second Punic War in 214 BC, when the Roman Republic
Trammel of Archimedes Trammel of Archimedes A trammel of Archimedes is a mechanism that generates the shape of an ellipse. It consists of two shuttles which are confined ("") to perpendicular channels or rails and a rod which is attached to the shuttles by pivots at fixed positions along the rod. As the shuttles move back and forth, each along its channel, the end of the rod moves in an elliptical path. The semi-axes "a" and "b" of the ellipse have lengths equal to the distances from the end of the rod to each of the two pivots. An ellipsograph is a trammel