8 Modern Inventions That Are Actually Super Ancient

3. Ancient Greek Death Rays

Still in Ancient Greece here, those guys were certainly busy.

Death rays seem like such a modern invention that they still have one foot planted in the realms of science fiction, but some experts believe that ancient Greek polymath and all-round boffin, Archimedes, may have been using heat rays to ignite enemy ships all the way back in the 2nd century AD.

Although some debate the veracity of these claims, modern researchers, most notably Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas, have attempted to recreate the device described in ancient texts using only materials available to Archimedes. Using an array highly polished bronze mirrors, they were able to cause a mock ship to burst into flames from a distance of 50 metres. The common shipbuilding method of coating wooden planks in tar paint would have made those boats like floating piles of kindling.

Other experiments by MIT and Mythbusters have had mixed success with the technique but, given the right conditions, Ancient Death Rays are pretty feasible.