In the manuscript of the 13th century philosopher Roger Bacon, you can read about many wonderful instruments of antiquity and even the submarine of Alexander the Great!
Amazing doctor
Roger Bacon was nicknamed the Amazing Doctor for a reason. He was a Franciscan friar, while a philosopher and naturalist and professor of theology at Oxford. He studied mathematics, chemistry and physics; in optics, he developed theories about magnifying glasses, refraction of rays, perspective, the magnitude of visible objects, etc.
Among other things, Bacon was fond of esotericism and, judging by his work Opus Tertium, belonged to a narrow circle of people who knew the secret of the philosopher's stone.
He wrote many interesting works, however, the most amazing of them - Epistola fratris Rogeris Baconis de secretis operibus artis et naturae, et de nullitate magiae ("The message of the monk Roger Bacon on the secret actions of art and nature and the insignificance of magic"). It was written in 1267.
The author of the "Message" talked about how a person can easily create various amazing tools, and, moreover, these tools and mechanisms may have existed in the past.
Promotional video:
Like a flying bird
In his work, Roger Bacon argued that, for example, large ships without oarsmen that cross rivers and seas, driven by one person, and at a faster speed than if they were filled with oarsmen, is not fantastic.
The philosopher wrote that "carts can also be created that would move without draft animals with unimaginable speed." At the same time, he casually notes that these were the "war chariots armed with sickles, on which the ancients fought."
The amazing doctor also mentioned flying mechanisms: "Instruments for flight can also be created: so that a man sits in the middle of the instrument, rotating some invention, with the help of which artificially created wings would move, striking the air, in the manner of a flying bird."
Bacon also wrote about a mysterious instrument, which has no analogues in the 21st century: “A small instrument can also be created that would raise and lower unthinkable weights (there is nothing more useful than such an instrument in a certain situation). For with the help of an instrument three fingers high and of the same width and even smaller, a person could go up and down without any danger of imprisonment."
It is interesting that Bacon talked about a certain mysterious magnet for people, the analogs of which are also not invented today: “You can also easily create a tool with which one person can forcibly pull a thousand people against their will”.
Submarine of Alexander the Great
But the real sensation in this manuscript is the claim that Alexander the Great had … submarines!
“Instruments can also be created to travel underwater seas and rivers - until reaching the bottom, and without any bodily danger. For Alexander the Great used such tools in order to discover the secrets of the sea, as the astronomer Ethic says.
The manuscript ends with a statement that all these amazing instruments and mechanisms were present in antiquity: “And all this was created in antiquity and, definitely, created in our time, except perhaps an instrument for flying, which I did not see and did not know a person who would see him. But I know a sage who figured out how to make it. And an uncountable number of such can be created, for example, bridges across rivers without supports or any support, and unheard of mechanisms and inventions."
I must say that for many centuries this manuscript was little known, and only now, when we really have submarines, airplanes and helicopters, it began to arouse serious interest among researchers.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №12, Natalia Trubinovskaya