The spiral pattern around the trunk of
the tree resembles the shape of a screw,
the kind of screw used for drawing water
uphill. Silent and able to keep a
constant amount of water flowing against
gravity, it would have been an
engineering breakthrough. Sennacherib was
using the shape of a date palm to
describe an Archimedes screw. When you
invent something you've got to find
words for it --like on your computer you
have this mouse. Well, you know that could
be quite perplexing in the future for
people who talk about mice on desks.
Here we've got something that maybe they've
already invented, and they know what it
looks like, but how are they going to
find a word for it? They look in nature
for something that has it too. And this
is what provides them with a word that
they can use for it, that everybody will
understand. The Archimedes screw is named
after the Greek who is believed to have
invented it but it seems Sennacherib was
using it 400 years before
Archimedes was even born.
I looked at
what various writers had said about
Archimedes and the water raising screw
and they thought the screw itself was
older than Archimedes so I felt some
relief at that because you don't want to
go out too much on a limb. So that groove
solved this enormous problem of raising
water from that aqueduct halfway up the
garden and getting it right up to the
top above the pillared walkway and he
does it with these screws and that is a
stroke of genius really.
