NAMESAKE
 
 

 

 Eureka... I have found it!
Widely believed to be Archimedes' reaction when discovering the concept of water displacement while stepping into a bath and observing the overflow.  This discovery is know as Archimedes' Principle.  
 

Archimedes (287-212 bc), is generally regarded as the greatest mathematician and scientist of antiquity and one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time.  He wrote important works on plane and solid geometry, arithmetic, and mechanics. 

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily, and educated in Alexandria, Egypt.  In pure mathematics he anticipated many of the discoveries of modern science, such as integral calculus, through his studies of the areas and volumes of curved solid figures and the areas of plane figures. In mechanics, Archimedes defined the principle of the lever and is credited with inventing the compound pulley.

        
During his stay in Egypt he invented the hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to a higher level. He is best known for discovering the law of hydrostatics, often called Archimedes' Principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces.

Archimedes was also making war machines for the defense of his city. He managed to make such devices that could sink the ships of the approaching enemies. He built a catapult to launce a "claw" at a ship and a series of elevators to lift the enemy ships and let them fall again crashing into the water. It is also legend that he designed (but unlikely that he could actually use), a number of reflectors using the concentrated sun energy to burn ships were not close enough for the claw.  He also used a lot of variations of catapults to throw stones, burning material etc. against the enemy.  Miscellaneous other inventions include a canon that was working with steam power, a steam engine to lift weights and number of clocks driven  by water flow. 
 
From Plutarch (Greek, c. 45-120 AD) Parallel Lives: Marcellus.  "When Archimedes began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible noise and violence; against which no man could stand; for they knocked down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking all their ranks and files.  In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls over the ships sunk some by the great weights which they let down from on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane's beak and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the sea.
     

For a much more in depth look, visit a site dedicated to Archimedes.