The numerous inventions of Archimedes.
They were each created with some other use in mind, but ended up being turned into tools of war.
For example, the Archimedes screw (Syrakouson Methodos, or Syracusan Method) made it possible to create the giant warship Syracusia. In short, it’s a screw pump.
(Syracusia sailed only once, to berth in Alexandria, where she was later given to Ptolemy — Ptolemaios III Euergetes of Egypt — and renamed “Alexandria.”)
The versatile ancient Greek war ship is said to have used a screw-shaped mechanism to expel water from the ship. These screws are also said to have been used in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Archimedes expounded on the principle of the spiral, which his screw employs, in the treatise On Spirals, which he addressed to Dositheus of Pelusium, a student under Conon of Samos. It is known as one of the first considerations of a curved line that includes a spiral in the mathematics of ancient Greek era.
Another invention was the Claw of Archimedes (Syrakouson Harpage, or Syracusan Plunderer), a giant weaponized crane.
Archimedes employed many variations of this device as his main weapon.
It was originally a machine set on the coast, used to destroy ships that tried to land in Syracuse. Variations on the Claw could lift invading ships, using a pendular motion to throw them afar, or capture them by throwing a net.
Finally, there’s the Scale of Archimedes (Wizard of the Balances),
A transportation device that would move even Heaven and Earth if it had the minimum required tools and output to do so.
Archimedes theorized about levers and balance in The Method of Mechanical Theorems and On the Equilibrium of Planes.
According to Pappus of Alexandria, who flourished in the otherwise stagnant period of mathematical studies in the fourth century AD, it was Archimedes’ work on levers that prompted his famous quote: “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.” Plutarch, as well, claimed that Archimedes was able to use the pulley and scale to transport objects.
Because of this, Archimedes is called “The Wizard of Balance” within the world of mathematics. In fact, a certain study published on the works of Archimedes, by Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd., is called The Wizard of Balance - The Numbers of Archimedes.