Eureka
There was a time when most schoolchildren in America would have been able to explain why Eureka vacuum cleaners bear that name.
The origin of “Eureka” lies in Ancient Greece, where, according to legend, a certain King of Syracuse commissioned a goldsmith to fashion a new crown for him. The King suspected that the artisan had substituted cheaper silver, and turned to the philosopher Archimedes for a way to prove his case. While mulling the problem over, Archimedes decided to take a bath. While getting into his bath, he noticed that the water rose as he sat down, and realized that gold, being denser than silver, would displace less water than silver, and that the honesty of the King’s goldsmith could be measured by just such a simple test. When Archimedes realized this, goes the story, he leaped from the bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse stark naked shouting “Eureka! Eureka!”, which is Greek for “I have found it!”
Fast forward now to Detroit in 1909, where businessman Fred Wardell was founding his company to produce a new lightweight kind of vacuum cleaner. Dreaming of revolutionizing the industry, Wardell felt that “Eureka” was the perfect name for his creation, and within a few years the industry apparently agreed, awarding Eureka the Grand Prize at the 1915 San Francisco International Exposition. And Fred Wardell didn’t even have to get in a bathtub.
Comments
One Response to “Eureka”
Got something to say?
You’ve skipped an important step in Archimedes’ process. He needed to know the density of the crown, to tell if it was gold or silver, but only knew how to obtain its weight. Without knowing the volume as well, he could not calculate its density. The bath inspiration gave him a method to measure the volume of the crown, not its density (directly). By submerging the crown, he could measure the water it displaced to find its volume and hence its density and composition.