Short Story: A Sunny Day In Syracuse

Short Story: A Sunny Day In Syracuse

I knew Archi well. I worked for him for five years, right up to the end in fact.

They used to call him Mad Archi in those days, not that he was mad.

Anything but, the cleverest man I ever knew.

But he was a stubborn old bugger; got him killed in the end.

His critics always harked back to the story of the bath of course, but when Archi was engrossed in a problem, he just forgot about everything else, and when he solved it he got so excited he just had to rush out and tell everybody.

The fact that he was having a bath at the time was obscured by the solution, and he rushed into the street, stark as the day he was born shouting, ‘Eureka!’ at the top of his voice.

The discovery was pretty important I suppose. At last you could tell fake gold from the real thing, but I never really understood how it worked.

I preferred the more practical inventions, building the models and trying them out.

Then the year I was eighteen, fate, in the shape the Roman republic, took a hand, and my tranquil little world was shattered forever.

The Romans had decided that our little city was far too rich for it own good and the senate of Rome could do a better job of spending the gold in the coffers of Syracuse.

They sent a fleet of galleys and an army under Marcus Marcellus to take it off our hands.

We put up a good fight and Archi and I contrived a few nasty surprises for the invaders but as the Romans would say ‘Fancy tricks can’t beat blood and guts.’

When the final assault came I tried to get old Archi to go into hiding.

As I said he was a stubborn old bugger and refused to leave the problem he was working on.

I watched the whole thing from the top of the big oak tree in the garden.

When the looters had gone I came down and found him lying in his study, his head split open like a melon.

I hid for the next two or three days until things quietened.

Then I buried the old man in the garden and set about cleaning up. I knew the Romans were rounding people up and sending them off to the slave market in Pompeii so I was pretty scared when a group of Romans burst into the house.

A young tribune accompanied by an old grizzled centurion with half a dozen soldiers.

They weren’t interested in me at first, it was Archi they were after.

When I told them old Archi was dead, the tribune looked really worried.

‘The General is going to be pretty mad when he hears about this, he gave strict orders that this man was to be spared and well treated.’

The idea of being well treated by the Romans appealed to me.

‘If there is anything you need to know about my uncle’s work I can help you,’ I said brightly.

‘You are his nephew?’ the tribune asked.

‘Yes,’ I lied. ‘He was training me to take over.’

‘Do you know how to construct the ship grapple and the burning mirror,’ asked the old Centurion.

‘Yes, I helped to design them.’

They conferred briefly in low tones. Then the tribune turned to me.

‘Right, we’ll take you to the General. Pack up all your uncle’s books and notes and anything else you think is important.’

This was beginning to look better. I didn’t understand a lot of the stuff Archi had worked on, but I was good with my hands and had build the early versions of all the mechanical inventions so I could easily explain them to the Roman engineers.

Maybe I had landed on my feet.

I was feeling pretty confident as I was led in to meet the Roman General.

He stared up at me from his worktable when we were announced.

‘Archimedes nephew eh, didn’t know he had one.’

I was about to reply but the tribune nudge me and I remained silent.

‘So you know all the answers do you?’

‘I know about my uncles work sir, and can show you how his devices were made.’

‘I’m not interested in mechanical toys; I want to know about his trick for finding out if gold has been adulterated. Tell me how that’s done and you will be well rewarded.’

This was a bad start, I never understood how that worked, and certainly couldn’t explain it. I racked my brains for some convincing reply.

What was the word Archi had used about the gold business?

Then it came to me.

‘It’s all to do with displacement,’ I replied.

‘Displacement! What the hell is that?’

I had no idea it was just a big important sounding word. ‘Each metal has displacement, it’s like it’s colour or it’s weight, it allows you to tell if it has been tampered with.’ I thought that sounded pretty good.

‘How?’ asked the General.

‘How?’ I repeated stupidly.

‘Yes,’ he said impatiently. ’How does this displacement tell you the metal has been tampered with.’

My mind was blank.

In desperation I said, ‘It’s very complicated to explain.’

The General frowned and I could see my salvation evaporating very fast.

Then I had a flash if inspiration. ‘I could show you how it works if you like. That’s simpler than trying to explain.’

‘How long would that take?’ he said his frown fading.

‘Only a few minutes it’s very simple.’

His frown had gone and he looked interested.

‘Well go ahead and show me.’

‘I’ll need some gold coins, eight or ten, as new as possible, and a large basin of water. The rest of the materials are in one of the boxes we brought with us.’

‘It sounds like a very expensive demonstration.’ he said eyeing me steadily.

‘Oh the gold won’t be harmed, you will get it all back I assure you.’

‘I certainly will,’ he said grimly.

I ignored the implied threat and rummaged in one of the boxes.

I returned to the table with a small set of hand scales of the type used by coin merchants and some scraps of lead.

The General eyed these items briefly then without a word he reached under the table and lifted up a large leather bag from which he poured several dozen gold coins.

I recognised them as Syracuse crowns presumably spoils of the recent conquest, however I made no comment.

I selected eight of the newest looking coins and placed four in each pan of the scales.

Because the coins were new they balanced evenly.

I then removed one coin from the left hand pan and replaced it with scraps of lead until I had both pans were once more in balance.

While I was doing this I was trying to remember the story Archi had told people each time he did this demonstration.

The general watched this performance in silence. But just as I was about to start my story a man entered the tent from the rear, and approached the table. The General turned and greeted him warmly.

‘Ah Julius, I am glad you could come, this fellow claims he is about to show us how Archimedes can tell real gold from false.’

Julius looked at me with interest.

‘Heard the old man had been killed in the assault.’

‘Yes, this is his nephew who claims to know all his secrets.’

‘Well we shall soon find out I daresay,’ he replied and took his place beside the General.

The interruption had given me time to work out what I had to say.

‘As you can see sir, I have on one side of the scales four gold coins, and on the other side three coins and some lead so that both sides weigh the same.’

I paused, but the General just nodded so I continued.

‘Let us imagine that you gave a goldsmith these four coins and asked him to make a bracelet for your wife or daughter. But imagine if that goldsmith was a dishonest man and instead of using four gold coins he used only three and made up the weight with lead.’

‘If he did I would have him nailed up on the Appin way for all to see,’ replied the General grimly.

I shuddered inwardly at the image but continued my story.

‘Yes of course, but how would you tell. The bracelet would look like gold, it would feel like gold and it would weigh exactly the same as the four gold coins you had given the man.’

The general considered this for a moment.

‘And you are going to show me how I could tell!’

‘I am,’ I said. ‘It’s very simple.’

I spoke with more confidence than I felt, since I had never actually the done it before.

I’d watched Archi several times, and it seemed pretty simple.

I wondered if I’d missed anything.

If only I understood how it worked.

Wait! There was something about salt water!

Jupiter, should I have used salt water?

Well it’s to late now!

Slowly lowered both pans of the scales into the basin of water.

My heart was pounding so fast I thought general must hear it.

As soon as both pans were totally emerged the pan with the four gold coins sank down lifting the other up.

‘Ah,’ said the General standing up in surprise.

‘Well ,well,’ said Julius, ‘such a simple trick who would have thought it.’

‘May I try it,’ he said and held out his hand.

I passed him the scales and he repeated the experiment, although I noticed he changed the gold from one pan to the other. Presumably to make sure I was not cheating. However it made no difference and the pan with the gold still weighed more under water.

‘Well Julius, no trickery?’

‘No it seems to work perfectly.’

‘But will it work with silver,’ asked the General.

My heart sank at this, although I should have seen the question coming. The Roman coinage was mainly silver and forgeries were a big problem.

Julius looked at me.

‘Well does it work with silver?’

I hadn’t the faintest idea.

‘My uncle was working on that,’ I paused, ‘I think there is a note about it in one of the boxes.’

‘See if you can find it,’ said Julius.

‘Meanwhile why don’t we just try it?’

‘Go ahead,’ said the General, ‘if it works with silver then it could be of great value to the Republic.’

Julius was obviously one of those “Try it first, read the instructions later” people.

As I rummaged in the boxes for the notes Archi had made I watched this new test with some apprehension. It was clearly the crucial one. If the test could detect forged silver I was on to a winner, but if it couldn’t I might well end up on the slave market at Pompeii.

Julius went through the same procedure as before, using eight new-minted Roman silver coins. He removed one and balanced the scales with lead.

Then he slowly lowered the pans into the water.

Nothing happened!

I stared in dismay as the two pans remained in balance.

‘Ha,’ snorted the General. ’It doesn’t work.’

'No wait,’ said Julius.

As we all watched, the pan with silver coins rose very slowly up and the pan with lead sank down.

‘It’s played us false, it’s saying the pan with the lead is pure silver,’ said the General.

‘Perhaps not. Do you have your uncle’s notes?’ Julius turned to me.

I handed him the paper. I had glanced at it but it made little sense to me.

He stared at it for several seconds.

‘Ah yes, here is the answer. This is a list of metals with their displacement values. The silver value is below lead whereas gold is above, so when the silver is pure it sinks but when the gold is pure it rises.’

‘Do you understand this displacement thing?’ asked the General.

‘Yes I understand it now.’

‘And there is no trickery?’

‘No I’m sure.’

‘Right we’ve spent enough time on this.’

He turned to me.

‘You boy, will accompany Julius to Rome and demonstrate your trick to the senate. I dare say they will be well pleased and reward you accordingly.

‘Yes sir. Thanks sir.’

I could hardly believe my good luck. I gathered up my scales and the scraps of lead.

The General smiled for the first time and pushed the eight gold coins we had used across the table.

‘You can keep the gold as well,’ he said.

It was a sunny day in Syracuse when I left the General’s tent with a pocket full of gold and a free trip to Rome.

Technical Note – The demonstration with the gold coins would probably have worked as described, but the specific gravity of silver and lead are so close it is unlikely that a simple scale of the type described would be able to detect the slight variation in weight, which would occur with silver.

Comment – I started off to write a story about the burning mirror Archimedes invented to set fire to the Roman fleet. But I ended up as usual with far too much, so decided to concentrate on this little description of Archimedes’s most famous discovery.