Here's something new

I think I have an idea for my thesis. While still kind of rough, it has the elements of something I think I'd thoroughly enjoy working on for the next year and a half.

     Somewhere in ancient Greece, the people in a small town start their day. The farmers tend their fields with their mules, people go to the river and wash their clothes, etc. Everything seems low tech and normal for the time period. We then see an older man run out of his shack carrying a box. He's an inventor, and today he will show his greatest creation to the best and brightest minds and in the land.
 
At a gathering in the city, the inventor presents before a crowd his lifes work; the aeolipile. Everyone goes crazy, seeing the worlds first steam engine. The applications could be endless. As everyone becomes more animated, one person isnt so thrilled. As he grips his own box and takes a look inside, we see he has created the SAME EXACT thing. He was beaten to the punch, and now he can't get the credit for it. He leaves in disgust as the crowd celebrates with their man of the hour.
   
We then fast forward to a few years later. The same town we saw at the beginning has everyone start their day, however this time we see everything is done with crazy machines that are all steam and gear powered. The farmers use (sorta) tractors to plow their fields, everyones clothes get put through some kind of crazy steam press to get cleaned, and people can ride chariots dragged by mechanical horses. The main inventor takes a long look over everything and feels extremely satisfied with how everything has turned out. Everything seems to be going well, but meanwhile, in the other scientist is in his lab, throwing out schematics and partially constructed experiments. He collapses in his seat, frustrated and defeated. Just then, he get's a brief glimpse of something in the back. He walks over and finds that it's a box. He opens it up and takes out his old aeolipile. He then begins to rapidly make sketches for a new machine using his steam ball as the power source.

At this point, I don't have much of an idea on how we transition to this part, but one day the bad inventor comes to the town in his newest creation; a mechanical dragon that he can drive. Here I wanted to have a big battle scene where the dragon scorthes and destroys the city, and soliders come in with their new war machines as well, but they aren't as effective as they hope.  Eventually, the good inventor see's that the dragon has steam exhaust holes where the nostrils are, and manages to cram log in one, which causes immense build up inside the engine and destroys the machine. As far as falling action goes, I don't really have that settled either.


Anyway, this is what I think I'm going to stick with for my final project. It's still a bit in the rough stages, but I've got visuals in my mind of what I want things to look like, and the world building aspect really intrigues me. I also liked playing with the idea of the power of invention and how ideas can be used for different gains. I got the idea for this project when I was reading this article about a scientist named Hero of Alexandria. It nicely condenses a lot of information about what he invented or came up with but never created physically. What fascinated me most, however, is that he came up with things that I think most people would assume were to sophisticated for their time. I wondered what would have happened in history had his work not be seen as merely novelty by the people of the day. I guess we'll never know for sure, but speculation and alternate history are always fun. I mean, who doesn't want to see steampunk antiquity?