The history of the gas turbine can be traced back to 150 BC, when a Greek inventor, philosopher, and geometrician, Hero, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, invented a toy called the “Aeolipile.” The toy was driven (rotated) on top of a boiling pot of water by virtue of hot air flowing in vertical tubes. Although some references consider this engine a gas turbine, Hero, at the time, did not discover a useful purpose for his invention.
Leonardo da Vinci portrayed a chimney jack that rotated due to the effect of hot gases to drive a barbecue spit in 1500 AD. Taqi Al-Adin, in his writings in 1551, described an impulse steam turbine that drove a spit. Giovanni Branca introduced a similar concept in 1629 but with a jet of stream to rotate a turbine, which, in turn, rotated to operate machines.