Such is the number of inventions that are attributed to Heron of Alexandria , a Hellenistic mathematician and engineer from the 1st century, who if he were alive today the officials of the Greek Patent and Trademark Office would have requested the transfer due to overwork. One of his inventions will serve us to, at least, question the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.
In the Gospel according to Saint John -written at the end of the first century-, Jesus, his mother and the disciples attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee in which, it seems, there were more guests than expected or they drank more wine than normal for this type of event. celebrations. Faced with that critical situation for the groom, Jesus ordered six clay pots to be filled with water, which when they were brought to the table... a miracle took place:the water turned into wine, and a good one. Well, maybe that miracle wasn't such and it had something to do with Heron's magic jug . The contraption in question is something like this...
The piece that divides the jug into two halves has small holes along the wall (E) and a larger one (F) crossed by a tube that goes from the bottom (G) to the handle (H) with an outlet hole ( K). Out of sight of the diners, we pour wine into the pitcher that will fill the lower half through E. Back in the living room, we say we are going to turn the water into wine and pour water into the pitcher, making sure to plug hole K. As there is no air outlet, the water will be trapped at the top. Keeping K covered, the jug is turned over and pure water will come out... we say that it is a slow process . We repeat the operation but this time if we cover K, the water will continue to come out but already mixed with some of the wine that has passed through E... it is already taking on color and flavor . And we finish off by serving again, when the water from the top is finished, obtaining wine. Of course, the quality of the wine will depend on what we have added at the beginning. Logically, and by reversing the process, wine can be turned into water, although with this miracle we would not make many friends.
With this contraption, based on fluid mechanics –another miracle -, Heron had a few laughs with his buddies and they won some coffee betting.
[PS .:This article only intends to demonstrate that, when the gospel that narrates the wedding at Cana was written -at the end of the 1st century-, the device that could «turn water into wine » of Heron already existed]