If Hero — the ancient Greek inventor — had been able to enjoy a beer after work, he might have pulled a trick like [BevCanTech] did: use it to create a simple steam engine. Of course, we aren’t sure ...

But sometimes, his inventions took on a more playful bent. Not for nothing was the classical Arabic term for mechanics and engineering “Ilm al-Hiyal” (the “science of tricks”); in a 1551 treatise by ...