> Dies Lunae, Day One (May 50 BC)
>
> Greetings, Julius Caesar, from your friend, Pompey.
>
> Your daughter, my wife Julia, has certainly inherited the "practicality"
> of her grandmother, Aurelia.  You saw that clever wine fountain she
> rigged up, the one that pours a dose of wine into a cup on dropping a
> coin into the slot. Well, she has surpassed herself with another clever
> little device.
>
> She has a slave pour water in a copper kettle and a complicated
> mechanism conducts steam to a grindstone which rolls and grinds grain.
> The other day, she had going for twelve hours and the sole slave
> required was a 12 year old to keep the water coming.
>
> I dub my wife Julia Inventia for her wit and ingenuity. She is having
> the stonemasons build an aqueduct now so that water will come to her
> grindstone in a steady stream.
>
> We all know that Cato is not apt to praise Caesar's daughter, but that
> old politiican addressed the Senate last week  and complimented Julia on
> her work. We had all the conservative benches over at our house for
> luncheon so they could see the magic grindstone.  Cato has given us a
> new word --- auto-matic --- to describe the self-activating property of
> Julia's grindstone.
>
> I have talked about an extension of your authority in Gaul, but [ snip
> further  words].
>
> Dies Martis, Day Nine.  
>
> Greetings, Pompey Magnus, First Citizen and husband of my beloved
> daughter, from Julius Caesar.
>
> I thank you for news of your wife, my daughter, and I agree  with you
> that she truly deserves the name Julia Inventia. You know that she was
> only eight when she designed her unique mousetrap, and her pattern is
> used throughout the City and the Empire today!
>
> Could you have a good diagram made of Julia Inventia's grindstone,  and
> send along a slave who was a competent artisan on the project? The Long
> Haired Gauls are impressed by any magic that we do which their Druids
> cannot match, and I want them to see what my own daughter has done in
> far away Rome.
>
> I am disappointed in  A. Scipio's faction [snip further words]
>
> Dies Martis, Day Sixteen.
>
> Greetings, G. Julius Caesar, revered father, from your loving daughter,
> Julia Inventia, wife to Pompey Magnus, First Citizen of the Senate.
>
> I send you this letter together with the slave Rufus, whose testimony
> ought to supplement these plans of my automatic mill.
>
> The principle is the same as the toys you and momma bought me when I was
> a little girl. You remember the little chariot that carried my dolls
> around that miniature track.  Steam can be used for more than baths and
> toys.
>
> My wheel spokes mechanism is moderately successful. I flatten the spokes
> until they are like paddles and move them in circular directions,
> causing them to stir the air on sultry days.  The difficulty is the
> connecting material by which I link the rotating spokes to the steam
> source of my kettle. Cloth and rope tear too frequently and chains get
> caught on corners and stuck too often. Do you have any suggestions as to
> what might substitute for those things?
>
> Your grandson, Julius Minor, is happy and active, and, Goddess be
> praised, I have fully recovered from the sickness I had when he was
> born, and [ snip further words].  
>
> =========================
>
> I think that steam power might have been developed in ancient Greece and
> Rome  independently several times, but never prominently enough to make
> a big difference in history.
>
> Even among the best educated and wealthy Romans, half of their minds
> were never given encouragement simply for being females. And commoners
> and slaves had even less chance.
>
> The Romans had no patent system. If a Julia Inventia invented a better
> mousetrap, there was no practical way to profit by it. Each household
> might duplicate such a device on a common design, or a craftsman might
> stock a shelf with a few dozen, but mass production of an item was not
> going to occur.
>
> Also, a yoke around the shoulders of two slave kids was going to be a
> cheaper motive force for a grindstone than the kettle and copper of a
> Julia Inventia. Such devices could be praised for ingenuity, but they
> weren't cheaper than their pedestrain alternatives.