"Archimedes heat bowl" would be a better name,
Wikipedia: "The device, sometimes called the "Archimedes heat ray", was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. "
Wikipedia: "The device, sometimes called the "Archimedes heat ray", was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. "
Here's an interesting write-up about the team of MIT students that worked with them on the second try: http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_Mythbus...
As near as I can tell they have put the most effort into duplicating Archimedes Heat Ray. They attempted it three times with large budgets and demonstrated why it was possible, but entirely impractical.
After they showed that just being wet was enough to save the boat (when would a boat ever be wet?!) they then offered a replacement explanation and had an example of a flaming arrow. It took one archer and required a fraction of the cost, could be reliably duplicated thousands of times (in battle) and had better range than a team of guys with mirrors.
Perhaps there were a bunch of soldiers with mirrored shields, and they did shine their shields to "blind" the incoming ships. Then archers shot flaming arrows against the ships...
...and the legend of mirrored shields setting fire to a ship was born?