aeolipile
A steam engine powered by rocket propulsion due to escaping steam, consisting of a pressure vessel mounted on a bearing, with one or more tubes which exhaust steam tangentially to the rotation axis so as to create rotation, which is mostly regarded as a curiosity with no practical use.
His machine, called an aeolipile, was quite simple. Water in a sealed kettle was heated to boiling over a fire. As the steam expanded, it traveled up two tubes into a sphere, which had two L-shaped openings. The steam would force its way out of the openings, causing the sphere to spin.
Where it comes from
From French éolipyle, from Latin Aeoli pylae (“doorway of Aeolus”).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry aeolipile (CC BY-SA 4.0).