Meet Al-Jazari
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z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Crankshaft and connecting rod
Al-Jazari's invention of the crankshaft (and the crank mechanism) is considered the most important single mechanical invention after the wheel, as it transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion,which is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, including the internal combustion engine and steam engine.
The connecting rod was also invented by al-Jazari, and was used in a crank and connecting rod system in a rotating machine he developed in 1206, in two of his water raising machines.
Al-Jazari's invention of the crankshaft (and the crank mechanism) is considered the most important single mechanical invention after the wheel, as it transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion,which is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, including the internal combustion engine and steam engine.
The connecting rod was also invented by al-Jazari, and was used in a crank and connecting rod system in a rotating machine he developed in 1206, in two of his water raising machines.
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z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Double-action reciprocating suction piston pump
The valve-operated reciprocating suction piston pump with crankshaft-connecting rod mechanism from a manuscript of al-Jazari, the "father of modern day engineering".
In 1206, al-Jazari demonstrates the first conversion of rotary to reciprocating motion, the first suction pipes and suction piston pump, the first use of double-action, and one of the earliest valve operations, when he invented a twin-cylinder double-action reciprocating suction piston pump, which seems to have had a direct significance in the development of modern engineering. This pump is driven by a water wheel, which drives, through a system of gears, an oscillating slot-rod to which the rods of two pistons are attached. The pistons work in horizontally opposed cylinders, each provided with valve-operated suction and delivery pipes. The delivery pipes are joined above the centre of the machine to form a single outlet into the irrigation system. This pump is remarkable for three reasons:
The earliest known use of a true suction pipe in a pump
The first application of the double-acting principle
The first conversion of rotary to reciprocating motion
For these reasons, this invention is considered important to the development of the steam engine, modern reciprocating pumps, internal combustion engine, artificial heart, bicycle, bicycle pump, etc.
The valve-operated reciprocating suction piston pump with crankshaft-connecting rod mechanism from a manuscript of al-Jazari, the "father of modern day engineering".
In 1206, al-Jazari demonstrates the first conversion of rotary to reciprocating motion, the first suction pipes and suction piston pump, the first use of double-action, and one of the earliest valve operations, when he invented a twin-cylinder double-action reciprocating suction piston pump, which seems to have had a direct significance in the development of modern engineering. This pump is driven by a water wheel, which drives, through a system of gears, an oscillating slot-rod to which the rods of two pistons are attached. The pistons work in horizontally opposed cylinders, each provided with valve-operated suction and delivery pipes. The delivery pipes are joined above the centre of the machine to form a single outlet into the irrigation system. This pump is remarkable for three reasons:
The earliest known use of a true suction pipe in a pump
The first application of the double-acting principle
The first conversion of rotary to reciprocating motion
For these reasons, this invention is considered important to the development of the steam engine, modern reciprocating pumps, internal combustion engine, artificial heart, bicycle, bicycle pump, etc.
z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
The programmable humanoid robots of al-Jazari, the "father of robotics".
Programmable humanoid robot
Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari (1136-1206) created the first recorded designs of a programmable humanoid robot in 1206. Al-Jazari's robot was originally a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.
Programmable humanoid robot
Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari (1136-1206) created the first recorded designs of a programmable humanoid robot in 1206. Al-Jazari's robot was originally a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.
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z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Al-Jazari described over fifty mechanical devices in six different categories, most of which he invented himself, along with construction drawings. Along with his inventions above, some of the other mechanival devices he first described includes:
Combination locks
Hand washing device
Accurate calibration of orifices
Lamination of timber to reduce warping
Static balancing of wheels
Use of paper models to establish a design
Casting of metals in closed mould boxes with green sand
Trick drinking vessels
Phlebotomy measures
Linkage
Hydraulic devices
Water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata
Water pumps
Water level
Constructions of pots and pans for wine making
Construction of ewers and bowls for use as cups
Swimming pools and fountains
Devices able to elevate water from shallow wells or flowing rivers
Several musical instruments
Other machines working by water
Other sundry mechanisms
A number of other surviving manuscripts on mechanics and automatic machine construction are available in manuscript libraries in Istanbul, though many have not yet been read.
Combination locks
Hand washing device
Accurate calibration of orifices
Lamination of timber to reduce warping
Static balancing of wheels
Use of paper models to establish a design
Casting of metals in closed mould boxes with green sand
Trick drinking vessels
Phlebotomy measures
Linkage
Hydraulic devices
Water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata
Water pumps
Water level
Constructions of pots and pans for wine making
Construction of ewers and bowls for use as cups
Swimming pools and fountains
Devices able to elevate water from shallow wells or flowing rivers
Several musical instruments
Other machines working by water
Other sundry mechanisms
A number of other surviving manuscripts on mechanics and automatic machine construction are available in manuscript libraries in Istanbul, though many have not yet been read.
z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Re: Meet Ibn al-Haitham (Camera technology)
Camera technology
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), the "father of optics" and pioneer of the modern scientific method, invented the camera obscura and pinhole camera.
In ancient times, Euclid and Ptolemy believed that the eyes emitted rays which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that rays of light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who is regarded as the "father of optics".He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one, with his development of the scientific method. The word "camera" comes from the Arabic word qamara for a dark or private room.
Camera technology
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), the "father of optics" and pioneer of the modern scientific method, invented the camera obscura and pinhole camera.
In ancient times, Euclid and Ptolemy believed that the eyes emitted rays which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that rays of light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who is regarded as the "father of optics".He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one, with his development of the scientific method. The word "camera" comes from the Arabic word qamara for a dark or private room.
z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Re: Meet Ibn al-Haitham (Camera technology)
Ibn al-Haytham
Brief life of an Arab mathematician: died circa 1040
by Abdelhamid I. Sabra
One of the most distinguished and prolific mathematicians in the medieval tradition of Arabic Islamic science, al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (Latinized as Alhacen or Alhazen) became known in Europe in the thirteenth century as the author of a monumental book on optics—the mathematical theory of vision. In hisKitb al-Man zir (De aspectibus), the eleventh-century scholar offered a new solution to the problem of vision, combining experimental investigations of the behavior of light with inventive geometrical proofs and constant forays into the psychology of visual perception—all systematically tied together to form a coherent alternative to the Euclidean and Ptolemaic theories of "visual rays" issuing from the eye.
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[TD]Above: Proofs and diagrams from the Arabic translation of the Conics of Apollonius, transcribed and drawn by Ibn al-Haytham himself (MS Aya Sofya, no. 2762, Istanbul). Ibn al-Haytham (at left) and Galileo appear on the frontispiece of Selenographia, a 1647 description of the moon by Johannes Hevelius. The frontispiece presents the two scientists as explorers of nature by means of rational thought (ratione—note the geometrical diagram in Ibn al-Haytham’s hand) and by observation (sensu—illustrated prominently by the long telescope in Galileo’s hand). The two approaches were probably conceived here as complementary, a view both scientists would have shared.[View larger image.][/TD]
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[TD]Photomontage by Bartek Malysa. Frontispiece courtesy of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library (Typ 620.47.452F)[/TD]
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Like his contemporaries Ibn Sn (Avicenna), the most influential Islamic philosopher, and al-Brn, one of the great scientific minds in all history, Ibn al-Haytham lived in a period of competitive patronage of the sciences, especially mathematics and astronomy, in the Middle East and Central Asia. He is said to have been a high administrative official in a small principality made up of Basra, in what is now Iraq, and the adjacent region of Ahwz—but when the job encroached on his scientific interests, he moved to Egypt. He ended up living in what is described as a domed structure, probably a modest mausoleum, outside the Azhar Mosque and its famous school in Cairo. There he supported himself by teaching and by copying Arabic translations of Greek mathematical classics such as Euclid’sElements and Ptolemy’s Almagest.
A story from the thirteenth century, which may well be true, says Ibn al-Haytham went to Egypt hoping to persuade its ruler to undertake an engineering project to regulate the flow of the Nile. But the prospective site, just south of Aswn, did not match the scholar’s expectations, and he admitted failure. To escape almost certain punishment at the hands of the notoriously unbalanced ruler, he had to feign madness until his patron died, in 1021.
In a short autobiography, Ibn al-Haytham tells us that in his youth he scrutinized the claims of the many religious sects teeming around him. In the end it was the empirical strain and rational thinking he recognized in Aristotelian natural philosophy, and the rigor of mathematics, that finally won his heart. An early essay of his, now lost, was entitled "All matters secular and religious are the fruits of the philosophical sciences." In his time "philosophy" comprised all of mathematics, the natural sciences, and theology or metaphysics. He wrote on arithmetic, astronomy, music, ethics, politics, and poetry; defended astrology as a science based on mathematical proof; and criticized contemporary Muslim theological theses as well as positions taken by followers of the Christian philosopher-theologian Philoponus who were active in Baghdad.
Geometry was Ibn al-Haytham’s forte: the subject in which most of his writings have survived and for which he was most appreciated. In these writings he was drawn to tackle problems in Greek mathematics, both elementary (Euclidean) and advanced (Apollonian and Archimedean), some of which he was the first to solve. The word "doubt" (aporia in Greek), indicating the critical bent of his mind, occurs in the titles of several of his geometrical essays, even when presented as commentaries. Other works concern the philosophy and methodology of mathematics.
But it was Ibn al-Haytham’s early embrace of empiricism and trust in mathematical proof that underlay the revolutionary project of his mature magnum opus, theOptics, the book that pointed the science of vision in the direction later pursued in seventeenth-century Europe. It was wholly composed of systematically arranged experiments and geometrical proofs, all expressed in clear, consistent vocabulary and orderly exposition. The Latin translation influenced medieval European scientists and philosophers such as Roger Bacon and Witelo. But the book came into its own later, when it attracted the attention of mathematicians like Kepler, Descartes, and Huygens, thanks in part to Friedrich Risner’s edition published in Basel in 1572.
Relatively late in his life, apparently stimulated by controversies with contemporaries about truth and authority and the role of criticism in scientific research, Ibn al-Haytham articulated some remarkably sophisticated statements on the practice of science and the growth of scientific knowledge. In a critical treatise, Aporias against Ptolemy, he asserts that "Truth is sought for itself"—but "the truths," he warns, "are immersed in uncertainties" and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are "not immune from error…." Nor, he said, is human nature itself: "Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."
Abdelhamid I. Sabra is professor of the history of Arabic science emeritus.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/09/ibn-al-haytham-html
Ibn al-Haytham
Brief life of an Arab mathematician: died circa 1040
by Abdelhamid I. Sabra
One of the most distinguished and prolific mathematicians in the medieval tradition of Arabic Islamic science, al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (Latinized as Alhacen or Alhazen) became known in Europe in the thirteenth century as the author of a monumental book on optics—the mathematical theory of vision. In hisKitb al-Man zir (De aspectibus), the eleventh-century scholar offered a new solution to the problem of vision, combining experimental investigations of the behavior of light with inventive geometrical proofs and constant forays into the psychology of visual perception—all systematically tied together to form a coherent alternative to the Euclidean and Ptolemaic theories of "visual rays" issuing from the eye.
[TABLE="width: 200, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Above: Proofs and diagrams from the Arabic translation of the Conics of Apollonius, transcribed and drawn by Ibn al-Haytham himself (MS Aya Sofya, no. 2762, Istanbul). Ibn al-Haytham (at left) and Galileo appear on the frontispiece of Selenographia, a 1647 description of the moon by Johannes Hevelius. The frontispiece presents the two scientists as explorers of nature by means of rational thought (ratione—note the geometrical diagram in Ibn al-Haytham’s hand) and by observation (sensu—illustrated prominently by the long telescope in Galileo’s hand). The two approaches were probably conceived here as complementary, a view both scientists would have shared.[View larger image.][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Photomontage by Bartek Malysa. Frontispiece courtesy of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library (Typ 620.47.452F)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Like his contemporaries Ibn Sn (Avicenna), the most influential Islamic philosopher, and al-Brn, one of the great scientific minds in all history, Ibn al-Haytham lived in a period of competitive patronage of the sciences, especially mathematics and astronomy, in the Middle East and Central Asia. He is said to have been a high administrative official in a small principality made up of Basra, in what is now Iraq, and the adjacent region of Ahwz—but when the job encroached on his scientific interests, he moved to Egypt. He ended up living in what is described as a domed structure, probably a modest mausoleum, outside the Azhar Mosque and its famous school in Cairo. There he supported himself by teaching and by copying Arabic translations of Greek mathematical classics such as Euclid’sElements and Ptolemy’s Almagest.
A story from the thirteenth century, which may well be true, says Ibn al-Haytham went to Egypt hoping to persuade its ruler to undertake an engineering project to regulate the flow of the Nile. But the prospective site, just south of Aswn, did not match the scholar’s expectations, and he admitted failure. To escape almost certain punishment at the hands of the notoriously unbalanced ruler, he had to feign madness until his patron died, in 1021.
In a short autobiography, Ibn al-Haytham tells us that in his youth he scrutinized the claims of the many religious sects teeming around him. In the end it was the empirical strain and rational thinking he recognized in Aristotelian natural philosophy, and the rigor of mathematics, that finally won his heart. An early essay of his, now lost, was entitled "All matters secular and religious are the fruits of the philosophical sciences." In his time "philosophy" comprised all of mathematics, the natural sciences, and theology or metaphysics. He wrote on arithmetic, astronomy, music, ethics, politics, and poetry; defended astrology as a science based on mathematical proof; and criticized contemporary Muslim theological theses as well as positions taken by followers of the Christian philosopher-theologian Philoponus who were active in Baghdad.
Geometry was Ibn al-Haytham’s forte: the subject in which most of his writings have survived and for which he was most appreciated. In these writings he was drawn to tackle problems in Greek mathematics, both elementary (Euclidean) and advanced (Apollonian and Archimedean), some of which he was the first to solve. The word "doubt" (aporia in Greek), indicating the critical bent of his mind, occurs in the titles of several of his geometrical essays, even when presented as commentaries. Other works concern the philosophy and methodology of mathematics.
But it was Ibn al-Haytham’s early embrace of empiricism and trust in mathematical proof that underlay the revolutionary project of his mature magnum opus, theOptics, the book that pointed the science of vision in the direction later pursued in seventeenth-century Europe. It was wholly composed of systematically arranged experiments and geometrical proofs, all expressed in clear, consistent vocabulary and orderly exposition. The Latin translation influenced medieval European scientists and philosophers such as Roger Bacon and Witelo. But the book came into its own later, when it attracted the attention of mathematicians like Kepler, Descartes, and Huygens, thanks in part to Friedrich Risner’s edition published in Basel in 1572.
Relatively late in his life, apparently stimulated by controversies with contemporaries about truth and authority and the role of criticism in scientific research, Ibn al-Haytham articulated some remarkably sophisticated statements on the practice of science and the growth of scientific knowledge. In a critical treatise, Aporias against Ptolemy, he asserts that "Truth is sought for itself"—but "the truths," he warns, "are immersed in uncertainties" and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are "not immune from error…." Nor, he said, is human nature itself: "Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."
Abdelhamid I. Sabra is professor of the history of Arabic science emeritus.
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z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
The Arabic (Muslim) Automata
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the end of 5th century, the western and central part of Europe was swept down by many barbarian tribes and fall into so calledDark Ages for some five centuries. During this time, the centers of world's art and science moved to the east—to the eastern Roman Empire, which managed to survive the attacks, China and India, where great civilizations grew and spread, and into the mighty Arabic empire.The period 9th-13th century was a full of extraordinary activity in science and technology in the Arabic empire. In 8th century the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly-founded city of Baghdad. Over the next five centuries, the city would become the world's center of education and culture.The Abbasid Caliphs were very interested in clocks and ingenious devices. There are many recorded contributions to the area of automatic machines from this period. The arabic automata technology, as well as many other arabic technologies, had as a basis the greek automata tradition of mainly two engineers, namely Philon of Byzantion andHeron of Alexandria.Several Arabic scientists are known to had been worked in the field of automata, e.g. so called pseudo-Archimedes and Banu Musa from 9th century, Al-Muradi and Al-Khazini from 11th century, Hibat Allah ibn al-Husayn and Ridwan Al-Khurasami from 12th century, but the most important work in this field is al-Jamiʿ bayn al-ʿilm wa ʿamal, al-nafiʿ fi sinaʿat al-hiyal (The book of knowledge of ingenious mechanical devices) of Al-Jazari from 1206.Al-Jazari (his full name is Al-Shaykh Ra'is al-A'mal Badi' al-Zaman Abu al-'Izz ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari) was an influential scholar and engineer, who lived in the second half of 12th and in the beginning of 13th century. He died in the beginning of 1206, just few months after he had completed his famous book in January, 1206. Al-Jazari was in service at the court of three Artuqid rulers since 1174 until his death, and the above-mentioned book was created in the period 1198-1206 in response to the request of Nasir al-Din Mahmud (1200-1222).According to his name, Al-Jazari was born in Al-Jazira (the traditional Arabic name for what was northern Mesopotamia and what is now northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria, between the Tigris and the Euphrates). Like his father and his brother before him, he served as an engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Diyarbakır branch of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty, which ruled across eastern Anatolia as vassals of the Zangid rulers of Mosul.The book of Al-Jazari describes in detail fifty devices, which are grouped into six categories:
1. Ten water and candle clocks
2. Ten vessels and figures suited for drinking sessions
3. Ten pitchers and basins for phlebotomy and washing before prayers
4. Ten fountains that change their shape alternately, and machines for the perpetual flute
5. Five water raising machines
6. Five miscellaneous devices.
The earliest copy of the book, survived until now (from 1206) is a fine manuscript with excellent illustrations. Each device is described in a simple and easy to understand Arabic, and each is accompanied by a general drawing. For the complicated devices the author gave detailed drawings for the components of the device or for subassemblies so that the operation can be understood. There are a total of 174 drawings in the book.
The automated girl serving drinks, of Al-Jazari
The automata in the book of Al-Jazari included:
1. An automated girl serving drinks (see the upper image)
2. An automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower
3. An automatic gates, which were driven by hydropower
4. Several other automata, including automatic machines, home appliances (table devices), and musical automata powered by waterAl-Jazari also invented water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata.The humanoid automata of a girl that could serve water, tea or drinks, shown in the upper image, is very interesting. The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and, after seven minutes, into a cup, after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving the drink.Al-Jazari described a hand washing automaton (see the image below), incorporating a flush mechanism, now used in modern flush toilets. It features a girl automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the girl refills the basin.
A hand washing automaton of Al-Jazari
Al-Jazari's peacock fountain was a more sophisticated hand washing device, featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak, and as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage, which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure, this time with a towel!
A peacock automaton of Al-Jazari
Al-Jazari described also a musical automaton (see the image below), which was a boat with four automatic musicians, that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. The mechanism featured a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams), that bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. The automata were a robot band, which performed more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection.
The musical automaton of Al-Jazari
http://history-computer.com/Dreamers/Arabic.html
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the end of 5th century, the western and central part of Europe was swept down by many barbarian tribes and fall into so calledDark Ages for some five centuries. During this time, the centers of world's art and science moved to the east—to the eastern Roman Empire, which managed to survive the attacks, China and India, where great civilizations grew and spread, and into the mighty Arabic empire.The period 9th-13th century was a full of extraordinary activity in science and technology in the Arabic empire. In 8th century the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly-founded city of Baghdad. Over the next five centuries, the city would become the world's center of education and culture.The Abbasid Caliphs were very interested in clocks and ingenious devices. There are many recorded contributions to the area of automatic machines from this period. The arabic automata technology, as well as many other arabic technologies, had as a basis the greek automata tradition of mainly two engineers, namely Philon of Byzantion andHeron of Alexandria.Several Arabic scientists are known to had been worked in the field of automata, e.g. so called pseudo-Archimedes and Banu Musa from 9th century, Al-Muradi and Al-Khazini from 11th century, Hibat Allah ibn al-Husayn and Ridwan Al-Khurasami from 12th century, but the most important work in this field is al-Jamiʿ bayn al-ʿilm wa ʿamal, al-nafiʿ fi sinaʿat al-hiyal (The book of knowledge of ingenious mechanical devices) of Al-Jazari from 1206.Al-Jazari (his full name is Al-Shaykh Ra'is al-A'mal Badi' al-Zaman Abu al-'Izz ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari) was an influential scholar and engineer, who lived in the second half of 12th and in the beginning of 13th century. He died in the beginning of 1206, just few months after he had completed his famous book in January, 1206. Al-Jazari was in service at the court of three Artuqid rulers since 1174 until his death, and the above-mentioned book was created in the period 1198-1206 in response to the request of Nasir al-Din Mahmud (1200-1222).According to his name, Al-Jazari was born in Al-Jazira (the traditional Arabic name for what was northern Mesopotamia and what is now northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria, between the Tigris and the Euphrates). Like his father and his brother before him, he served as an engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Diyarbakır branch of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty, which ruled across eastern Anatolia as vassals of the Zangid rulers of Mosul.The book of Al-Jazari describes in detail fifty devices, which are grouped into six categories:
1. Ten water and candle clocks
2. Ten vessels and figures suited for drinking sessions
3. Ten pitchers and basins for phlebotomy and washing before prayers
4. Ten fountains that change their shape alternately, and machines for the perpetual flute
5. Five water raising machines
6. Five miscellaneous devices.
The earliest copy of the book, survived until now (from 1206) is a fine manuscript with excellent illustrations. Each device is described in a simple and easy to understand Arabic, and each is accompanied by a general drawing. For the complicated devices the author gave detailed drawings for the components of the device or for subassemblies so that the operation can be understood. There are a total of 174 drawings in the book.
The automated girl serving drinks, of Al-Jazari
1. An automated girl serving drinks (see the upper image)
2. An automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower
3. An automatic gates, which were driven by hydropower
4. Several other automata, including automatic machines, home appliances (table devices), and musical automata powered by waterAl-Jazari also invented water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata.The humanoid automata of a girl that could serve water, tea or drinks, shown in the upper image, is very interesting. The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and, after seven minutes, into a cup, after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving the drink.Al-Jazari described a hand washing automaton (see the image below), incorporating a flush mechanism, now used in modern flush toilets. It features a girl automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the girl refills the basin.
A hand washing automaton of Al-Jazari
A peacock automaton of Al-Jazari
The musical automaton of Al-Jazari
http://history-computer.com/Dreamers/Arabic.html
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Wadaich
Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
Can U share please, with whose names all these works are known today?
z.h.khan
MPA (400+ posts)
Well, I do not know how will I do that.
But I have a book entitled as "History of the intellectual development of Europe" by John William Draper,
where the author mentioned about 50 inventions which were wrongly attributed to western people.
Thanks
kh@n;)
PTI China.
