The ''Book of Ingenious Devices'' (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
: كتاب الحيل ''Kitab al-Hiyal'',
Persian: كتاب ترفندها ''Ketab tarfandha'', literally: "The Book of Tricks") is a large illustrated work on
mechanical devices, including
automata
An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and Mor ...
, published in 850 by the three brothers of
Persian descent, known as the
Banu Musa (Ahmad, Muhammad and Hasan bin Musa ibn Shakir) working at the
House of Wisdom
The House of Wisdom ( ar, بيت الحكمة, Bayt al-Ḥikmah), also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abba ...
(''Bayt al-Hikma'') in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, under the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...
. The book described about one hundred devices and how to use them.
Overview
The book was commissioned by the
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttal ...
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...
, also made by Al-Jazari,
Abu Jafar al-Ma'mun ibn Harun (786–833), who instructed the Banu Musa to acquire all of the
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium i ...
texts that had been preserved by monasteries and by scholars during the decline and fall of
Roman civilization. The
Banū Mūsā
The Banū Mūsā brothers ("Sons of Moses"), namely Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (before 803 – February 873); Abū al‐Qāsim, Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th century); and Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th ce ...
brothers invented a number of
automata
An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and Mor ...
(automatic
machines) and mechanical devices, and they described a hundred such devices in their ''Book of Ingenious Devices''.
[
Some of the devices described in the ''Book of Ingenious Devices'' were inspired by the works of ]Hero of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, ''Heron ho Alexandreus'', also known as Heron of Alexandria ; 60 AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He ...
and Philo of Byzantium, as well as ancient Persian, Chinese and Indian engineering.[ Many of the other devices described in the book, however, were original inventions by the Banu Musa brothers. While they took Greek works as a starting point, the Banu Musa went "well beyond anything achieved by Hero or Philo." Their preoccupation with automatic controls distinguishes them from their Greek predecessors, including the Banu Musa's "use of self-operating ]valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
s, timing devices, delay systems and other concepts of great ingenuity." Many of their innovations involved subtle combinations of pneumatics
Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air.
Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and ...
and aerostatics
A subfield of fluid statics, aerostatics is the study of gases that are not in motion with respect to the coordinate system in which they are considered. The corresponding study of gases in motion is called aerodynamics.
Aerostatics studies densi ...
.[ The closest modern parallel to their work lies in ]control engineering
Control engineering or control systems engineering is an engineering discipline that deals with control systems, applying control theory to design equipment and systems with desired behaviors in control environments. The discipline of controls o ...
and pneumatic instrumentation.[
In turn, the Banu Musa's work was later cited as an influence on the work of Al-Jazari, who produced a similarly titled book in 1206. Given that the ''Book of Ingenious Devices'' was widely circulated across the ]Muslim world
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
, some of its ideas may have also reached Europe through Islamic Spain, such as the use of automatic controls in later European machines or the use of conical valves in the work of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...
.
Mechanisms and components
Automatic controls
The Banu Musa brothers described a number of early automatic controls.Ahmad Y Hassan
Ahmad Yousef Al-Hassan ( ar, links=no, أحمد يوسف الحسن) (June 25, 1925 – April 28, 2012) was a Palestinian/Syrian/Canadian historian of Arabic and Islamic science and technology, educated in Jerusalem, Cairo, and London with a PhD ...
Transfer Of Islamic Technology To The West, Part II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering
Two-step level controls for fluids, an early form of discontinuous variable structure controls, were developed by the Banu Musa brothers. They also described an early feedback controller.[ Donald Routledge Hill wrote the following on the automatic controls underlying the mechanical trick devices described in the book:
The Banu Musa also developed an early ]fail-safe
In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...
system for use in their trick devices, as described by Hill:
Automatic crank
The non-manual crank
Crank may refer to:
Mechanisms
* Crank (mechanism), in mechanical engineering, a bent portion of an axle or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it
* Crankset, the compone ...
appears in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their ''Book of Ingenious Devices''. These automatically operated cranks appear in several devices, two of which contain an action which approximates to that of a crankshaft, anticipating Al-Jazari's invention by several centuries and its first appearance in Europe by over five centuries. However, the automatic crank described by the Banu Musa would not have allowed a full rotation, but only a small modification was required to convert it to a crankshaft.
Valves
A mechanism developed by the Banu Musa, of particular importance for future developments, was the conical valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
, which was used in a variety of different applications.[ This includes using conical valves as "in-line" components in flow systems, which was the first known use of conical valves as automatic controllers.][ Some of the other valves they described include:
* Plug valve][ Otto Mayr (1970). ''The Origins of Feedback Control'', ]MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.
History
The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...
.[ Donald Routledge Hill, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", ''Scientific American'', May 1991, p. 64-69. ( cf. Donald Routledge Hill]
Mechanical Engineering
* Float valve[
* Tap][
]
Other mechanisms
The double-concentric siphon
A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...
and the funnel with bent end for pouring in different liquids, neither of which appear in any earlier Greek works, were also original inventions by the Banu Musa brothers. Some of the other mechanisms they described include a float chamber[ and an early differential pressure sensor.
]
Machines and devices
Automatic fountains
The book describes the construction of various automatic fountain
A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect.
Fountains were or ...
s, an aspect that was largely neglected in earlier Greek treatises on technology.[ In one of these fountains, the "water issues from the fountainhead in the shape of a ]shield
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of ...
, or like a lily-of-the-valley," i.e. "the shapes are discharged alternately—either a sheet of water concave downward
In mathematics, a concave function is the negative of a convex function. A concave function is also synonymously called concave downwards, concave down, convex upwards, convex cap, or upper convex.
Definition
A real-valued function f on an in ...
s, or a spray." Another fountain "discharges a shield or a single jet
Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to:
Aerospace
* Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines
** Jet airliner
** Jet engine
** Jet fuel
* Jet Airways, an Indian airline
* Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline
* Journey to Enceladus a ...
," while a variation of this features double-action alternation, i.e. has two fountainheads, with one discharging a single jet and the other a shield, and the two alternating repeatedly. Another variation features one main fountainhead and two or more subsidiary ones, such that when the main one ejects a single jet, the subsidiaries eject shields, with the two alternating.[
The Banu Musa brothers also described the earliest known wind-powered fountain, which is described as, "operated by wind or water, it discharges a single jet or a lily-of-the-valley." A variation of this fountain incorporates a ]worm
Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always).
Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete worm ...
-and- pinion gear
A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic p ...
, while another variation features double-action alternation. The book also describes a fountain with variable discharge. The book also describes fountains that change shapes at intervals.[
]
Mechanical musical machines
The Banu Musa invented an early
Early may refer to:
History
* The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.:
** Early Christianity
** Early modern Europe
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa
* Early, Texas
* Early ...
mechanical musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
, in this case a hydropower
Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of ...
ed organ which played interchangeable cylinders automatically. According to Charles B. Fowler, this "cylinder with raised pins on the surface remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the nineteenth century."
The Banu Musa also invented an automatic
Automatic may refer to:
Music Bands
* Automatic (band), Australian rock band
* Automatic (American band), American rock band
* The Automatic, a Welsh alternative rock band
Albums
* ''Automatic'' (Jack Bruce album), a 1983 electronic rock ...
flute player which may have been the first programmable machine. The flute sounds were produced through hot steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...
and the user could adjust the device to various patterns so that they could get various sounds from it.
Practical tools
The mechanical grab,[ specifically the clamshell grab,][ is an original invention by the Banu Musa brothers that does not appear in any earlier Greek works.][ The grab they described was used to extract objects from underwater,][ and recover objects from the beds of streams.][
The Banu Musa also described ]bellows
A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...
that could remove foul air from wells.[ They explained that these instruments allow a worker to "descend into any well he wishes for a while and he will not fear it, nor will it harm him, if God wills may he be exalted."]
Water dispensers
The book describes a dispenser for hot and cold water, where the two outlets alternate, one discharging cold water and the other hot, then vice versa repeatedly. It also describes a vessel with a basin by its side where, when cold water is poured into the top of the vessel, it discharges from the mouth of a figure into the basin; when hot water or another liquid is poured into the basin, the same quantity of cold water is discharged from the mouth of the figure.[
The book also describes a ]boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
with a tap to access hot water
Water heating is a heat transfer process that uses an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. Typical domestic uses of hot water include cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. In industry, hot water and water heated t ...
. The water is heated through cold water being poured into a pipe which leads to a tank at the bottom of the boiler, where the water is heated with fire. A person can then access hot water from the boiler through a tap.
Other devices
Some of the other devices the Banu Musa described in their book include:
* Mechanical trick devices[
* Hurricane lamp][
* Self-trimming lamp][ (by Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir)
* Self-feeding lamp][
]
See also
*Banū Mūsā
The Banū Mūsā brothers ("Sons of Moses"), namely Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (before 803 – February 873); Abū al‐Qāsim, Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th century); and Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th ce ...
, the authors of the book
* Al-Jazari, who wrote a book with a similar name
* Inventions in medieval Islam
*Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
* Physics in medieval Islam
*Science and technology in Iran
Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology through education and training, despite international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 197 ...
Notes
References and further reading
*Bunch, Bryan (2004). ''The History of Science and Technology''. Houghton Mifflin Books.
*Dimarogonas, Andrew D. (2000). ''Machine Design: A CAD Approach''. Wiley-IEEE.
* Hill, Donald Routledge (Trans). (1978). ''Book of Ingenious Devices''. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
*Rosheim, Mark E. (1994). ''Robot Evolution: The Development of Anthrobotics''. Wiley-IEEE. {{ISBN, 0-471-02622-0
External links
A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering
Technology in the medieval Islamic world
Scientific works of the Abbasid Caliphate
Technology books
9th-century Arabic books
Abbasid literature
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