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; Walter ...
: كتاب الحيل ''Kitab al-Hiyal'',
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: كتاب ترفندها ''Ketab tarfandha'', literally: "The Book of Tricks") is a large illustrated work on
mechanical device
A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
s, 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 More ...
, published in 850 by the three brothers of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
descent, known as the
Banu Musa
Banu or BANU may refer to:
* Banu (name)
* Banu (Arabic), Arabic word for "the sons of" or "children of"
* Banu (makeup artist), an Indian makeup artist
* Banu Chichek, a character in the ''Book of Dede Korkut''
* Bulgarian Agrarian National ...
(Ahmad, Muhammad and Hasan bin Musa ibn Shakir) working at the
House of Wisdom (''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 Ctesiphon. I ...
,
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 the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, 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-Muttalib ...
. 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-Muttalib ...
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 Ctesiphon. I ...
, 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 in ...
texts that had been preserved by monasteries and by scholars during the decline and fall of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
civilization. The
Banū Mūsā 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 More ...
(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
Philo of Byzantium ( el, , ''Phílōn ho Byzántios'', ca. 280 BC – ca. 220 BC), also known as Philo Mechanicus, was a Greek engineer, physicist and writer on mechanics, who lived during the latter half of the 3rd century BC. Although he was f ...
, as well as ancient Persian
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
, Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
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 control
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
s 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 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 densit ...
.[ 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. I ...
, some of its ideas may have also reached Europe through Islamic Spain
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mu ...
, 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 res ...
.
Mechanisms and components
Automatic controls
The Banu Musa brothers described a number of early automatic control
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
s.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 i ...
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 control
Variable structure control (VSC) is a form of discontinuous nonlinear control. The method alters the dynamics of a nonlinear system by application of a high-frequency ''switching control''. The state- feedback control law is ''not'' a continuou ...
s, were developed by the Banu Musa brothers. They also described an early feedback controller
Control theory is a field of mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a ...
.[ ]Donald Routledge Hill
Donald Routledge Hill (6 August 1922 – 30 May 1994)D. A. King, “In Memoriam: Donald Routledge Hill (1922-1994)”, ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,'' Volume 5 / Issue 02 / September 1995, pp 297-302 was a British engineer and historian of sc ...
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 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
Otto Mayr (born November 2, 1930) is a German mechanical engineer, historian of technology, curator, author and former director of the National Museum of History and Technology in Washington DC and the Deutsches Museum in Munich. He is particularl ...
(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 publish ...
.Donald Routledge Hill
Donald Routledge Hill (6 August 1922 – 30 May 1994)D. A. King, “In Memoriam: Donald Routledge Hill (1922-1994)”, ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,'' Volume 5 / Issue 02 / September 1995, pp 297-302 was a British engineer and historian of sc ...
, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", ''Scientific American'', May 1991, p. 64-69. (cf.
The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...
Donald Routledge Hill
Donald Routledge Hill (6 August 1922 – 30 May 1994)D. A. King, “In Memoriam: Donald Routledge Hill (1922-1994)”, ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,'' Volume 5 / Issue 02 / September 1995, pp 297-302 was a British engineer and historian of sc ...
Mechanical Engineering
* Float valve
A ballcock (also balltap or float valve) is a mechanism or machine for filling water tanks, such as those found in flush toilets, while avoiding overflow and (in the event of low water pressure) backflow. The modern ballcock was invented by J ...
[
* Tap][
]
Other mechanisms
The double-concentric siphon and the funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
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 ori ...
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, or like a ]lily-of-the-valley
Lily of the valley (''Convallaria majalis'' (), sometimes written lily-of-the-valley, is a woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers borne in sprays in spring. It is native throughout the cool temperate No ...
," 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 ...
s, or a spray." Another fountain "discharges a shield or a single jet," 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
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, w ...
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 wo ...
-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 ...
, 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 mechanical
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
musical instrument, 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 a w ...
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 flute player which may have been the first programmable machine A program is a set of instructions used to control the behavior of a machine. Examples of such programs include:
*The sequence of cards used by a Jacquard loom to produce a given pattern within weaved cloth. Invented in 1801, it used holes in punc ...
. The flute sounds were produced through hot steam 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
A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a tab ...
[
* Self-trimming lamp][ (by Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir)
* Self-feeding ]lamp
Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to:
Lighting
* Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source
* Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel
* Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity
* Light fixture, or li ...
[
]
See also
* Banū Mūsā, the authors of the book
* Al-Jazari, who wrote a book with a similar name
*Inventions in medieval Islam
The following is a list of inventions made in the medieval Islamic world, especially during the Islamic Golden Age, George Saliba (1994), ''A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam'', pp. 245, 250, 256–5 ...
*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
The natural sciences saw various advancements during the Golden Age of Islam (from roughly the mid 8th to the mid 13th centuries), adding a number of innovations to the Transmission of the Classics (such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, Neoplatonism ...
*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 1979 ...
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
850