Engineering
Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Arab engineers as follows:
"Unlike the Greek designs, these Arab examples reveal an interest, not only in dramatic illusion, but in manipulating the environment for human comfort. Thus, the greatest contribution the Arabs made, besides preserving, disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks, was the concept of practical application. This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science."
"The Arabs, on the other hand, displayed an interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes but lacked, like other preindustrial societies, any real impetus to pursue their robotic science."
Wind-powered fountain:
In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers designed the earliest known wind-powered fountains. Their Book of Ingenious Devices described the construction of several wind-powered fountains, one of which incorporated a worm-and-pinion gear.
Mercury-powered automata:
One of the clocks invented by Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in 11th-century Spain incporated a "complicated and ingenious system which, at the top of each hour, puts into motion a series of mechanical automata, including mechanical snakes, women and men which function through a system based on water, mercury and pulleys." This was the earliest known use of mercury in hydraulic linkages to power automata.
Programmable analog computer:
Programmable humanoid robot band:
Al-Jazari (1136–1206) created the first recorded designs of a programmable humanoid robot in 1206, as opposed to the non-programmable automata in ancient times. 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. According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."
Peacock fountain with automated humanoid servants:
Al-Jazari's "peacock fountain" was a sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; 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 — with a towel!"
Pumps
Crankshaft-driven and hydropowered saqiya chain pumps:
The first known use of a crankshaft in a chain pump was in one of Al-Jazari's saqiya machines described in 1206. Al-Jazari also constructed a water-raising saqiya chain pump which was run by hydropower rather than manual labour, though the Chinese were also using hydropower for other chain pumps prior to him. Saqiya machines like the ones he described have been supplying water in Damascus since the 13th century up until modern times, and were in use throughout the medieval Islamic world.
Crankshaft-driven screw and screwpump:
In ancient times, the screw and screwpump were driven by a treadwheel, but from the 12th and 13th centuries, Muslim engineers operated them using the crankshaft.
Double-action piston suction pump with reciprocating motion:
In 1206, al-Jazari demonstrates 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 being the earliest known use of a true suction pipe in a pump.
Six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump:
In 1559, Taqi al-Din invented a six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump. It was a hydropowered water-raising machine incorporating valves, suction and delivery pipes, piston rods with lead weights, trip levers with pin joints, and cams on the axle of a water-driven scoop wheel.
Weight-driven pump:
Most ancient and medieval pumps were either driven by manual labour or hydraulics. The first weight-driven pump was described as part of a perpetual motion water-raising machine in a medieval Arabic manuscript written some time after Al-Jazari. It featured a mercury-powered clockwork escapement mechanism and had two out gear-wheels driven by lead weights which mesh with a large central gear-wheel.
Wind-powered pump:
Windmills were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Other mechanical devices
Al-Jazari's candle clock employed a bayonet fitting for the first time in 1206.
Artificial thunder, lightning and weather simulation:
Abbas Ibn Firnas invented an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning, which were produced by mechanisms hidden in his basement laboratory.
Bayonet fitting:
Al-Jazari's candle clock in 1206 employed, for the first time, a bayonet fitting, a fastener mechanism still used in modern times.
Boiler with tap:
The Banu Musa brothers' Book of Ingenious Devices describes a boiler with a tap to access hot water. 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.
Bolted lock and mechanical controls:
According to Donald Routledge Hill, Al-Jazari first described several early mechanical controls, including "a large metal door...and a lock with four bolts."
Complex segmental and epicyclic gearing:
Segmental gears ("a piece for receiving or communicating reciprocating motion from or to a cogwheel, consisting of a sector of a circular gear, or ring, having cogs on the periphery, or face.") and epicyclic gears were both first invented by the 11th century Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi from Islamic Spain. He employed both these types of gears in the gear trains of his mechanical clocks and automata. Simple gears have been known before him, but this was the first known case of complex gears used to transmit high torque. His mechanisms were the most sophisticated geared devices until the mechanical clocks of the mid-14th century. Segmental gears were also later employed by Al-Jazari in 1206.
Professor Lynn Townsend White, Jr. wrote: "Segmental gears first clearly appear in Al-Jazari, in the West they emerge in Giovanni de Dondi's astronomical clock finished in 1364, and only with the great Sienese engineer Francesco di Giorgio (1501) did they enter the general vocabulary of European machine design." Al-Muradi's work was known to scholars working under Alfonso X of Castile.
Conical valve:
This was a mechanism developed by the Banu Musa and of particular importance for future developments. It was used in a variety of different applications, including its use as "in-line" components in flow systems, the first known use of conical valves as automatic controllers.
Control engineering:
The work of the Banu Musa brothers, which included innovations involving subtle combinations of pneumatics and aerostatics, closely parallels the modern fields of control engineering and pneumatic instrumentation.
Crank-slider mechanism:
A crank-driven water pump by Al-Jazari employed the first known crank-slider mechanism.
Design and construction methods:
According to Donald Routledge Hill, "We see for the first time in Al-Jazari's work several concepts important for both design and construction: the lamination of timber to minimize warping, the static balancing of wheels, the use of paper models to establish designs, the calibration of orifices, the grinding of the seats and plugs of valves together with emery powder to obtain a watertight fit, and the casting of metals in closed mold boxes with sand."
Elevated battering ram:
In 1000, the Book of Secrets by the Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Spain described the use of an elevator-like lifting device, in order to raise a large battering ram to destroy a fortress.
Pedal-operated loom:
The foot pedal was originally invented for the purpose of operating a loom, for use in weaving. The first such devices appeared in Syria, Iran and Islamic parts of East Africa, where "the operator sat with his feet in a pit below a fairly low-slung loom." By 1177, it was further developed in Islamic Spain, where having the mechanism was "raised higher above the ground on a more substantial frame." This type of loom spread to the Christian parts of Spain and soon became popular all over medieval Europe.
Fountain pen:
The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Al-Muizz Lideenillah, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib, though the method of operation is unknown and no examples survive. As recorded by Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his Kitdb al-Majalis wa 'l-musayardt, al-Mu’izz instructed and commissioned the construction of a fountain reservoir pen.
Gas mask:
The Banu Musa brothers in the 9th century invented an early gas mask, for protecting workers in polluted wells. They also described bellows that 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."
Gate operator:
The first automatic doors were created by Hero of Alexandria and Chinese engineers under Emperor Yang of Sui prior to Islam. This was followed by the first hydraulics-powered automatic gate operators, invented by Al-Jazari in 1206. Al-Jazari also created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks.
Grab:
The mechanical grab, specifically a 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.
Intermittent working:
The concept of minimizing intermittent working is first implied in one of al-Jazari's saqiya chain pumps, which was for the purpose of maximising the efficiency of the saqiya chain pump.
Spinning wheel:
The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from Baghdad (drawn in 1237), and then from China (c. 1270) and Europe (c. 1280). There is evidence that spinning wheels had already come into use in the Islamic world long before that, as can be seen in an Islamic description of the spinning wheel dating from before 1030, while the earliest Chinese description dates from around 1090.[verification needed]
Trip hammer in papermaking:
Muslim engineers introduced the use of trip hammers in the production of paper, replacing the traditional Chinese mortar and pestle method of papermaking. In turn, the trip hammer method was later employed by the Chinese in papermaking.
Two-step level discontinuous variable structure controls:
Two-step level controls for fluids, an early form of discontinuous variable structure controls, was developed by the Banu Musa brothers.
In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented a number of automata (automatic machines) and mechanical devices, and they described a hundred such devices in their Book of Ingenious Devices. Some of the devices that make their earliest known appearance in the Book of Ingenious Devices include:
Differential pressure
Double-concentric siphon
Fail-safe system
Float chamber
Float valve
Hurricane lamp
Self-feeding lamp and self-trimming lamp: Invented by the eldest brother Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir.
Trick drinking vessels
Plug valve.
Self-operating valve
In 1206, Al-Jazari also described over fifty mechanical devices in six different categories in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, most of which he invented himself, along with construction drawings. Along with his other mechanical inventions described above, some of the other mechanical devices he first described include: phlebotomy measures, linkage, water level, and devices able to elevate water from shallow wells or flowing rivers.
Military
Military products Marching band and military band:
The marching band and military band both have their origins in the Ottoman military band, performed by the Janissary since the 16th century.
Horseman's axe:
An early type of war hammer that was of Islamic origin. The Tirant lo Blanch in the 15th century maintained that it was "the deadliest weapon when fighting in full armour, when it was hung from a cavalryman's saddle-bow."
Defense
Adarga:
A hard leather shield used originally by the Moors of Islamic Spain. The adarga was a traditional defense employed by the Moorish light horseman who used it along with the lance. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the adarga was also used by Spanish Christian soldiers including their own light cavalry (la jineta) some of whom adopted Moorish fighting patterns. The adarga was in widespread use until the 16th century and the progress of firearms.
Camail:
It was used as part of the mighfar, an Islamic helmet. It was in use from the 8th to the 14th century.
Fireproof clothing:
In 1260, Egyptian Mamluk soldiers at the Battle of Ain Jalut wore fireproof clothing to protect themselves from gunpowder fires as well as chemicals in gunpowder warfare. Their clothing consisted of a silk tunic (still worn by Formula One drivers underneath their Nomex fire suits), aketon (from the Arabic al-qutn "the cotton"), and mainly a woolen overtunic that protects against fires and chemical weapons, similar to the clothing worn by modern soldiers for protection against biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Due to the effectiveness of their fireproof clothing, the Egyptian soldiers were able to attach gunpowder cartridges and incendiary devices to their clothing.
Short-hemmed and short-sleeved hauberk: The short-hemmed, short-sleeved hauberk is thought to be of Islamic origin. It was usually worn with a mail
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