Book of Ingenious Devices

__NOTOC__

The "Book of Ingenious Devices" ( كتاب الحيل "Kitab al-Hiyal") was a large illustrated work on mechanical devices including automata published in 850 by the three Muslim brothers Ahmad, Muhammad and Hasan bin Musa ibn Shakir (the three together known as Banu Musa), working in the House of Wisdom ("Bayt al-Hikma") in Baghdad. [Dimarogonas, 2000, p. 15.] The book described about one hundred devices and how to use them. Some of these devices were credited to the work of Hero of Alexandria and other ancient texts, while others were original inventions by the Banu Musa brothers. [Bunch, 2004, p. 107.]

The book was commissioned by the Abassid Caliph of Baghdad Abu Jafar al-Ma'mun ibn Harun (786-833), who instructed the Banu Musa to acquire all of the Greek texts that had been preserved by monasteries and by scholars during the decline and fall of western civilization. [Rosheim, 1994, p. 9.] 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 their own original inventions include:

* Valve and plug valveOtto Mayr (1970). "The Origins of Feedback Control", MIT Press.] Donald Routledge Hill, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", "Scientific American", May 1991, p. 64-69. (cf. Donald Routledge Hill, [http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articles/HistoryofSciences.htm Mechanical Engineering] )]
* Float valve
* Feedback controller
* Automatic controlAhmad Y Hassan, [http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%2071.htm Transfer Of Islamic Technology To The West, Part II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering] ]
* Float chamber
* Mechanical trick devices
* Hurricane lamp
* Self-trimming lamp (Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir)
* Self-feeding lamp
* Gas mask
* Grab
* Clamshell grab
* Fail-safe system
* Differential pressure [citation|title=Ancient Discoveries, Episode 12: Machines of the East|publisher=History Channel|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gdknoXww8|accessdate=2008-09-06]

The Banu Musa also invented "the earliest known mechanical musical instrument", in this case a hydropowered 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." [citation|title=The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments|first=Charles B.|last=Fowler|journal=Music Educators Journal|volume=54|issue=2|date=October 1967|pages=45-49] The Banu Musa also invented an automatic flute player which appears to have been the first programmable machine.Teun Koetsier (2001). "On the prehistory of programmable machines: musical automata, looms, calculators", "Mechanism and Machine theory" 36, p. 590-591.]

ee also

*Banū Mūsā, the authors of the book
*Al-Jazari, who wrote a book with a similar name
*Inventions in the Muslim world
*Islamic Golden Age
*Antikythera mechanism

Notes

References and further reading

*Bunch, Bryan (2004). "The History of Science and Technology". Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0-618-22123-9
*Dimarogonas, Andrew D. (2000). "Machine Design: A CAD Approach". Wiley-IEEE. ISBN 0-471-31528-1
*Hill, Donald Routledge (Trans). (1978). "Book of Ingenious Devices". Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-277-0833-9
*Rosheim, Mark E. (1994). "Robot Evolution: The Development of Anthrobotics". Wiley-IEEE. ISBN 0-471-02622-0

External links

* [http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=285 A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering]