Book of Ingenious Devices

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Drawing of Self trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir's treatise on mechanical devices. The manuscript was written in Arabic.

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 Persian 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. ^[1] 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.^{[2][not in citation given]}

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.^[3] 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 valve^{[4][not in citation given][5][not in citation given]}
• Float valve^{[4][not in citation given]}
• Feedback controller^{[4][not in citation given]}
• Automatic control^{[6][not in citation given]}
• Float chamber^{[6][not in citation given]}
• Mechanical trick devices^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Hurricane lamp^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Self-trimming lamp^{[5][not in citation given]} (Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir)
• Self-feeding lamp^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Grab^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Clamshell grab^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Fail-safe system^{[5][not in citation given]}
• Differential pressure^[7]

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."^[8] The Banu Musa also invented an automatic flute player which appears to have been the first programmable machine.^[9] The non-manual crank also appears in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices.^[10] The Banu Musa also invented an early gas mask,^[5] for protecting workers in polluted wells.^[11]

See 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

• A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering