Al-Jazari's Ideals

Al-Jazari was a 12th century Muslim Scientist, Engineer, and inventor. He wrote a book that translates into, "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices."

His book shows many interesting facts and a deep understanding of devices and how they are used, up until the 1970's one of his devices was used to run water throughout a city. Al-Jazari was one to go back several times to improve his original designs, which kept up on their use.

Al-Jazari had been using a crankshaft in his mechanical devices two centuries before they had been thought of being used. These designs were found to be mind bogglingly ingenius, even for modern scientists who view his ideas. Indeed Muslim Heritage recognizes this man as "The Most Outstanding Engineer of his Time."

In fact, there were over 60 inventions authored in his book, there were fifty mechanical devices in six different categories. These included water clocks, combination locks, hand washing devices, machines for raising and lowering water, one of the most amazing ones was the double action water pumps with suction pipes, along with his crankshaft invention.

One of the most astounding thoughts is that he is recorded as being the first credited for programming a humanoid robot! Al-Jazari's machine was originally a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. It had two drummers, a harpist and a flautist.

The heart of the mechanism is a rotating cylindrical beam with pegs (cams) protruding from it. These just bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The point of the model is to demonstrate that the drummer can be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs are moved around. In other words it is a programmable drum machine.

Long before there was Da Vinci... There was Al-Jazari. And he has invented and created things that have puzzled and amazed people for centuries.