Page 37 - Studio International - October 1969

the clock of Archimedes on the British Museum, the nineteenth century. British Museum, Add. 211 as the inventor of the clepsydra with figures and balls.
Oxford, and Paris manuscripts. Their schematic Boehn illustrates a similar subject, fig. 382. The representation of bellows in Egyptian art goes back
drawing of the clock is accompanied by a description to 1500 B.C. It would be surprising if they did not use
here given in an abbreviated form. The clock is set 14 Su Sung's astronomical clock in Honan A.D. siphons before the time of Philo. Meissner, vol. 2, p.
in motion by the float (b) which sinks as water 1090. A general diagram of the works - a water- 313, mentions the Babylonians' use of the siphon in
leaves the container (a) through the pipe (c). The driven mechanism. From a reprint of Su Sung's healing.
speed of flow is regulated by (d) (e) (f) and (g). Hsin I Hsiang Fa Tao, Shanghai, 1937. Very little is known about the lives of the Alexandrian
Water now flows into the basin (i) from (g), and See Needham, vol. 4:2, pp. 446-65. scientists and mechanics. The generally accepted dates at
goes to the container (k). It runs into the spoon (1) present are; Ctesibius c. 300-230 B.C.; Philo c. 250 B.C.;
which tips as soon as it is filled. Now various 15a-d These illustrations are from 2 manuscripts of an Hero c. A.D. 60. The Alexandrian Museum was the chief
automata are set in motion in the lower part of the Arabic work translated into Persian, and produced centre of Greek science.
clock (snakes and singing birds) (n) (q). A mechanism in India. The Cosmography- Ajā'ib Hero gives an indication of the maximum size of his
of weights (o). Through the fine opening in al-makhlākāt by Zakariyyā ibn Muhammad ibn automata when stating that they should never be so
the wind chamber (p) the water flows into (k) Mahmūd al-Kazvini, is regarded as the most valuable big as to give rise to the suspicion of a hidden operator.
where, after the running down of the clock (12 hours book produced in this field by the Arabic middle The writers who persist in spreading the myth that
in the present reconstruction) it is emptied via the ages. (Dictionary of Islam, 1927.) Hero writes about temple doors being opened by steam
tap (r). The authors' outline of the activity Illustration 15a is from British Museum power, reveal that they have not consulted the authori-
of the upper part of the clock is not given here. Add. 16739, fol. 224 V. The ms. is Provincial tative translation of the Pneumatics by Schmidt which
The clock was almost 4 meters high. Mughal, dated 1558. Illustrations 15b-d are from uses the diminutive Tempelchen when translating the
8b As soon as one hour has passed, the British Museum Or. 7968. This is an abridged version relevant passage.
executioner strikes the jointed neck of one of the of the seventeenth-century. Wiedemann refers to several accounts of sculptures
bound men, and it falls on to the chest. 12 to 14 15a A music box. 'As often as the figure suspended by magnetic force in Arabic and Indian cul-
figures were used in this detail of the clock. In revolves it makes the tambours sound.' ture. These works were usually in the form of chapels,
the illustration the upper parts of the figures 15b Folio 225 R. 'When the king sits on a throne a whose interior was faced with magnetic stone, carefully
are left out to reveal the mechanism. figure like a servant draws the cables round the arranged so that the sculpture would be suspended in
8c At the conclusion of each hour, doors open and golden plate, the doors open, the figures stand up space. When attempts were made to remove some of the
riders stand on top of their horses. and take up their arms (weapons) and stand around stones, the sculpture collapsed on to the ground. There
8d This extremely important drawing shows a means the throne and as long as the king is seated so they is also a mention of an Arabic author (thirteenth cen-
by which time was indicated. It recalls the remain there. But when the king rises, his tury) who writes about a Christian chapel in Constanti-
pointing figure used in the clepsydra by Ctesibius. servant pulls the ropes and it opens(sic) and the nople with magnetic stone and floating sculpture.
Illustrations 8b, 8c and 8d, are from British figures go back to their places. In this wise. God All quotations referring to China are from Needham,
Museum Add. 23,391, A treatise on the construction knows best.' vol. 4:2.
of hydraulic clocks by Archimedes. Arabic ms. 15c Folio 225 R. 'The one who was lighting candles. The author would like to thank the following: Miss
seventeenth-century. For translation and detailed They make another frame and beneath it they fix Norah M. Titley, Mr G. Meredith-Owens, Department
description see Wiedemann and Hauser. a wheel on an axle and on top of the axle a of Oriental Books and Mss, British Museum, and other
Drachmann points out that there are no connections figure. In its hand is a candle and beneath the whole members of the staff of the British Museum; Professor
with Archimedes, and suggests that this is the work of is a cistern full of sand which is heaped up. J. C. Wright, Professor of Sanskrit, University of
a Muslim inventor, who has placed together details When the sand from the heap goes on to the spindle London; Mr Robert Skelton, Indian Section, Victoria
from sources such as Philo and Hero. of the wheel, it causes the wheel to revolve, which and Albert Museum. Photographs by courtesy of the
turns the axle and makes the figure turn round. Trustees of the British Museum. (This article was
9 From a Persian ms. of the Shāhnāma by Firdausi In the hand of the figure a lighted candle is placed handed to the publisher in the autumn of 1968; the
(c. 932-1020-21). British Museum, Or. 12,688, and it lights the candles round the framework.' introductory statement and notes were completed in the
folio 106. A.D. 1446. 2 vol. 15d Folio 225 V. This automaton is for table use. summer of 1969.)
Firdausi's account of the flight of Shah Kai Kāūs After the cup of the winebearer is automatically
is based on an incident in the semi-legendary history filled inside the building, the door opens, the cup-
of Iran. The Shah wishing to fly towards other bearer emerges, pours the wine into a goblet Selected bibliography
planets, constructs a throne of aloe, with seats of placed by him, and returns inside. At that moment, Hans Bonnet. Reallexicon der Agyptischen Religionsge-
gold. At every corner there is a spear from the equestrian figure above the dome ceases its schichte. Berlin, 1952.
which is suspended a lamb's leg. Four starved eagles motion. The person at whom the figure's javelin is E.A.T.W. Budge. A Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian
are tied to the throne. They rise, reaching for the pointing receives the goblet. Antiquities. London, 1922.
food, bringing the throne into the sky. But they Alfred Chapuis, Edouard Gélis. Le Monde des Automates.
get exhausted, and bring the Shah back to earth. 16 These frames are taken from a film made in the Paris, 1928. 2 vol.
Warner, Vol. 2, p. 103. Fuel Technology Department, Sheffield University, James T. Culbertson. The Mind of Robots. Urbana, 1963.
Seeing this image for the first time immediately after in 1963. It shows a Perambulating Fire-detecting H. Diels. fiber die von Prokop beschriebene Kunstuhr von
the first landing by men on the moon, one is and Extinguishing Robot, built for Professor Gaza. Abh. der Konigl. Preuss. Ak. der Wiss. Berlin,
inevitably struck by correspondences with the U.S. M. W. Thring, Head of the Department of 1917. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Nr. 7.
Lunar Module Eagle which made the first Mechanical Engineering, Queen Mary College, A. G. Drachmann. Ktesibios, Philon and Heron. A Study in
landing on the moon. London. A flame is placed near the moving robot. Ancient Pneumatics. Copenhagen, 1948.
It homes onto the flame, discharges foam, thus Encyclopedia of World Art. London, 1959-68. 15 vol.
10 From Needham, vol. 4:2, p. 571. 'The oldest dousing the flame. Friedrich Hauser. fiber das kitab al hijal-das Werk uber
printed picture of the aerial car of the mythical The relations of this contemporary robot and Hero's die sinnreichen Anordnungen- der Benū Mūsā. Abh. zur
Chi-Kung people, a page from the I Yü Thu Chih automata are self-evident (ill. le). We might Gesch. der Naturw. und der Med. Heft. 1. Erlangen,
encyclopaedia, c. + 1430, first printed + 1489. The recall that fire-pumps form part of the work of 1922.
inscription is approximately identical with the passage Alexandrian mechanics from Philo onwards. L. W. King. Babylonian Boundary Stones and Memorial-
of the Po Wu Chih translated in the text. The one There is no need to labour the technical Tablets in the British Museum. London, 1912. 2 vol.
wheel appears to be toothed; did the artist think of it superiority of Thring's robot over most of A. Lansing. The Egyptian Expedition. The Excavations at
as facing the air like a vertical wind-wheel?' twentieth-century kinetic art. Lisht. Bulletin Metropolitan Museum of Art. New
York, 1934. Section 11.
11 a-d Both Laufer and Raghavan find it difficult 17 From John Wilkins' Mathematicall Magick or the Berthold Laufer. The Prehistory of Aviation. Field Museum
not to believe in the existence of flying machines in Wonders that may be performed by Mechanicall of Natural History, Chicago, 1928. Anthropological
ancient India, the latter basing his views on the Geometry in two books. London, 1648. Book 2 Series, vol. 18, No. 1.
profusion of information in the literature regarding `Daedalus; or, Mechanical Motions'. Chapter 13 G. Maspero. New Light on Ancient Egypt. London, 1909.
`seating capacity, travelling range, difference `Concerning severall attempts of contriving a Bruno Meissner. Babylonien und Assyrien. Heidelberg,
in speed, accidents, materials and methods of perpetuall motion by magnetic virtues'. 1925. 2 vol.
manufacture'. The loadstone AB attracts the bullet of steel C along Joseph Needham. Science and Civilization in China.
These illustrations are from a Sanskrit manuscript the plane EF. Due to gravity, the bullet falls into the Cambridge, 1954 - See particularly vol. 4:2, 1965.
of the Ramayana by Valmiki. The ms. is in hole at E. It is carried with force to the end of Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissen-
three heavy volumes in European leather binding. the arch, and returns to the place where it started schaft, Stuttgart, 1894-
It is from Mewar, seventeenth to eighteenth moving perpetually. The author then proceeds V. Raghavan. Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in
century. British Museum, Or. 23,000. Many of the to undermine this idea. Ancient India. The Indian Institute of Culture, Trans-
illustrations show flight mechanical, human, actions No. 10. Bangalore, 1952.
spirits, animal. The illustrations have been selected General Notes George Sarton. Introduction to the History of Science.
to show some of the variety of craft shown in the ms. Now, when men are aiming to use the gravitational Baltimore, 1927-48. 3 vol.
11a Refer to Raghavan p. 28, for an account of fields of planets as boosters on long space journeys, Science Journal. Machines Like Men. London, October,
large flying craft-Dāru-vimāna used in battle, concepts such as this acquire a new significance. 1968.
whose powerful noise threw elephants out of control. Throughout history, the sphere of automata, Wilhelm Schmidt. Herons von Alexandria Druckwerke und
11b This illustration is particularly significant since it kinetic art, and flight, provided a forcing ground for Automatentheater. Leipzig, 1899.
reveals that the artist gave no indication ideas, feelings, and techniques, that were later A. G. Warner and E. Warner, Ed. The Shāhnāma of
of any mechanism within the craft. applied in technology on a vastly extended scale. Firdausi. London, 1905-25. 9 vol.
The smoke steam and scent of the burning sacrifice and Eilhard Wiedemann. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Natur-
12 Illustration from a Persian ms. of the incense suffusing the temples of the Middle East, the wissenschaften. In Sitz. der Phys. Med. Soz. Erlangen,
Shāhnāma by Firdausi. British Museum, Or. vision and sound of the falling water, wine or oil of the 1902-28.
1403, folio 278 R. A.D. 1437. The subject is libation, created a carefully anticipated environment E. Wiedemann und F. Hauser. Uhr des Archimedes und
Isfandiyar and his box 'set about with swords', and which related to many levels, including the aesthetic. zwei andere Vorrichtungen. In Nova Acta. Abh. der
his fight with an evil dragon-like creature-the Here is a major phase of kinetic art. Kaiserl. Leop. Carol. Deutschen Ak. der Naturfor-
Simurgh. For first mention of box, Warner, Vol. 5 The Egyptian influence on the Greek scientists and scher. Halle, 1918. Band 103, Nr. 2.
p. 126: Isfandiyār and the Simurgh, ibid, p. 132. mechanics is one of the most difficult but also one B. Woodcroft, Ed. The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria.
of the most rewarding areas of study in the field of London, 1851.
13 Puppets in the street. From an album of crafts automata. When more research has taken place, it is F. A. Wright, Ed. The Works of Liudprand of Cremona.
and entertainment. China, first half of the quite likely that Ctesibius will no longer be acclaimed London, 1930.