Crankshaft, double-acting pump and automata (al-Jazari)
Cigüeñal, bomba de doble efecto y autómatas de al-Jazari
- Date
- 1206 · confidence high
- Place
- Diyarbakır (Amida), Anatolia (Artuqid dynasty)
- Credited to
- Ismail al-Jazari (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices)
- People
- 👤 Al Jazarí1164–1206
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A treatise describing 50 machines: a double-acting piston pump with a crankshaft and check valves, water clocks with automata, cam mechanisms and segmental gears. The first description of a crankshaft integrated into a machine.
The hand-cranked crankshaft already existed (Han China, Carolingian Europe); al-Jazari integrated it into a machine with a connecting rod.
What it led to
- the transmission of mechanical knowledge to the Renaissance (Taccola, Leonardo)
- suction pumps and piston engines
- the tradition of automata and courtly clockwork
Built on
- Aeolipile and Heron's automatac. 60 CE
- Crank-driven rotary grindstonec. 830
- Banu Musa programmable automaton and automatic controlsc. 850
- Al-Muradi's epicyclic and segmental gearsc. 1050
- Hero of Alexandria and Philo
- Banu Musa (Book of Ingenious Devices, 850)
Made possible
- Crank bracec. 1425
- Taqi al-Din's steam jack1551
- suction pump
- European crankshaft (15th century)