On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass Part 4

1074 Shen Kua, clocks and magnetic compa.s.s 1080 Su Sung clock built 1101 Su Sung clock destroyed

INDIA

1100 (_ca._) Surya Siddhanta animated astronomical models and perpetual motion 1150 (_ca._) Siddhanta Siroma?i animated models and perpetual motion

ISLAM

1150 Saladin clock

EUROPE

1187 Neckham on compa.s.s 1198 Jocelin on water clock

ISLAM

1200 (_ca._) Ri?wan water-clocks, perpetual motion and weight drive 1206 al-Jazari clocks, etc.

1221 Geared astrolabe 1232 Charlemagne clock 1243 al-Konbas (compa.s.s)

EUROPE

1245 Villard clocktower, "escapement," perpetual motion 1267 Villers Abbey clock 1269 Peregrinus, compa.s.s and perpetual motion 1271 Robertus Anglicus, animated models and "perpetual motion" clock

ISLAM

1272 Alfonsine corpus clock with mercury drum, equatoria

EUROPE

1285 Drover's water clock with wheel and weight drive 1300 (_ca._) French geared astrolabe 1320 Richard of Wallingford astronomical clock and equatorium 1364 de Dondi's astronomical clock with mechanical escapement later 14th C. Tradition of escapement clocks continues and degenerates into simple time-keepers ------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is therefore reasonable grounds for supporting the medieval European tradition that the magnetic compa.s.s had first come from China, though one cannot well admit that the first news of it was brought, as the legend states, by Marco Polo, when he returned home in 1260. There might well have been another wave of interest, giving the impetus to Peter Peregrinus at this time, but an earlier transmission, perhaps along the silk road or by travelers in crusades, must be postulated to account for the evidence in Europe, _ca._ 1200. The earlier influx does not play any great part in our main story; it arrived in Europe before the transmission of astronomy from Islam had got under way sufficiently to make protoclocks a subject of interest. For a second transmission, we have already seen how the relevant texts seem to cl.u.s.ter, in France _ca._ 1270, around a complex in which the protoclocks seem combined with the ideas of perpetual motion wheels and with new information about the magnetic compa.s.s.

The point of this paper is that such a complex exists, cutting across the histories of the clock, the various types of astronomical machines, and the magnetic compa.s.s, and including the origin of "self-moving wheels." It seems to trace a path extending from China, through India and through Eastern and Western Islam, ending in Europe in the Middle Ages. This path is not a simple one, for the various elements make their appearances in different combinations from place to place, sometimes one may be dominant, sometimes another may be absent. Only by treating it as a whole has it been possible to produce the threads of continuity which will, I hope, make further research possible, circ.u.mventing the blind alleys found in the past and leading eventually to a complete understanding of the first complicated scientific machines.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This traditional view is expressed by almost every history of horology. An ultimate source for many of these has been the following two cla.s.sic treatments: J. Beckmann, _A history of inventions and discoveries_, 4th ed., London, 1846, vol. 1, pp.

340 ff. A. P. Usher, _A history of mechanical inventions_, 2nd ed., Harvard University Press. 1954, pp. 191 ff., 304 ff.

[2] There is a considerable literature dealing with the later evolution of perpetual motion devices. The most comprehensive treatment is H. Dircks, _Perpetuum mobile_, London, 1861; 2nd ser., London, 1870. So far as I know there has not previously been much discussion of the history of such devices before the renaissance.

[3] For the early history of gearing in the West see C.

Matschoss, _Geschichte des Zahnrades_, Berlin, 1940. Also F. M.

Feldhaus, _Die geschichtliche Entwicklung des Zahnrades in Theorie und Praxis_, Berlin, 1911.

[4] A general account of these important archaeological objects will be published by J. Needham, _Science and civilisation in China_, Cambridge, 1959(?), vol. 4. The original publications (in Chinese) are as follows: w.a.n.g Chen-to, "Investigations and reproduction in model form of the south-pointing carriage and hodometer," _National Peiping Academy Historical Journal_, 1937, vol. 3, p. 1. Liu Hsien-chou, "Chinese inventions in horological engineering," _Ch'ing-Hua University Engineering Journal_, 1956, vol. 4, p. 1.

[5] For ill.u.s.trations of intermes.h.i.+ng worms in Indian cotton mills, see Matschoss, _op. cit._ (footnote 3), figs. 5, 6, 7, p. 7.

[6] It is interesting to note that the Chinese hodometer was contemporary with that of Hero and Vitruvius and very similar in design. There is no evidence whatsoever upon which to decide whether there may have been a specific transmission of this invention or even a "stimulus diffusion."

[7] A summary of the content of the ma.n.u.script sources, ill.u.s.trated by the original drawings, has been published by H.

Alan Lloyd, _Giovanni de Dondi's horological masterpiece, 1364_, without date or imprint (?Lausanne, 1955), 23 pp. It should be remarked that de Dondi declines to describe the workings of his crown and foliot escapement (though it is well ill.u.s.trated) saying that this is of the "common" variety and if the reader does not understand such simple things he need not hope to comprehend the complexities of this mighty clock. But this may be bravado to quite a large degree.

[8] See, for example, the chronological tables of the 14th century and the later mentions of clocks in E. Zinner, _Aus der Fruhzeit der Raderuhr_, Munich, 1954, p. 29 ff. Unfortunately this very complete treatment tends to confuse the factual and legendary sources prior to the clock of de Dondi; it also accepts the very doubtful evidence of the "escapement" drawn by Villard of Honnecourt (see p. 107). An excellent and fully ill.u.s.trated account of monumental astronomical clocks throughout the world is given by Alfred Ungerer, _Les horloges astronomiques_, Strasbourg, 1931, 514 pp. Available accounts of the development of the planetarium since the middle ages are very brief and especially weak on the early history: Helmut Werner, _From the Aratus globe to the Zeiss planetarium_, Stuttgart, 1957; C. A. Crommelin, "Planetaria, a historical survey," _Antiquarian Horology_, 1955, vol. 1, pp. 70-75.

[9] Derek J. Price, "Clockwork before the clock," _Horological Journal_, 1955, vol. 97, p. 810, and 1956, vol. 98, p. 31.

[10] For the use of this material I am indebted to my co-authors. I must also acknowledge thanks to the Cambridge University Press, which in the near future will be publis.h.i.+ng our monograph, "Heavenly Clockwork." Some of the findings of this paper are included in shorter form as background material for that monograph. A brief account of the discovery of this material has been published by J. Needham, w.a.n.g Ling, and Derek J. Price, "Chinese astronomical clockwork," _Nature_, 1956, vol. 177, pp. 600-602.

[11] For these translations from cla.s.sical authors I am indebted to Professor Loren MacKinney and Miss Harriet Lattin, who had collected them for a history, now abandoned, of planetariums. I am grateful for the opportunity of giving them here the mention they deserve.

[12] A. G. Drachmann, "The plane astrolabe and the anaphoric clock," _Centaurus_, 1954, vol. 3, pp. 183-189.

[13] A fuller description of the anaphoric clock and cognate water-clocks is given by A. G. Drachmann, "Ktesibios, Philon and Heron," _Acta Historica Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium_, Copenhagen, 1948, vol. 4.

[14] First published by O. Benndorf, E. Weiss, and A. Rehm, _Jahreshefte des osterreichischen archaologischen Inst.i.tut in Wien_, 1903, vol. 6, pp. 32-49. I have given further details of its construction in _A history of technology_, ed. Singer, Holmyard, and Hall, 1957, vol. 3, pp. 604-605.

[15] L. Maxe-Werly, _Memoires de la Societe Nationale des Antiquaires de France_, 1887, vol. 48, pp. 170-178.

[16] The first definitive account of the Antikythera machine was given by Perikles Rediadis in J. Svoronos, _Das Athener Nationalmuseum_, Athens, 1908, Textband I, pp. 43-51. Since then, other photographs (mostly very poor) have appeared, and an attempt at a reconstruction has been made by Rear Admiral Jean Theophanidis, _Praktika tes Akademias Athenon_, Athens, 1934, vol. 9, pp. 140-149 (in French). I am deeply grateful to the Director of the Athens National Museum, M. Karouzos, for providing me with an excellent new set of photos, from which figures 6-8 are now taken.

[17] H. Diels uber die von Prokop beschriebene Kunstuhr von Gaza, _Abhandlungen, Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Berlin, Philos.-Hist. Kla.s.se, 1917, No. 7.

[18] L. A. Mayer, _Islamic astrolabists and their works_, Geneva, 1956, p. 62.

[19] The translation which follows is quoted from J. Beckmann, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), p. 349.

[20] E. Wiedemann, "Ein Instrument das die Bewegung von Sonne und Mond darstellt, nach al Biruni," _Der Islam_, 1913, vol. 4, p. 5.

[21] I acknowledge with thanks to the Curator of that museum the permission to reproduce photographs of this instrument. It is item 5 in R. T. Gunther, _Astrolabes of the world_, Oxford, 1932.

[22] Abulcacim Abnacahm, _Libros del saber_, edition by Rico y Sin.o.bas, Madrid, 1866, vol. 3, pp. 241-271. The design of the instrument has been very fully discussed by A. Wegener, "Die astronomischen Werke Alfons X," _Bibliotheca Mathematica_, 1905, pp. 129-189. A more complete discussion of the historical evolution of the equatorium is given in Derek J. Price, _The equatorie of the planetis_, Cambridge (Eng.), 1955, pp.

119-133.

[23] E. Wiedemann, and F. Hauser, "uber die Uhren im Bereich d.

islamischen Kultur," _Nova Acta; Abhandlungen der konigliche Leopoldinisch-Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher zu Halle_, 1915, vol. 100, no. 5.

[24] E. Wiedemann, and F. Hauser, _Die Uhr des Archimedes und zwei andere Vorrichtungen_, Halle, 1918.

[25] The ma.n.u.scripts in question are as follows: Gotha, Kat. v.

Pertsch. 3, 18, no. 1348; Oxford, Cod. 954; Leiden, Kat. 3, 288, no. 1414, Cod. 499 Warn; and another similar, Kat. 3, 291, no. 1415, Cod. 93 Gol.

[26] H. Schmeller, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Technik in der Antike und bei den Arabern, Erlangen, 1922 (_Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin_ no. 6).

[27] Once more I am indebted to Professor Loren MacKinney and Miss Harriet Lattin (see footnote 11) for making their collections on Gerbert available to me.

[28] Item 198 in Gunther, _op. cit._ (footnote 21). I am grateful to the authorities of that museum for permission to reproduce photographs of this instrument.