It is of the greatest interest to our theme that the Islamic contributions to horology and perpetual motion seem to form a closely knit corpus. A most important series of horological texts, including those of Riḍwān and al-Jazarī, have been edited by Wiedemann and Hauser.[23] Other Islamic texts give versions of the water clocks and automata of Archimedes and of Hero and Philo of Alexandria.[24] In at least three cases[25] these texts are found also associated with texts describing perpetual-motion wheels and other hydraulic devices. Three manuscripts of this type have been published in German translation by Schmeller.[26] The devices include a many chambered wheel (see fig. [14]) similar to the Alfonsine mercury "escapement," a wheel of slanting tubes constructed like the noria (see fig. 15), wheels of weights swinging on arms as described by Villard of Honnecourt, and a remarkable device which seems to be the earliest known example of a weight drive. This latter machine is a pump, in which a chain of buckets is used to raise water by passing over a pulley which is geared to a drum powered by a falling weight (see fig. [16]); perhaps for balance, the whole arrangement is made in duplicate with common axles for the corresponding parts.
Figure 16.—Islamic Pump Powered by a Weight Drive, after the text cited in figure 14.
The Islamic tradition of water clocks did not involve the use of gears, though very occasionally a pair is used to turn power through an angle when this is dictated by the use of a water wheel in the automata. In the main, everything is worked by floats and strings or by hydraulic or pneumatic forces, as in Heros devices. The automata are very elaborate, with figures of men, monkeys, peacocks, etc., symbolizing the passage of hours.
medieval europe
Echoes from nearly all the developments already noted from other parts of the world are found to occur in medieval Europe, often coming through channels of communication more precisely determinable than those hitherto mentioned. Before the influx of Islamic learning at the time of transmission of the Toledo Tables (12th century) and the Alfonsine Tables (which reached Paris ca. 1292), there are occasional references to the most primitive mechanized "visual aids" in astronomy.
The most famous of these occurs in an historical account by Richer of Rheims about his teacher Gerbert (born 946, later Pope Sylvester II, 990-1003). Several instruments made by Gerbert are described in detail; he includes a fine celestial globe made of wood covered with horsehide and having the stars and lines painted in color, and an armillary sphere having sighting tubes similar to those always found on Chinese instruments but never on the Ptolemaic variety. Lastly, he cites "the construction of a sphere, most suitable for recognizing the planets," but unfortunately it is not clear from the description whether or not the model planets were actually to be animated mechanically. The text runs:[27]
Within this oblique circle (the zodiac on the ecliptic of the globe) he hung the circles of the wandering stars (the planets) with marvellous ingenuity, whose orbits, heights and even the distance from each other he demonstrated to his pupils most effectually. Just how he accomplished this it is unsuitable to enter into here because of its extent lest we should appear to be wandering from our main theme.
Thus, although there is a hint of mechanical complexity, there is really no justification for such an assumption; the description might well imply only a zodiac band on which the orbits of the planets were painted. On the other hand it is not inconceivable that Gerbert could have learned something of Islamic and other extra-European traditions during his period of study with the Bishop of Barcelona—a traveling scholarship that seems to have had many repercussions on the whole field of European scholarship.