Al-Jazari, an inventor of the 13th century, and a clever creator of over 100 devices ranging from automata to a myriad of water pumping devices seems to have invented a marvelous musical robot band,something unlike any other invention in history.  Move over Steve Jobs.

Al Jazari’s work described fountains and musical automata, in which the flow of water alternated from one large tank to another at hourly or half-hourly intervals. This operation was achieved through his innovative use of hydraulic switching.  He also created a musical automaton, which was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties.

Professor Noel Sharkey has argued that it is quite likely that it was an early programmable automata and has produced a possible reconstruction of the mechanism; it has a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.I have included an image of the “oddest band in history” at left.

Thomas Schoenberger

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