"Types of machines... came to my notice offering possibilities for types of marvelous control"
Al-Jazari, Book of Knowledge (1206)
Islamic scholar AI-Jazari (1150-1220) lived in what was northern Mesopotamia—today's northeastern Syria and Iraq. A brilliant inventor, he made one of the most significant contributions to human engineering in 1206 by devising the world's first crankshaft. This conceptually simple device converts rotary into reciprocating motion, and vice versa, but it is now used in a huge number of modern machines, including automobiles. Put simply, the Industrial Revolution could not have happened without it.
The crankshaft is perhaps most commonly recognized today in modern motor engines, and is among AI-Jazari's more famous inventions. In today's cars it receives force from firing pistons that move in a linear fashion back and forth and, through movable bearings, rotates around its axis, thus converting the pistons' energy into rotation output for the wheels.
Al-Jazari's original invention was designed to pump water from wells for irrigation, with cattle employed to provide the energy—quite a contrast from the modern interpretation of the technology. Despite the difference in complexity, the principle behind the crankshaft remains the same more than 800 years after AI-Jazari first thought of it.
