Скачать или смотреть Time's Monks: Robotic Clocks of Medieval Waterworks

Medieval monks created elaborate water clocks using flowing water and mechanical figurines to mark the hours While European monks in the 13th and 14th centuries advanced water-clock technology with mechanical escapements and moving figurines, they were continuing a much older tradition. In 725 CE, the Chinese monk Yi Xing built water-driven clock towers with automated puppets. Centuries earlier, engineers at Baghdad's 9th-century House of Wisdom created elaborate clocks with robotic musicians and opening doors. Furthermore, these monastic timepieces were often hybrids, combining water power with falling weights, and their use extended beyond marking prayer times to civic purposes like regulating market hours. No complete original monastic water clocks survive today; modern understanding comes from fragmentary manuscripts, like the 1250 sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt and the financial records from St Albans Abbey.