Gimbal - History

History

The gimbal was first described by the Greek inventor Philo of Byzantium (280–220 BC). Philo described an eight-sided ink pot with an opening on each side, which can be turned so that while any face is on top, a pen can be dipped and inked - yet the ink never runs out through the holes of the other sides. This was done by the suspension of the inkwell at the center, which was mounted on a series of concentric metal rings which remained stationary no matter which way the pot is turned.

The authenticity of Philo's description of a cardan suspension has been doubted by some authors on the ground that the part of Philo's Pneumatica which describes the use of the gimbal survived only in an Arabic translation of the early 9th century AD. Thus, the sinologist Joseph Needham suspected Arab interpolation as late as 1965. However, Carra de Vaux, author of the French translation which still provides the basis for modern scholars, regards the Pneumatics as essentially genuine. The historian of technology George Sarton (1959), too, asserts that it is safe to assume the Arabic version is a faithful copying of Philo's original, and credits Philon explicitly with the invention. So does his colleague Michael Lewis (2001). In fact, research by the latter scholar (1997) demonstrates that the Arab copy contains sequences of Greek letters which fell out of use after the time of Christ, thereby strengthening the case that it is a faithful copy of the Hellenistic original, a view recently also shared by the classicist Andrew Wilson (2002).

The ancient author Athenaeus Mechanicus, who flourished during the reign of Augustus (30 BC–AD 14), described the military use of a gimbal-like mechanism, calling it "little ape" (pithêkion): When preparing to attack coastal towns from the sea-side, military engineers used to yoke merchant-ships together to take the siege machines up to the walls. But to prevent the shipborne machinery from rolling around the deck in heavy seas, Athenaeus advises that "you must fix the pithêkion on the platform attached to the merchant-ships in the middle, so that the machine stays upright in any angle".

After antiquity, gimbals remained widely known in the Near East. In the Latin West, reference to the device appeared again in the 9th century recipe book called the Little Key of Painting Mappae clavicula. The French inventor Villard de Honnecourt depicts a set of gimbals in his famous sketchbook (see right). In the early modern period, dry compasses were suspended in gimbals.

In China, the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220) inventor Ding Huan created a gimbal incense burner around AD 180. There is a hint in the writing of the earlier Sima Xiangru (179–117 BC) that the gimbal existed in China since the 2nd century BC. There is mention during the Liang Dynasty (502–557) that gimbals were used for hinges of doors and windows, while an artisan once presented a portable warming stove to Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–705) which employed gimbals. Extant specimens of Chinese gimbals used for incense burners date to the early Tang Dynasty (618–907), and were part of the silver-smithing tradition in China.