November 4, 2023 • 46 mins
In this classic invention-themed episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe explore the ancient origins of the gimbal, its connections to Chinese incense censers and its role in technological innovation. (originally published 09/27/2022)
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name
is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I am Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. So we
are reaching into the vault to bring you an older
episode of the show. This one originally published on September
twenty seventh, twenty twenty two. It was one we did
on the invention of the gimbal.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
All right, let's dive right in.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name
is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And I'm Joe McCormick, and I want to start this
episode of the quote just because this is where my
mind instantly went for this episode, which is going to
be about the gimbal.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I thought of this, of this line from the poem
The Jabberwockie by Lewis Carroll. Okay, twas brillig and this
slyv toes to gyre and gimble in the wave.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Okay, So I was about to say that every noun,
verb and adjective in this in this couplet is nonsense,
but then I realized there are actually a couple of
real verbs in there. There's twas and there's did. In fact, actually,
twas I think contains a noun and a verb because
the t in twas is for it, so we get
it was and did. But yeah, everything else I don't
(01:25):
know what those words mean. And you're I think you're
not supposed.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To, well, gyre is real, to whirl or to gyright,
do you.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Think that's what it's supposed to mean in this context?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Though?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I think yes, or mostly yes, sist oh, okay, good.
But that's the thing about Lewis Carroll. A lot of
nonsense words, and then gimble throws one off because when
you look at this gimble as in the title of
this episode, in case you don't have the title in
front of you, is spelled g I mb A L,
and in the Lewis Carroll poem it's spelled g I
(02:00):
M B l E. And if you look that spelling
of gimbal up in a dictionary, you get to make
a face or to grimace, which does not seem to
be what's going on here. The gimbal we're talking about
is well to define more clearly, intern a bit a
mechanism typically consisting of rings pivoting at right angles for
(02:22):
keeping an instrument horizontal In a moving vessel or on
a moving plane, that sort of thing. So that definition
would seem to sort of line up more with what's
going on here, the idea of some sort of gyre,
some sort of revolution going on. But I was reading.
(02:43):
I read a little bit more about this, and it
turns out that Lewis Carroll is absolutely of no help
to us today in this text. Apparently Humpty Dumpty himself
weighs in. I either didn't know this or had forgotten
this on the meaning of all this pointing out that
toads are a kind of lizard badger creature, and that
gimble in this context means quote to make holes like
(03:07):
a gimblet. A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling
small holes in wood. Slythy is a combination of lithe
and slimy, so it's a slimy badger lizard that rotates
and bores.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Okay, I see, But wait a minute, I'm still confused
when you say that gimble in this line means to
make holes like a gimblet. Was that a general definition
of the word at the time this poem was written,
or is that unique to the meaning within the poem.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
My understanding is that this is a Lewis Carroll thing. Okay,
Humpty dumpty is explaining it because, or at least in
the dictionaries I was looking at, I did not see
this as an accepted definition or alternate definition for gimbal gimbl.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, in that case, that would support my initial interpretation
that even though jyre is a real word, in this context,
it is supposed to be a nonsense word.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Right, but the nonsense being perhaps less removed from the reality. Yeah,
it's I mean, that's I guess the delight of Lewis
carroll text is you have all of these nonsense words.
You have words that are being used, at the very
least in the pursuit of some sort of nonsense.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This may be the most whimsical opening ever to a
podcast about a rotation mechanism.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, it's probably a bad opening since them, well, the
example does not have a useful definition of the word involved.
It's more of a tangent. But still, I mean entertaining.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I would hope I enjoyed going on this little Lewis
Carroll journey with you. But okay, so we're going to
talk about gimbals today. What is a gimbal? I think
we might need to do a little bit of concept sorting,
because when I was searching for information about gimbals on
the internet, first of all, a lot of what comes
up is just camera equipment, and we can discuss that
(04:53):
later in the episode. But even when you're just trying
to find information about the underlying mechanical concept of what
comes up seems to be references to a complex device
made out of three parts that are in fact each
individually called a gimbal. So anyway, I got this sorted
out by consulting a reference manual. I went to the
Oxford Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. If that's not an authoritative source,
(05:18):
I don't know what is. And according to this volume,
a gimbal is quote, a pivoted support that allows rotation
of a supported object about a single axis. Two orthogonal
gimbals are used in supports of, for example, compasses. So
I think the object mounted within a gimbal is most
(05:39):
often going to be a platform that is supposed to
maintain its orientation with respect to gravity, or it's some
kind of detector, sensor or measuring device. But when I
was thinking about simple examples that people might know from
around their homes. I actually thought of the C shaped
mounting for a globe. I actually was looking at a
(06:02):
globe just the other day and admiring all of the
names of countries that are no longer accurate on it.
But on a globe you've got this. You know, often
have this either a full ring or sort of a
C shaped metal ring that connects to the globe at
the poles and allows the globe to rotate within it.
And of course this simulates the rotation of the Earth. Now,
(06:25):
often when you read about references to gimbals, they will
be referring to systems that use two or three or
even more gimbals in combination in succession with one another
to allow more dimensions of free rotation. For example, probably
the most famous one is known as Cardan's suspension, and
(06:46):
this is again according to the Oxford Handbook of Mechanical Engineering,
quote a system that uses three gimbals with orthogonal axes
orthogonal meaning at ninety degree angles orthogonal axes so as
to support a component in a fixed orientation despite rotation
(07:06):
of the mounting of the gimbals.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Cardan, by the way, that's named for Geralamo Cardano, a
sixteenth century Italian polymath who developed a or made use
of a three ring gimbal.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Right, And the handbook goes on to say that the
cardan suspension is most often used to support gyroscopes for
navigational use or for various types of experiments about freely
rotating bodies. So to return to the globe analogy, imagine
you've got a regular globe. It's got a sea shaped
mounting that allows it to rotate freely on its axis.
(07:40):
But then imagine you mount that sea shaped mounting to
a ring that allows the sea shaped mounting to rotate
freely on the equatorial axis. So that's two dimensions of rotation.
And then say you mount that within a third ring,
and within that ring you can actually have the globe
rotate sort of say top front to back. And with
(08:02):
these three rings you can rotate freely in all three
dimensions of space, the dimensions that in the context of
say talking about the attitude of an airplane, you would
call pitch, roll and yaw. Now, there's normally no reason
you would want a globe to rotate in three dimensions,
but there are situations where it would be very useful
(08:24):
to have an object mounted within two or three gimbals.
For example, what if you want to create an object
that maintains a fixed orientation with respect to some outside
frame of reference, even though the ground or the housing
in which the object is mounted will itself move. So,
(08:45):
say you want a platform that maintains orientation with respect
to the Earth, maybe the Earth's center of gravity, or
maintains maintains orientation with respect to some point in the stars,
or some fixed point of focus, say the subject of
a frame when you're using a camera, all while being
(09:05):
mounted inside a housing that is prone to moving and
jostling around. For a simpler version of all that, just
imagine you want you want a cup holder or any
open reservoir for liquid that will stay upright and not spill,
even though it's say, mounted in a ship that is
expected to be going through rough seas.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, and looking around. I know, as you can get
some gimbal drink holders for I think mostly boats. This
reminds me, though, I think the earliest example of this
mechanism that I remember seeing. I mean I would have
seen compasses and so forth, But a situation for someone
who's really calling out the gimbal technology was some sort
(09:49):
of I don't know if this was like a Mister
Wizard or Reading Rainbow or some Nickelodeon show, but it
was like something with kid inventors, and kids were rolling
out their inventions, and one of the kid inventions was
essentially a gimbaled drink tray. So I think, if memory serves,
these weren't round frames, but they were square frames. But
(10:09):
it created the same sort of situation, and they demonstrated
it showing like a glass of coke or PEPSI, you know,
there in the middle of it. And I remember at
the time thinking, well, this is phenomenal. This is what
we should use all the time. And of course then
you go back into the world and you realize, well, no,
I guess, I guess the engineering benefits of this design
do not make this a better option than simply being
(10:32):
careful with a tray. But at the time I remember
being really impressed with it and thinking, well, this is
the way, this is the way we should be carrying
drinks around on trays. We should see this in every
restaurant in every city around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh yeah, I mean when you're carrying your coffee cup
and it's too full and it just starts slashing back
and forth, and you're like, I can't, I've got to
stop walking, or I've got a spill it there. That's
pretty much it a sort of gimbaled sling for your
coffee cup. I suspect would help overcome that problem.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, or say a Martini glass where it's like this,
this is a horrible design. I mean, yeah, I could
easily go off on the Martina Glass's so easy to slash,
but it makes you think, well, we got to have
gimbal trays for these things. If we're going to insist
on drinking out of these ridiculous glasses and not something
more reasonable like a like a coop or a Nick
(11:22):
and Nora, than well, then let's get specialized trays.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know, I think the poor design of the Martini
glass is actually intentional. There's like a psychological effect of
the fact that it slashes so easily. It makes the
act of drinking the martini kind of delicate experience. So
you imagine, I don't know, Don Draper having a martini
or whatever, and he's not just knocking it back, you know,
he's got to like hold it very carefully and sip
(11:48):
it carefully, and it makes it a tender moment.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, and then I guess the threshold for becoming sloppy
with your drink is that much closer. And therefore maybe
the idea as well. If they're getting they're having too
much to drink, they're going to spill more of it.
They'll spill more of it on themselves, and they'll think
twice about ordering more of this particular beverage. They'll realize,
I maybe I should just get a water and go home.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Maybe I should just get six dozen more oysters and
then go to the meeting. Well, okay, anyway, a lot
of sources if you try to look for the origins
of the gimbal system. I think this is one of
the many mechanical designs that we don't know for sure
the actual origin of it. But one of the earliest
mentions of a gimbal is often cited to a third
(12:36):
century BCE Greek engineer and author named Philo of Byzantium
or Phylon of Byzantium. I was reading about this in
a book called Gears by Vincenzo Vulo, published by Springer
in twenty twenty, and there's just a short paragraph about
Filo here a Vulo writes quote. Filo was also the
(12:58):
first to describe a gimaimbo. It was applied to an
eight side ink pot that could be turned any way,
driven by gears without the ink being poured. This was
done by suspending the ink well at a central plate
after assembling this on a series of concentric metal rings
which were stationary regardless of how the pot could rotate. Now,
(13:20):
like many things, like many inventions mentioned in ancient Greek
reference texts, this doesn't necessarily mean that Philo was the
inventor of this object, or that Philo was the inventor
of the gimbal or the gimbal system. But this does
appear to be a very early, if not the earliest
written reference to it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, in looking at and considering the history of the gimbal,
I'm reminded of our discussions of the wheel. So you
look at the history, and certainly we have an invention
episode on the wheel, at least one. I can't remember
if it's a one part or a two parter, but
one of the things we touched on is that it's
one thing to happen upon the concept to invent the
concept of the wheel, But then how practical is it
(14:01):
if you don't have roads. And so if we have
various examples of cultures where there wasn't really a practical
use of the wheel, but the wheel was still around
as a novelty, we'd see the one would see it
in the use of toys or children, and so one
can easily imagine a situation where the gimbal is much
the same where craftsmen and curious minds would have happened
(14:24):
upon this property, would have developed this. But if there's
not something that you need to keep stable, then why
roll it out? Why make any more of an issue
out of it? Because again I come back to that
example of the kid inventors with the tray, Like that's
cool and all, but if it's not actually better than
(14:44):
just carefully carrying a tray, then it's not an invention
that's going to actually have any legs.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Right, And in the end, a lot of the real
uses of gimbal systems seem to be highly specialized. They're
not usually like everyday use kind of objects. They're often
for special kinds of detectors and sensors in special contexts
of course, in scientific experiments, and later we'll get to
(15:11):
this in space travel. After the invention of photography, but
earlier than that, at least in the use of see navigation.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Right, right, at what point do you have something where
it makes sense to bust out this technology to keep
it stationary. And you just said the word censor. You were,
of course referring to a different spelling and usage of
the word. But in this we're coming back to our
(15:41):
discussion of incense and incense censors from the previous episodes
of the show, because, as we teased towards the end
of Incense Part two, this episode on gimbals is kind
of a continuation of that journey. So while a great
deal of the history of incense usage has more to
do with religion and pure esthetics, there are still practical applications.
(16:04):
And when we consider the technology of sensors again dedicated
incense burning containers and devices, yeah, things get a bit
more complicated. And indeed, in this case we see links
between sensors and gimbal technology that will ultimately play a
big role in say, the future of things like photography
and marine navigation and even rocket science. But we can
(16:28):
go back to very old traditions, very old technologies involving
the use of incense and I guess you might wonder,
why would you need to use a gimbal on an incense?
At which point does it pass that kit inventor test
of the practicality overpowering the pure novelty of the thing.
So one of my main sources for this is a
(16:50):
twenty twenty two article by art historian Bing Wong published
in the journal Religions. He had several sources here, including
the work of note sonologist Joseph Needham, whose writings we
recently referenced on the show as well. This is an
individual who casts a long shadow in the study of
(17:10):
Chinese science and technology, especially in the West. His multi
volume work on the History of Science and Civilization in
China was very much a career defining work. So, as
Huang describes here, it would seem based on Needum's research
and writings. The Chinese knowledge of the gimbal dates back
at least to the second century CE, but also possibly
(17:34):
to the second century BCE. We have a poet by
the name of Sima shang Ru who makes a reference
to the jin zhun Shun. These are the metal rings
containing the burning perfume, and this is in the marin Fu.
This is Owdede on Beautiful Women, a poem that contains
(17:55):
a seduction scene, and in doing so describes the various
these bedchambers and the items inside that bedchamber. And it's
inferred then in Needham's writing that, based on other texts,
the artifact described here might in fact be a gimbal
suspension to keep the burning perfume stable.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ah okay, So much like you might have, say a
cup holder on a boat that could use a gimbal
system in order to keep the drink from spilling while
the boat rocks in the waves, this could potentially be
a container for burning incense that would use a gimbal
system to keep it stable, to make sure it didn't
it didn't spill.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right now, you may be wondering about that again the
kid inventor test here, like why is it really necessary? Well,
there's a potential answer for that, and I'll get do
that in a second. But if this is true, this
would seem to position the earliest Chinese references to gimbal
pretty early on. In some case, I don't know if
(18:58):
this would necessarily be earlier than Philo, but certainly this
would be pretty early on in Eastern traditions. Compared with
Western traditions. I should note that when it comes to
critics of need Him, a common one was that he
tended toward Chinese superiority in his analysis. Apparently other critics, however,
(19:20):
argued quite the opposite, that he struggled to shake free
of the shackles of European exceptionalism in his sonology. So
you know, ultimately, I'm not sure exactly where the truth
falls on all of that, but probably worth reminding everyone
that need Him lived nineteen hundred through nineteen ninety five,
and it was I think pretty active up and towards
(19:42):
toward the end of his life. As like an editor
of these volumes, but Huong does not raise the specter
of either inclination, though he does look at new evidence,
disagrees with a few Needum theories, but otherwise does not
seem to oppose the second century BCE date, though does
firmly base it in the analysis of Needen. So anyway,
coming back to this question, Okay, why would you need
(20:04):
your burning perfume? Why would you need your incense to
have some sort of a mechanical system to keep it level?
I mean, if you're taking it on a ship, are
you running with it, right, like, what's the purpose? Yeah, well,
this brings us to consideration of the spherical incense burner
that had been previously referred to by archaeologists as a
perfume ball, but eventually written descriptions were discovered that referred
(20:28):
to them as a sheng nang, which Huong translates as
sachet in which Yablo Chinese, which is a website for
translating Mandarin, translates as spice ball. Now, to be clear,
these are metal spheres as opposed to silk or cloth
bound bags of incense. So Loong points out that these
(20:49):
metal spheres seem to have two primary uses. In Tang
dynasty China, this would be we're moving ahead several centuries here,
this would be period of six eighteen through nine oh
seven CE, So they would have two purposes basically as
an incense burner, but also as a hand warmer as
well as quote a sensor amid the covers which allowed
(21:14):
it to set or I guess even roll around on
bedding without fear of tipping over. WHOA, Yeah, So this
is something that based on some of the explanations I
was reading, it kind of brings the mind this idea
of like, here's this, and you can look up images
of this there ornate. It's a metal sphere and inside
(21:36):
there's a gimbled system to keep a tray of burning
coals and incense from tipping over. And then you would
be able to place this amid some regal bedding, and
the fumes from it would of course make the bed
smell nice. The heat from it would potentially warm the bed,
And I mean, I'm not sure from the descriptions I
(21:58):
was reading of this as something that would actually stay
there all night. Maybe it would. And maybe that's the
idea that you could be in the bed and you
wouldn't have to worry about kicking it over and you know,
and burning your covers.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Even with the gimbals. I don't know that that would
kind of freak me out, but I guess I'm not
used to it.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's a there's a
fun history. I don't know if we could get a
full Invention episode out of this, but when you get
into the history of bed warmers, it's pretty fascinating the
use of everything from essentially just hot bricks to of
course bottles of water, and and then of course various
technological systems. I think we did touch on some of
these in our history of the bed, you know, ideas
(22:36):
where you have bed and heating apparatus in a home
far more integrated than we're used to today. Yeah, in
many parts of the world world I should I should
mention there are parts of the world where you still
find this integration. So this is this is insightful. Here
Whoong shares a description of this invention from a Western
Hans source. The source is as the translated title of
(23:00):
Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital, and it even credits
some key inventors and innovators. Here quote Ding Huan, a
skilled craftsman from Chang'an, made an always full lamp. It
had extraordinary decorations, sporting seven dragons and five phoenixes, which
were supported by lotus shaped platforms resting on stalks. He
(23:22):
also created an incense burner which lay on the bedcloths.
It was also called the censor amid the covers. The
technique is original from feng Fing, a Han dynasty skilled
artisan whose skills are unprecedented but now lost. It is
not until Ding Juan that the technique is made possible again.
To make it Ding Huan fashioned a series of mechanically
(23:45):
connected rings. The censor could roll in any direction, and
yet the central incense burning chamber would remain level. Thus
one could position it on the bed covers. This is
how it acquired its name.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Wow, so it is like the polder on board a ship,
except instead of the ocean, it is the rollicking tide
and waves of the bed.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so this would be a situation seemed to
be a situation where at least on some level it
passes the kin inventor test and someone's like, no, look,
we cannot have the bed covers burned anymore. We can't
risk the bed covers being burned anymore. Is there not
some sort of system we could employ here? And then
once you see examples of it too, I think it's
(24:28):
a situation where you kind of buy into the style
of it as well, this idea that here's this sensor
that has this internal novelty to it, but also looks
quite beautiful and then apparently can also be picked up
and held as a handwarmer. Like it allows the space
between the heat source, which again would not be a
(24:49):
roaring fire, but like some hot coals, and it would
allow I think it's often when it's depicted or described,
it's often like noble women or royal female, members of
the of the king's entourage, of those kinds of individuals
that might be holding one of these to keep them warm.
So something fancy but also useful. Other inventions attributed to
(25:13):
Ding Juan, by the way, include an evaporative cooling system
and something that might have just been like a flip book,
but might have been some sort of zootrope kind of device.
I think it's I think historians are kind of split
on exactly what this might have been. It also might
have just been some novel form of sequential art.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Work, the first graphic novel.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe so. Yeah, the history
of sequential art is quite quite fascinating. So some of
these balls, these mental spheres, they had chains for hanging.
Others did not. These were apparently more used for betting
or handwarmers. So I think that's interesting as well, that
(25:56):
you end up with with hanging varieties of these where
I guess in I guess that would make sense. I
don't know what would be shaking the room or the
house so much, but I guess if you're gonna have
something hanging from a chain, there's the potential for that
movement to take place, and therefore the gimbal system would
potentially be useful. And then during the Ming dynasty, it's
(26:18):
also mentioned that specific types of incense could be used
in one of these devices to ward away insects. So
we have another practical use of the device here, and
Wong describes that this design eventually spreads from China to
the Islamic world and Venice quote possibly influencing the development
of the gyroscope for maritime navigation in Europe. And he
(26:41):
points out that while incense was widely used throughout the
Islamic world, this was fascinating. It never became, according to
this author, an essential part of Islamic ritual. But of
course the same cannot be said for Christianity, as we
discussed in those incense episodes. So we do see the
appearance of spherical incense burners in Islamic cultures, though not
(27:02):
in religious ritual again based on this paper, but also
we do see spherical incense burners popping up in European
churches and being involved in or very closely alongside religious
rituals within Catholicism.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, so generally yes, secular but not religious uses of
incense in the Islamic world. In Christianity, we talked about
this in the in the previous series on incense, that
incense was mostly missing from Christian religious use until around
the fourth and fifth century. And then it seems to
(27:38):
be concurrent with the with the overtaking of the Roman Empire,
with Christianity as a dominant religion, that incense becomes an
integral part of Christian worship.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah. Now, an important thing here and this is I
thought this was a great point and it makes so
much sense when you hear it spelled out. But when
we talk about technologies and and ideas spreading from one
culture to the next, we often think of just a
very sequential arrangement, like you imagine something, say traveling on
the Silk Road out of China, or in this case,
(28:11):
you can imagine this ball like Okay, now the ball
goes to goes to the Middle East, and it takes
on Middle Eastern properties, and then it travels to Venice
and then it takes on European properties. End of story.
But one points out that it's it's not just a
matter of the technology traveling from China eventually to Europe,
but there's rather a fair amount of eventual back and
forth involving not only European craftsmen but also Sasanian craftsmen.
(28:36):
We of course talked about the Sasanian Empire in previous
episodes as well Persian Iranian craftsmen adding their own touches
to this type of technology, and then some of that
flowing back. So quote the metal work utilized in the
Tang dynasty sensor is a consequence of the chasing and
(28:57):
hammering techniques taught to the Chinese by this Sanian goldsmiths
of Persia, while the culture of burning incense is from
Indian Buddhism. So there are various beautiful examples of where
you can look up the Chinese examples of these incense
spirits that you can also find some wonderful examples. For example,
included a picture here for you, Joe, of one of
(29:20):
these that was apparently forged in Damascus around the thirteenth century,
and you can see like the elegant script in here.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So with this invention we see an early use of
the gimbal, which at this time is largely I guess
best used for just this purpose, Like, here is something
that you would want to keep stable, So here is
how you can keep it stable. And then and then,
like the the the art artistry of the invention seems
(29:49):
to take on a life of its own, and we
see it employed in situations where maybe it doesn't doesn't
make as much sense. But once you're crafting these beautiful
globes of like silver and bronze and so forth in there,
you can imagine them emitting this a sweet smelling smoke.
It like kind of takes on a life of its own. Now,
(30:15):
another example that came up in the research here is
the pathechion. This is an example of a gimbal in action,
and we have references to a device called the pathekion
or little ape as it is often translated in a
second century text on siege craft titled on Machines by
(30:36):
an author that is referred to by historians as Athanaeus Mechanicus.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh, i'd seen this is an interesting coincidence. I'd sometimes
seen a Philo of Byzantium, the person sided with this
early description of the gimble in the third century BCE,
as sometimes called Philo Mechanicus. So I don't know where
that appellation comes from.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Apparently in this case it's because Athenaeus was a common
enough name, and then they're in referring to this particular Athenaeus.
We just add the title of the text. They're most
known for On Machines, So this is Athenaeus Mechanicus. Okay,
some historians identifying with Athenaeus of Solucia, but there are
(31:21):
also some alternative theories as well. Again, this was a
common name, and apparently some of the dating of it
is based on the book's preface, which references one Marcellus,
and according to historian David Whitehead, this causes the dating
of the text to oscillate from as early as the
(31:42):
late third century BCE to the mid third century CE,
but and anyway, the Slucia idea would date this to
mid to late first century BCE. Okay Whitehead here, along
with pH blythe they're responsible for a two thousand and
for translation of the On Machines text. So anyway, regardless
(32:05):
on which Athenaeus wrote it and when exactly during this
time period it was written, the book is largely concerned
with siege machinery, and it's not that long of a
text either. But later in the work, the author does
make mention of the pathechion or the little ape. Whitehead
describes it as follows in the twenty fifteen paper Athenaeus
(32:29):
Mechanicus for the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Quote a device perhaps
involving nets or gimbals, for stabilizing ship born machines when
they are deployed in choppy c's.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Why is this an ape? I'm so curious about the name.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I yeah, I have a lot of questions about that
as well, and I ultimately have maybe more questions than
answers here for everyone. But apparently this does relate to
Roman siege craft, in which they would take merchant ships
them together to bear the weight of siege weapons in
attacking coastal towns. The little ape here was used, and
(33:07):
this is where I get kind of foggy. Apparently used
to keep the machines from rolling around with the movement
of the ships. That's one interpretation that I've seen, but
I'm not sure about that. The quote from the text
from All Machines says you, quote, you must fix the
pathechion on the platform attached to the merchant ships in
(33:28):
the middle, so that the machine stays upright in any angle.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Well, I don't know. I mean, at this period of time,
I don't know how much minute aiming would be involved
in the use of siege weapons. But of course gimbals
are very useful in the mounting of modern weapons, like
of machine gun turrets and stuff like that, or if
they're within like a ship or an airplane or something,
they can be mounted within gimbals in order to stabilize
(33:54):
for aiming purposes, because otherwise, like you're trying to aim
while the ground or the housing is rocking all over
the place.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, I have a very hard time imagining a gimbal
system big enough on a Roman ship that would accommodate
some sort of really robust form of siege work machinery,
you know, like some sort of large crossbow or catapult
type device. It seems like it would make more sense
(34:23):
if it was designed for some more subtle toubel of
siege craft, some sort of as we see in the
nautical tradition, something that would aid in the use of
siege weapons, but not the siege weapon itself. Yeah, And
when I looked around for more examples, more descriptions of
what the Pathechion would have looked like, indeed why it
(34:44):
is compared to an ape. I wasn't able to find
much I was looking at. In one case, I was
reading about deck based weapons. I was looking at the
Navies of Rome by Michael Patassi, and they mentioned that
during the war between Caesar and POMPEII, the later constructed
(35:04):
three story towers the top merchant ships and mounted artillery
on them and use these against Caesar's blockade, just as
an example of something that the Romans would have done
with merchant ships in some sort of a combat scenario.
But there's no mention of gimbel technology in that book
as far as I could tell. And he does cite
(35:25):
a text by Athenaeus at one point, or by Unathenaeus.
But yeah, so I wasn't really able to find much
in the way of answers about exactly what the little
ape was achieving. But it seems based on all these
other examples, it seems like we would probably be talking
about a way to keep some sort of measurement tool
(35:45):
steady as opposed to some sort of large catapult or
crossbow or what have you. Okay, I did find a
wonderful illustration though this was used. I think this was
in Huang's article. It could be mistaken on that, but
it's a drawing from fifteen sixty seven by Jacques Bisson's
(36:07):
book Let's say, what is this li Cosmo LABU le
cosmo lab le cosmo LB. But it's a wonderful illustration
of a ship. And we see this fascinating and I
have a hard time imagining if this was ever built either.
But we see like a table and chair like basically
(36:31):
of the little desk, a little office mounted inside this
large sphericle gimbal system that it takes up a large
portion of the ship in this illustration.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I can see you gotta have a gimbal system
if you want to like mount a platform on which
you can put a pool table on a ship so
that you can play pool or you can play ping pong.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah. I wonder with illustrations like this if it's more
about sort of illustrating the purpose, or if it's or
a telephone game of relating what a gimbal is and
how it functions and enable context. And then of course
you're also probably getting into the situation. While it might
if you're just familiar with the basics of the gimbal,
(37:11):
you might think well, yeah, let's just put the whole
office in the gimbal. Why can't we put the whole
ship in the gimbal. Everybody on the ship is in
the gimbal, and then nobody will get sick. And maybe
the reality is probably a bit different from that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Once you get enough weight, you're probably putting a lot
of strain on the little pivot hinges for those rings.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, so you probably come up and come back to
the situation. Then, either in practicality, through experimentation, or through
just learning more about what they're actually doing out there
at sea, you realize, no, this makes the most sense
as a way to keep specialized tools steady, generally small
measurement tools or burning incense.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Certainly, Yeah, that makes sense to me. So we mentioned
earlier that systems of orthogonal gimbals are used in many
technologies today, and one major theater of use is space travel.
And funny enough, I actually found an old house Stuff
Works article about this by our colleague Jonathan Strickland of
the podcast tech Stuff highlighting the use of gimbals by NASA.
(38:16):
If you're not familiar, Rob and I we've been doing
this podcast for a while, but we started doing it
long ago under the auspices of a website called how
Stuff Works. So in this short little article, Jonathan highlights
a number of different uses of gimbals by NASA. For example,
a harness mounted within a gimbal system is sometimes used
(38:37):
to simulate spacewalks during astronaut training. So you want to
get astronauts used to, you know, the different ways that
their body will sort of float around and reorient smoothly
in space if they're trying to do say, external repairs
on a spacecraft or something. Of course, the gimbals will
not remove the influence of Earth's gravity, but they will
(38:58):
simulate other aspects of of space walking, the way that
you can change your body's orientation in any direction in space.
And then of course there are lots of other uses
within spacecraft and the mechanical parts, So like you might
have motorized gimbals to orient solar panels to keep facing
the sun even as the position of a space station changes.
(39:18):
Of course, there are detectors and sensors. For example, an
instrument called the inertial measurement unit, which is a sort
of mechanical inner ear. It measures the orientation of a spacecraft.
So pitch, roll and yaw, and it also measures acceleration,
and I guess this also highlights different ways that gimbals
(39:39):
can be used. I mean, most of the gimbals we've
been talking about have been free rotating gimbals that are
supposed to allow, say a platform to keep its orientation
with respect to the Earth's gravity no matter how the
outer housing moves. So in that case it would just
be the goal of the different gimbals in the card
(40:01):
an suspension or the or you know, even just one
or two gimbals. The purpose would just be that they
can rotate easily and freely smooth movement to allow a
naturally gravity oriented platform to stay as it is. But
you can also, of course create motorized gimbals if you
want to intentionally maintain the orientation of a central object
(40:23):
or platform with some kind of external control mechanism, and
gimbal systems like this have proven very useful for cameras.
So imagine you are trying to shoot something, keep something
in focus, keep a subject of a frame in focus
while the camera itself is moving. You're shooting moving video.
If you just hold a camera and then you walk
(40:46):
or run. If you ever tried this, rob like you
will often be very dissatisfied with the results. There's a
lot of jostling.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah yeah, like like blair Witch effect times ten.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah. So to keep the movement smooth, you can make
a mounting system with motorized gimbals that detect the movement
coming up through the frame that's holding the camera, and
then use little computers inside to algorithmically adjust the camera
itself to cancel out that movement. So it's not just
(41:17):
allowing the camera to sort of like rotate freely within
the gimbal system, it's actually making adjustments deliberately to smooth
out any jostling that comes through the housing.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know. In the natural world, of course, as we're
looking around, there's kind of a gimbling effect just to
our the way we position our head. But it's also
been pointed out that the chicken is like a natural gimbal.
It's nature's gimbal, the way a chicken can keep its
head perfectly stationary whilst someone holding the chicken moves its
(41:53):
body around. Oh yeah, there's some really fun videos of this,
including one that I'm not sure if this was an
April Fool's video or not, but it's a parody in
which they're saying, well, we've discovered the ultimate for photography
and film making gimbals. We just put a little camera
on top of the chicken's head and then use the
chicken as the gimbal, which I thought was very, very funny. Now,
(42:18):
not only can you keep things stable with this kind
of a layout, you can also, of course just mess
with whatever is strapped in the middle. Particularly, I'm thinking
of those various gyroscope mounting systems. You would see these
sometimes like carnivals. I remember seeing these perhaps a carnivals
or in sort of like carnival type towns where you
(42:39):
could come up, you paid your money, and they would
strap you into one of these things and just spin
you around. I think sometimes there's a virtual reality headset
that is employed in these. And of course, if you
have ever seen any kind of VR exploitation film, I'm
particularly thinking of the lawnmower Man films here, but films
like that, there's always going to be a scene where
(43:01):
somebody puts some some sort of shiny jumpsuit, some VR goggles,
and then they're put in some sort of like Neon
Strobe light gyroscope or you know, or or gimbaled system
and then they're spinning all over the place.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
It's Pierce Brasman get in one of those or is
that just Jeff Ahee?
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I think they both do. Yeah, okay, I think also
sometimes with Max. You see this, right. I can't remember
if we saw this sort of outfit in Robot Jocks,
but I feel like maybe they had it in I
don't know, a Pacific Room or one of these type of shows.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Well, we've hit our lawnmower man quota, so I think
it may be time to call this episode.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, yeah, but I thought this was fascinating, especially when
you get again. It's kind of like the Wheel where
you begin asking questions, All right, at what point in
human history is this technology both possible and you know,
achievable and also recognizable, Like, at what point might someone
have made one of these? Is a lark? But then
at what point does it become practical to put something
(44:05):
in the middle of it? At what point point is
it practical, uh, to to put to build a cart,
to build even a very simple cart. At what point?
What point does it become practical to build some sort
of gimbaled system to keep something steady? If there's not
truly a practical reason for it.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
When will we discover the meaning of the little abe?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
True? Yeah, so if anyone out there has insight on that,
certainly right in let us know, and just in general,
examples of amazing gimbals from other technologies, other cultures and histories,
write in. We would love to hear from you, especially,
would love to hear from anyone who's seen some other
great examples of these uh these, these these globes that
(44:45):
burn in sense in various cultures in which they were
built and h and designed. Uh So, yeah, write in,
let us know, send us your photos. We'd love to
hear from. We would love to see them. In the meantime,
will remind you that stuff to blow your mind at
public Is It's core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and
this stuff to blow your mind podcast feed. You'll find
that feed wherever you get your podcasts these days and
(45:09):
on Mondays we do listener mail. On Wednesdays we do
a short form artifact or monster fact episode, and then
on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. That is a
time for us to set aside most serious concerns and
just talk about a weird film, and I have to
say we didn't even think about the synergy between this
episode and the movie that we're going to be discussing
(45:30):
this Friday.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name
is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I am Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. So we
are reaching into the vault to bring you an older
episode of the show. This one originally published on September
twenty seventh, twenty twenty two. It was one we did
on the invention of the gimbal.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
All right, let's dive right in.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name
is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And I'm Joe McCormick, and I want to start this
episode of the quote just because this is where my
mind instantly went for this episode, which is going to
be about the gimbal.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I thought of this, of this line from the poem
The Jabberwockie by Lewis Carroll. Okay, twas brillig and this
slyv toes to gyre and gimble in the wave.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Okay, So I was about to say that every noun,
verb and adjective in this in this couplet is nonsense,
but then I realized there are actually a couple of
real verbs in there. There's twas and there's did. In fact, actually,
twas I think contains a noun and a verb because
the t in twas is for it, so we get
it was and did. But yeah, everything else I don't
(01:25):
know what those words mean. And you're I think you're
not supposed.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To, well, gyre is real, to whirl or to gyright,
do you.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Think that's what it's supposed to mean in this context?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Though?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I think yes, or mostly yes, sist oh, okay, good.
But that's the thing about Lewis Carroll. A lot of
nonsense words, and then gimble throws one off because when
you look at this gimble as in the title of
this episode, in case you don't have the title in
front of you, is spelled g I mb A L,
and in the Lewis Carroll poem it's spelled g I
(02:00):
M B l E. And if you look that spelling
of gimbal up in a dictionary, you get to make
a face or to grimace, which does not seem to
be what's going on here. The gimbal we're talking about
is well to define more clearly, intern a bit a
mechanism typically consisting of rings pivoting at right angles for
(02:22):
keeping an instrument horizontal In a moving vessel or on
a moving plane, that sort of thing. So that definition
would seem to sort of line up more with what's
going on here, the idea of some sort of gyre,
some sort of revolution going on. But I was reading.
(02:43):
I read a little bit more about this, and it
turns out that Lewis Carroll is absolutely of no help
to us today in this text. Apparently Humpty Dumpty himself
weighs in. I either didn't know this or had forgotten
this on the meaning of all this pointing out that
toads are a kind of lizard badger creature, and that
gimble in this context means quote to make holes like
(03:07):
a gimblet. A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling
small holes in wood. Slythy is a combination of lithe
and slimy, so it's a slimy badger lizard that rotates
and bores.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Okay, I see, But wait a minute, I'm still confused
when you say that gimble in this line means to
make holes like a gimblet. Was that a general definition
of the word at the time this poem was written,
or is that unique to the meaning within the poem.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
My understanding is that this is a Lewis Carroll thing. Okay,
Humpty dumpty is explaining it because, or at least in
the dictionaries I was looking at, I did not see
this as an accepted definition or alternate definition for gimbal gimbl.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, in that case, that would support my initial interpretation
that even though jyre is a real word, in this context,
it is supposed to be a nonsense word.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Right, but the nonsense being perhaps less removed from the reality. Yeah,
it's I mean, that's I guess the delight of Lewis
carroll text is you have all of these nonsense words.
You have words that are being used, at the very
least in the pursuit of some sort of nonsense.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This may be the most whimsical opening ever to a
podcast about a rotation mechanism.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, it's probably a bad opening since them, well, the
example does not have a useful definition of the word involved.
It's more of a tangent. But still, I mean entertaining.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I would hope I enjoyed going on this little Lewis
Carroll journey with you. But okay, so we're going to
talk about gimbals today. What is a gimbal? I think
we might need to do a little bit of concept sorting,
because when I was searching for information about gimbals on
the internet, first of all, a lot of what comes
up is just camera equipment, and we can discuss that
(04:53):
later in the episode. But even when you're just trying
to find information about the underlying mechanical concept of what
comes up seems to be references to a complex device
made out of three parts that are in fact each
individually called a gimbal. So anyway, I got this sorted
out by consulting a reference manual. I went to the
Oxford Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. If that's not an authoritative source,
(05:18):
I don't know what is. And according to this volume,
a gimbal is quote, a pivoted support that allows rotation
of a supported object about a single axis. Two orthogonal
gimbals are used in supports of, for example, compasses. So
I think the object mounted within a gimbal is most
(05:39):
often going to be a platform that is supposed to
maintain its orientation with respect to gravity, or it's some
kind of detector, sensor or measuring device. But when I
was thinking about simple examples that people might know from
around their homes. I actually thought of the C shaped
mounting for a globe. I actually was looking at a
(06:02):
globe just the other day and admiring all of the
names of countries that are no longer accurate on it.
But on a globe you've got this. You know, often
have this either a full ring or sort of a
C shaped metal ring that connects to the globe at
the poles and allows the globe to rotate within it.
And of course this simulates the rotation of the Earth. Now,
(06:25):
often when you read about references to gimbals, they will
be referring to systems that use two or three or
even more gimbals in combination in succession with one another
to allow more dimensions of free rotation. For example, probably
the most famous one is known as Cardan's suspension, and
(06:46):
this is again according to the Oxford Handbook of Mechanical Engineering,
quote a system that uses three gimbals with orthogonal axes
orthogonal meaning at ninety degree angles orthogonal axes so as
to support a component in a fixed orientation despite rotation
(07:06):
of the mounting of the gimbals.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Cardan, by the way, that's named for Geralamo Cardano, a
sixteenth century Italian polymath who developed a or made use
of a three ring gimbal.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Right, And the handbook goes on to say that the
cardan suspension is most often used to support gyroscopes for
navigational use or for various types of experiments about freely
rotating bodies. So to return to the globe analogy, imagine
you've got a regular globe. It's got a sea shaped
mounting that allows it to rotate freely on its axis.
(07:40):
But then imagine you mount that sea shaped mounting to
a ring that allows the sea shaped mounting to rotate
freely on the equatorial axis. So that's two dimensions of rotation.
And then say you mount that within a third ring,
and within that ring you can actually have the globe
rotate sort of say top front to back. And with
(08:02):
these three rings you can rotate freely in all three
dimensions of space, the dimensions that in the context of
say talking about the attitude of an airplane, you would
call pitch, roll and yaw. Now, there's normally no reason
you would want a globe to rotate in three dimensions,
but there are situations where it would be very useful
(08:24):
to have an object mounted within two or three gimbals.
For example, what if you want to create an object
that maintains a fixed orientation with respect to some outside
frame of reference, even though the ground or the housing
in which the object is mounted will itself move. So,
(08:45):
say you want a platform that maintains orientation with respect
to the Earth, maybe the Earth's center of gravity, or
maintains maintains orientation with respect to some point in the stars,
or some fixed point of focus, say the subject of
a frame when you're using a camera, all while being
(09:05):
mounted inside a housing that is prone to moving and
jostling around. For a simpler version of all that, just
imagine you want you want a cup holder or any
open reservoir for liquid that will stay upright and not spill,
even though it's say, mounted in a ship that is
expected to be going through rough seas.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, and looking around. I know, as you can get
some gimbal drink holders for I think mostly boats. This
reminds me, though, I think the earliest example of this
mechanism that I remember seeing. I mean I would have
seen compasses and so forth, But a situation for someone
who's really calling out the gimbal technology was some sort
(09:49):
of I don't know if this was like a Mister
Wizard or Reading Rainbow or some Nickelodeon show, but it
was like something with kid inventors, and kids were rolling
out their inventions, and one of the kid inventions was
essentially a gimbaled drink tray. So I think, if memory serves,
these weren't round frames, but they were square frames. But
(10:09):
it created the same sort of situation, and they demonstrated
it showing like a glass of coke or PEPSI, you know,
there in the middle of it. And I remember at
the time thinking, well, this is phenomenal. This is what
we should use all the time. And of course then
you go back into the world and you realize, well, no,
I guess, I guess the engineering benefits of this design
do not make this a better option than simply being
(10:32):
careful with a tray. But at the time I remember
being really impressed with it and thinking, well, this is
the way, this is the way we should be carrying
drinks around on trays. We should see this in every
restaurant in every city around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh yeah, I mean when you're carrying your coffee cup
and it's too full and it just starts slashing back
and forth, and you're like, I can't, I've got to
stop walking, or I've got a spill it there. That's
pretty much it a sort of gimbaled sling for your
coffee cup. I suspect would help overcome that problem.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, or say a Martini glass where it's like this,
this is a horrible design. I mean, yeah, I could
easily go off on the Martina Glass's so easy to slash,
but it makes you think, well, we got to have
gimbal trays for these things. If we're going to insist
on drinking out of these ridiculous glasses and not something
more reasonable like a like a coop or a Nick
(11:22):
and Nora, than well, then let's get specialized trays.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know, I think the poor design of the Martini
glass is actually intentional. There's like a psychological effect of
the fact that it slashes so easily. It makes the
act of drinking the martini kind of delicate experience. So
you imagine, I don't know, Don Draper having a martini
or whatever, and he's not just knocking it back, you know,
he's got to like hold it very carefully and sip
(11:48):
it carefully, and it makes it a tender moment.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, and then I guess the threshold for becoming sloppy
with your drink is that much closer. And therefore maybe
the idea as well. If they're getting they're having too
much to drink, they're going to spill more of it.
They'll spill more of it on themselves, and they'll think
twice about ordering more of this particular beverage. They'll realize,
I maybe I should just get a water and go home.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Maybe I should just get six dozen more oysters and
then go to the meeting. Well, okay, anyway, a lot
of sources if you try to look for the origins
of the gimbal system. I think this is one of
the many mechanical designs that we don't know for sure
the actual origin of it. But one of the earliest
mentions of a gimbal is often cited to a third
(12:36):
century BCE Greek engineer and author named Philo of Byzantium
or Phylon of Byzantium. I was reading about this in
a book called Gears by Vincenzo Vulo, published by Springer
in twenty twenty, and there's just a short paragraph about
Filo here a Vulo writes quote. Filo was also the
(12:58):
first to describe a gimaimbo. It was applied to an
eight side ink pot that could be turned any way,
driven by gears without the ink being poured. This was
done by suspending the ink well at a central plate
after assembling this on a series of concentric metal rings
which were stationary regardless of how the pot could rotate. Now,
(13:20):
like many things, like many inventions mentioned in ancient Greek
reference texts, this doesn't necessarily mean that Philo was the
inventor of this object, or that Philo was the inventor
of the gimbal or the gimbal system. But this does
appear to be a very early, if not the earliest
written reference to it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, in looking at and considering the history of the gimbal,
I'm reminded of our discussions of the wheel. So you
look at the history, and certainly we have an invention
episode on the wheel, at least one. I can't remember
if it's a one part or a two parter, but
one of the things we touched on is that it's
one thing to happen upon the concept to invent the
concept of the wheel, But then how practical is it
(14:01):
if you don't have roads. And so if we have
various examples of cultures where there wasn't really a practical
use of the wheel, but the wheel was still around
as a novelty, we'd see the one would see it
in the use of toys or children, and so one
can easily imagine a situation where the gimbal is much
the same where craftsmen and curious minds would have happened
(14:24):
upon this property, would have developed this. But if there's
not something that you need to keep stable, then why
roll it out? Why make any more of an issue
out of it? Because again I come back to that
example of the kid inventors with the tray, Like that's
cool and all, but if it's not actually better than
(14:44):
just carefully carrying a tray, then it's not an invention
that's going to actually have any legs.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Right, And in the end, a lot of the real
uses of gimbal systems seem to be highly specialized. They're
not usually like everyday use kind of objects. They're often
for special kinds of detectors and sensors in special contexts
of course, in scientific experiments, and later we'll get to
(15:11):
this in space travel. After the invention of photography, but
earlier than that, at least in the use of see navigation.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Right, right, at what point do you have something where
it makes sense to bust out this technology to keep
it stationary. And you just said the word censor. You were,
of course referring to a different spelling and usage of
the word. But in this we're coming back to our
(15:41):
discussion of incense and incense censors from the previous episodes
of the show, because, as we teased towards the end
of Incense Part two, this episode on gimbals is kind
of a continuation of that journey. So while a great
deal of the history of incense usage has more to
do with religion and pure esthetics, there are still practical applications.
(16:04):
And when we consider the technology of sensors again dedicated
incense burning containers and devices, yeah, things get a bit
more complicated. And indeed, in this case we see links
between sensors and gimbal technology that will ultimately play a
big role in say, the future of things like photography
and marine navigation and even rocket science. But we can
(16:28):
go back to very old traditions, very old technologies involving
the use of incense and I guess you might wonder,
why would you need to use a gimbal on an incense?
At which point does it pass that kit inventor test
of the practicality overpowering the pure novelty of the thing.
So one of my main sources for this is a
(16:50):
twenty twenty two article by art historian Bing Wong published
in the journal Religions. He had several sources here, including
the work of note sonologist Joseph Needham, whose writings we
recently referenced on the show as well. This is an
individual who casts a long shadow in the study of
(17:10):
Chinese science and technology, especially in the West. His multi
volume work on the History of Science and Civilization in
China was very much a career defining work. So, as
Huang describes here, it would seem based on Needum's research
and writings. The Chinese knowledge of the gimbal dates back
at least to the second century CE, but also possibly
(17:34):
to the second century BCE. We have a poet by
the name of Sima shang Ru who makes a reference
to the jin zhun Shun. These are the metal rings
containing the burning perfume, and this is in the marin Fu.
This is Owdede on Beautiful Women, a poem that contains
(17:55):
a seduction scene, and in doing so describes the various
these bedchambers and the items inside that bedchamber. And it's
inferred then in Needham's writing that, based on other texts,
the artifact described here might in fact be a gimbal
suspension to keep the burning perfume stable.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ah okay, So much like you might have, say a
cup holder on a boat that could use a gimbal
system in order to keep the drink from spilling while
the boat rocks in the waves, this could potentially be
a container for burning incense that would use a gimbal
system to keep it stable, to make sure it didn't
it didn't spill.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right now, you may be wondering about that again the
kid inventor test here, like why is it really necessary? Well,
there's a potential answer for that, and I'll get do
that in a second. But if this is true, this
would seem to position the earliest Chinese references to gimbal
pretty early on. In some case, I don't know if
(18:58):
this would necessarily be earlier than Philo, but certainly this
would be pretty early on in Eastern traditions. Compared with
Western traditions. I should note that when it comes to
critics of need Him, a common one was that he
tended toward Chinese superiority in his analysis. Apparently other critics, however,
(19:20):
argued quite the opposite, that he struggled to shake free
of the shackles of European exceptionalism in his sonology. So
you know, ultimately, I'm not sure exactly where the truth
falls on all of that, but probably worth reminding everyone
that need Him lived nineteen hundred through nineteen ninety five,
and it was I think pretty active up and towards
(19:42):
toward the end of his life. As like an editor
of these volumes, but Huong does not raise the specter
of either inclination, though he does look at new evidence,
disagrees with a few Needum theories, but otherwise does not
seem to oppose the second century BCE date, though does
firmly base it in the analysis of Needen. So anyway,
coming back to this question, Okay, why would you need
(20:04):
your burning perfume? Why would you need your incense to
have some sort of a mechanical system to keep it level?
I mean, if you're taking it on a ship, are
you running with it, right, like, what's the purpose? Yeah, well,
this brings us to consideration of the spherical incense burner
that had been previously referred to by archaeologists as a
perfume ball, but eventually written descriptions were discovered that referred
(20:28):
to them as a sheng nang, which Huong translates as
sachet in which Yablo Chinese, which is a website for
translating Mandarin, translates as spice ball. Now, to be clear,
these are metal spheres as opposed to silk or cloth
bound bags of incense. So Loong points out that these
(20:49):
metal spheres seem to have two primary uses. In Tang
dynasty China, this would be we're moving ahead several centuries here,
this would be period of six eighteen through nine oh
seven CE, So they would have two purposes basically as
an incense burner, but also as a hand warmer as
well as quote a sensor amid the covers which allowed
(21:14):
it to set or I guess even roll around on
bedding without fear of tipping over. WHOA, Yeah, So this
is something that based on some of the explanations I
was reading, it kind of brings the mind this idea
of like, here's this, and you can look up images
of this there ornate. It's a metal sphere and inside
(21:36):
there's a gimbled system to keep a tray of burning
coals and incense from tipping over. And then you would
be able to place this amid some regal bedding, and
the fumes from it would of course make the bed
smell nice. The heat from it would potentially warm the bed,
And I mean, I'm not sure from the descriptions I
(21:58):
was reading of this as something that would actually stay
there all night. Maybe it would. And maybe that's the
idea that you could be in the bed and you
wouldn't have to worry about kicking it over and you know,
and burning your covers.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Even with the gimbals. I don't know that that would
kind of freak me out, but I guess I'm not
used to it.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's a there's a
fun history. I don't know if we could get a
full Invention episode out of this, but when you get
into the history of bed warmers, it's pretty fascinating the
use of everything from essentially just hot bricks to of
course bottles of water, and and then of course various
technological systems. I think we did touch on some of
these in our history of the bed, you know, ideas
(22:36):
where you have bed and heating apparatus in a home
far more integrated than we're used to today. Yeah, in
many parts of the world world I should I should
mention there are parts of the world where you still
find this integration. So this is this is insightful. Here
Whoong shares a description of this invention from a Western
Hans source. The source is as the translated title of
(23:00):
Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital, and it even credits
some key inventors and innovators. Here quote Ding Huan, a
skilled craftsman from Chang'an, made an always full lamp. It
had extraordinary decorations, sporting seven dragons and five phoenixes, which
were supported by lotus shaped platforms resting on stalks. He
(23:22):
also created an incense burner which lay on the bedcloths.
It was also called the censor amid the covers. The
technique is original from feng Fing, a Han dynasty skilled
artisan whose skills are unprecedented but now lost. It is
not until Ding Juan that the technique is made possible again.
To make it Ding Huan fashioned a series of mechanically
(23:45):
connected rings. The censor could roll in any direction, and
yet the central incense burning chamber would remain level. Thus
one could position it on the bed covers. This is
how it acquired its name.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Wow, so it is like the polder on board a ship,
except instead of the ocean, it is the rollicking tide
and waves of the bed.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so this would be a situation seemed to
be a situation where at least on some level it
passes the kin inventor test and someone's like, no, look,
we cannot have the bed covers burned anymore. We can't
risk the bed covers being burned anymore. Is there not
some sort of system we could employ here? And then
once you see examples of it too, I think it's
(24:28):
a situation where you kind of buy into the style
of it as well, this idea that here's this sensor
that has this internal novelty to it, but also looks
quite beautiful and then apparently can also be picked up
and held as a handwarmer. Like it allows the space
between the heat source, which again would not be a
(24:49):
roaring fire, but like some hot coals, and it would
allow I think it's often when it's depicted or described,
it's often like noble women or royal female, members of
the of the king's entourage, of those kinds of individuals
that might be holding one of these to keep them warm.
So something fancy but also useful. Other inventions attributed to
(25:13):
Ding Juan, by the way, include an evaporative cooling system
and something that might have just been like a flip book,
but might have been some sort of zootrope kind of device.
I think it's I think historians are kind of split
on exactly what this might have been. It also might
have just been some novel form of sequential art.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Work, the first graphic novel.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe so. Yeah, the history
of sequential art is quite quite fascinating. So some of
these balls, these mental spheres, they had chains for hanging.
Others did not. These were apparently more used for betting
or handwarmers. So I think that's interesting as well, that
(25:56):
you end up with with hanging varieties of these where
I guess in I guess that would make sense. I
don't know what would be shaking the room or the
house so much, but I guess if you're gonna have
something hanging from a chain, there's the potential for that
movement to take place, and therefore the gimbal system would
potentially be useful. And then during the Ming dynasty, it's
(26:18):
also mentioned that specific types of incense could be used
in one of these devices to ward away insects. So
we have another practical use of the device here, and
Wong describes that this design eventually spreads from China to
the Islamic world and Venice quote possibly influencing the development
of the gyroscope for maritime navigation in Europe. And he
(26:41):
points out that while incense was widely used throughout the
Islamic world, this was fascinating. It never became, according to
this author, an essential part of Islamic ritual. But of
course the same cannot be said for Christianity, as we
discussed in those incense episodes. So we do see the
appearance of spherical incense burners in Islamic cultures, though not
(27:02):
in religious ritual again based on this paper, but also
we do see spherical incense burners popping up in European
churches and being involved in or very closely alongside religious
rituals within Catholicism.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, so generally yes, secular but not religious uses of
incense in the Islamic world. In Christianity, we talked about
this in the in the previous series on incense, that
incense was mostly missing from Christian religious use until around
the fourth and fifth century. And then it seems to
(27:38):
be concurrent with the with the overtaking of the Roman Empire,
with Christianity as a dominant religion, that incense becomes an
integral part of Christian worship.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah. Now, an important thing here and this is I
thought this was a great point and it makes so
much sense when you hear it spelled out. But when
we talk about technologies and and ideas spreading from one
culture to the next, we often think of just a
very sequential arrangement, like you imagine something, say traveling on
the Silk Road out of China, or in this case,
(28:11):
you can imagine this ball like Okay, now the ball
goes to goes to the Middle East, and it takes
on Middle Eastern properties, and then it travels to Venice
and then it takes on European properties. End of story.
But one points out that it's it's not just a
matter of the technology traveling from China eventually to Europe,
but there's rather a fair amount of eventual back and
forth involving not only European craftsmen but also Sasanian craftsmen.
(28:36):
We of course talked about the Sasanian Empire in previous
episodes as well Persian Iranian craftsmen adding their own touches
to this type of technology, and then some of that
flowing back. So quote the metal work utilized in the
Tang dynasty sensor is a consequence of the chasing and
(28:57):
hammering techniques taught to the Chinese by this Sanian goldsmiths
of Persia, while the culture of burning incense is from
Indian Buddhism. So there are various beautiful examples of where
you can look up the Chinese examples of these incense
spirits that you can also find some wonderful examples. For example,
included a picture here for you, Joe, of one of
(29:20):
these that was apparently forged in Damascus around the thirteenth century,
and you can see like the elegant script in here.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So with this invention we see an early use of
the gimbal, which at this time is largely I guess
best used for just this purpose, Like, here is something
that you would want to keep stable, So here is
how you can keep it stable. And then and then,
like the the the art artistry of the invention seems
(29:49):
to take on a life of its own, and we
see it employed in situations where maybe it doesn't doesn't
make as much sense. But once you're crafting these beautiful
globes of like silver and bronze and so forth in there,
you can imagine them emitting this a sweet smelling smoke.
It like kind of takes on a life of its own. Now,
(30:15):
another example that came up in the research here is
the pathechion. This is an example of a gimbal in action,
and we have references to a device called the pathekion
or little ape as it is often translated in a
second century text on siege craft titled on Machines by
(30:36):
an author that is referred to by historians as Athanaeus Mechanicus.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh, i'd seen this is an interesting coincidence. I'd sometimes
seen a Philo of Byzantium, the person sided with this
early description of the gimble in the third century BCE,
as sometimes called Philo Mechanicus. So I don't know where
that appellation comes from.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Apparently in this case it's because Athenaeus was a common
enough name, and then they're in referring to this particular Athenaeus.
We just add the title of the text. They're most
known for On Machines, So this is Athenaeus Mechanicus. Okay,
some historians identifying with Athenaeus of Solucia, but there are
(31:21):
also some alternative theories as well. Again, this was a
common name, and apparently some of the dating of it
is based on the book's preface, which references one Marcellus,
and according to historian David Whitehead, this causes the dating
of the text to oscillate from as early as the
(31:42):
late third century BCE to the mid third century CE,
but and anyway, the Slucia idea would date this to
mid to late first century BCE. Okay Whitehead here, along
with pH blythe they're responsible for a two thousand and
for translation of the On Machines text. So anyway, regardless
(32:05):
on which Athenaeus wrote it and when exactly during this
time period it was written, the book is largely concerned
with siege machinery, and it's not that long of a
text either. But later in the work, the author does
make mention of the pathechion or the little ape. Whitehead
describes it as follows in the twenty fifteen paper Athenaeus
(32:29):
Mechanicus for the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Quote a device perhaps
involving nets or gimbals, for stabilizing ship born machines when
they are deployed in choppy c's.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Why is this an ape? I'm so curious about the name.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I yeah, I have a lot of questions about that
as well, and I ultimately have maybe more questions than
answers here for everyone. But apparently this does relate to
Roman siege craft, in which they would take merchant ships
them together to bear the weight of siege weapons in
attacking coastal towns. The little ape here was used, and
(33:07):
this is where I get kind of foggy. Apparently used
to keep the machines from rolling around with the movement
of the ships. That's one interpretation that I've seen, but
I'm not sure about that. The quote from the text
from All Machines says you, quote, you must fix the
pathechion on the platform attached to the merchant ships in
(33:28):
the middle, so that the machine stays upright in any angle.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Well, I don't know. I mean, at this period of time,
I don't know how much minute aiming would be involved
in the use of siege weapons. But of course gimbals
are very useful in the mounting of modern weapons, like
of machine gun turrets and stuff like that, or if
they're within like a ship or an airplane or something,
they can be mounted within gimbals in order to stabilize
(33:54):
for aiming purposes, because otherwise, like you're trying to aim
while the ground or the housing is rocking all over
the place.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, I have a very hard time imagining a gimbal
system big enough on a Roman ship that would accommodate
some sort of really robust form of siege work machinery,
you know, like some sort of large crossbow or catapult
type device. It seems like it would make more sense
(34:23):
if it was designed for some more subtle toubel of
siege craft, some sort of as we see in the
nautical tradition, something that would aid in the use of
siege weapons, but not the siege weapon itself. Yeah, And
when I looked around for more examples, more descriptions of
what the Pathechion would have looked like, indeed why it
(34:44):
is compared to an ape. I wasn't able to find
much I was looking at. In one case, I was
reading about deck based weapons. I was looking at the
Navies of Rome by Michael Patassi, and they mentioned that
during the war between Caesar and POMPEII, the later constructed
(35:04):
three story towers the top merchant ships and mounted artillery
on them and use these against Caesar's blockade, just as
an example of something that the Romans would have done
with merchant ships in some sort of a combat scenario.
But there's no mention of gimbel technology in that book
as far as I could tell. And he does cite
(35:25):
a text by Athenaeus at one point, or by Unathenaeus.
But yeah, so I wasn't really able to find much
in the way of answers about exactly what the little
ape was achieving. But it seems based on all these
other examples, it seems like we would probably be talking
about a way to keep some sort of measurement tool
(35:45):
steady as opposed to some sort of large catapult or
crossbow or what have you. Okay, I did find a
wonderful illustration though this was used. I think this was
in Huang's article. It could be mistaken on that, but
it's a drawing from fifteen sixty seven by Jacques Bisson's
(36:07):
book Let's say, what is this li Cosmo LABU le
cosmo lab le cosmo LB. But it's a wonderful illustration
of a ship. And we see this fascinating and I
have a hard time imagining if this was ever built either.
But we see like a table and chair like basically
(36:31):
of the little desk, a little office mounted inside this
large sphericle gimbal system that it takes up a large
portion of the ship in this illustration.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I can see you gotta have a gimbal system
if you want to like mount a platform on which
you can put a pool table on a ship so
that you can play pool or you can play ping pong.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah. I wonder with illustrations like this if it's more
about sort of illustrating the purpose, or if it's or
a telephone game of relating what a gimbal is and
how it functions and enable context. And then of course
you're also probably getting into the situation. While it might
if you're just familiar with the basics of the gimbal,
(37:11):
you might think well, yeah, let's just put the whole
office in the gimbal. Why can't we put the whole
ship in the gimbal. Everybody on the ship is in
the gimbal, and then nobody will get sick. And maybe
the reality is probably a bit different from that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Once you get enough weight, you're probably putting a lot
of strain on the little pivot hinges for those rings.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, so you probably come up and come back to
the situation. Then, either in practicality, through experimentation, or through
just learning more about what they're actually doing out there
at sea, you realize, no, this makes the most sense
as a way to keep specialized tools steady, generally small
measurement tools or burning incense.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Certainly, Yeah, that makes sense to me. So we mentioned
earlier that systems of orthogonal gimbals are used in many
technologies today, and one major theater of use is space travel.
And funny enough, I actually found an old house Stuff
Works article about this by our colleague Jonathan Strickland of
the podcast tech Stuff highlighting the use of gimbals by NASA.
(38:16):
If you're not familiar, Rob and I we've been doing
this podcast for a while, but we started doing it
long ago under the auspices of a website called how
Stuff Works. So in this short little article, Jonathan highlights
a number of different uses of gimbals by NASA. For example,
a harness mounted within a gimbal system is sometimes used
(38:37):
to simulate spacewalks during astronaut training. So you want to
get astronauts used to, you know, the different ways that
their body will sort of float around and reorient smoothly
in space if they're trying to do say, external repairs
on a spacecraft or something. Of course, the gimbals will
not remove the influence of Earth's gravity, but they will
(38:58):
simulate other aspects of of space walking, the way that
you can change your body's orientation in any direction in space.
And then of course there are lots of other uses
within spacecraft and the mechanical parts, So like you might
have motorized gimbals to orient solar panels to keep facing
the sun even as the position of a space station changes.
(39:18):
Of course, there are detectors and sensors. For example, an
instrument called the inertial measurement unit, which is a sort
of mechanical inner ear. It measures the orientation of a spacecraft.
So pitch, roll and yaw, and it also measures acceleration,
and I guess this also highlights different ways that gimbals
(39:39):
can be used. I mean, most of the gimbals we've
been talking about have been free rotating gimbals that are
supposed to allow, say a platform to keep its orientation
with respect to the Earth's gravity no matter how the
outer housing moves. So in that case it would just
be the goal of the different gimbals in the card
(40:01):
an suspension or the or you know, even just one
or two gimbals. The purpose would just be that they
can rotate easily and freely smooth movement to allow a
naturally gravity oriented platform to stay as it is. But
you can also, of course create motorized gimbals if you
want to intentionally maintain the orientation of a central object
(40:23):
or platform with some kind of external control mechanism, and
gimbal systems like this have proven very useful for cameras.
So imagine you are trying to shoot something, keep something
in focus, keep a subject of a frame in focus
while the camera itself is moving. You're shooting moving video.
If you just hold a camera and then you walk
(40:46):
or run. If you ever tried this, rob like you
will often be very dissatisfied with the results. There's a
lot of jostling.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah yeah, like like blair Witch effect times ten.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah. So to keep the movement smooth, you can make
a mounting system with motorized gimbals that detect the movement
coming up through the frame that's holding the camera, and
then use little computers inside to algorithmically adjust the camera
itself to cancel out that movement. So it's not just
(41:17):
allowing the camera to sort of like rotate freely within
the gimbal system, it's actually making adjustments deliberately to smooth
out any jostling that comes through the housing.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know. In the natural world, of course, as we're
looking around, there's kind of a gimbling effect just to
our the way we position our head. But it's also
been pointed out that the chicken is like a natural gimbal.
It's nature's gimbal, the way a chicken can keep its
head perfectly stationary whilst someone holding the chicken moves its
(41:53):
body around. Oh yeah, there's some really fun videos of this,
including one that I'm not sure if this was an
April Fool's video or not, but it's a parody in
which they're saying, well, we've discovered the ultimate for photography
and film making gimbals. We just put a little camera
on top of the chicken's head and then use the
chicken as the gimbal, which I thought was very, very funny. Now,
(42:18):
not only can you keep things stable with this kind
of a layout, you can also, of course just mess
with whatever is strapped in the middle. Particularly, I'm thinking
of those various gyroscope mounting systems. You would see these
sometimes like carnivals. I remember seeing these perhaps a carnivals
or in sort of like carnival type towns where you
(42:39):
could come up, you paid your money, and they would
strap you into one of these things and just spin
you around. I think sometimes there's a virtual reality headset
that is employed in these. And of course, if you
have ever seen any kind of VR exploitation film, I'm
particularly thinking of the lawnmower Man films here, but films
like that, there's always going to be a scene where
(43:01):
somebody puts some some sort of shiny jumpsuit, some VR goggles,
and then they're put in some sort of like Neon
Strobe light gyroscope or you know, or or gimbaled system
and then they're spinning all over the place.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
It's Pierce Brasman get in one of those or is
that just Jeff Ahee?
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I think they both do. Yeah, okay, I think also
sometimes with Max. You see this, right. I can't remember
if we saw this sort of outfit in Robot Jocks,
but I feel like maybe they had it in I
don't know, a Pacific Room or one of these type of shows.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Well, we've hit our lawnmower man quota, so I think
it may be time to call this episode.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, yeah, but I thought this was fascinating, especially when
you get again. It's kind of like the Wheel where
you begin asking questions, All right, at what point in
human history is this technology both possible and you know,
achievable and also recognizable, Like, at what point might someone
have made one of these? Is a lark? But then
at what point does it become practical to put something
(44:05):
in the middle of it? At what point point is
it practical, uh, to to put to build a cart,
to build even a very simple cart. At what point?
What point does it become practical to build some sort
of gimbaled system to keep something steady? If there's not
truly a practical reason for it.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
When will we discover the meaning of the little abe?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
True? Yeah, so if anyone out there has insight on that,
certainly right in let us know, and just in general,
examples of amazing gimbals from other technologies, other cultures and histories,
write in. We would love to hear from you, especially,
would love to hear from anyone who's seen some other
great examples of these uh these, these these globes that
(44:45):
burn in sense in various cultures in which they were
built and h and designed. Uh So, yeah, write in,
let us know, send us your photos. We'd love to
hear from. We would love to see them. In the meantime,
will remind you that stuff to blow your mind at
public Is It's core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and
this stuff to blow your mind podcast feed. You'll find
that feed wherever you get your podcasts these days and
(45:09):
on Mondays we do listener mail. On Wednesdays we do
a short form artifact or monster fact episode, and then
on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. That is a
time for us to set aside most serious concerns and
just talk about a weird film, and I have to
say we didn't even think about the synergy between this
episode and the movie that we're going to be discussing
(45:30):
this Friday.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
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