“Troubles overcome are good to tell” – “Ibergekumene tsores iz gut tsu dertsyln.” Yiddish proverb by Primo Levi, “Periodic Table”
Introduction
The automaton is one of the simpler al-Jazari’s designs, but the description, like many other descriptions in the book, is intriguing not to say mesmerizing.
“He is a standing slave, ten years old in appearance, dressed in a short jacket with a rob underneath it, and a cap on his head. In his right hand is a glass the fingers curled around the bottom of the glass so that it can be taken out of his hand and put back… His left hand is in the same position, but higher than the glass, and holds a silver fish.”
Drawing of the Automaton with the fish and the goblet, Topkapi, 1206
The fish is surprising. As far as I know, the fish is a Christian symbol, because of the miracle of the five loaves and two fish, because fishermen like Simon, Peter, Andrew, and John were the followers of Jesus later to become the apostles. Ichthus (Greek ΙΧΘΥΣ) the fish symbol is an acronym for Iēsous Christos, Theou, Yios, Sōtēr; in English:”Jesus Christ the son of God, Savior” has become a sign of recognition among persecuted Christians. The connection between wine and fish reminded me of a fascinating conversation between in varnish makers in the story “Chromium” from the book “The Periodic Table” written by Primo Levi; I will elaborate below.
How does it work?
The technical explanation, as always, will be colored in blue, so anyone who is not interested in copper hammering or tipping bucket can skip those bits.
This chapter has only one drawing, the one that appears above. Perhaps because this automaton is so simple. On the other hand, there are detailed explanations on the fabrication process:
“If the craftsman is not competent enough to make the face by hammering he can make [various] parts thicker with lead, e.g. the nose, etc.”
Also:
“The craftsman should not be afraid that the slave will tilt in any direction. I made him and placed the soles of the feet on the ground, and was afraid that he would tilt, but when he was standing erect he did not tilt at all.”
I took the liberty to take the original drawing of al-Jazari and make it more like a contemporary drawing which clarifies the mechanism of the automaton:
The mechanism of the automaton, a slave with a goblet and a fish. My drawing
The upper part of the automaton, the head, and the chest is a wine reservoir. Its filling opening is hidden under the cap of the slave. At the bottom of the reservoir, there is a small drain above a tipping bucket. Al-Jazari often used tipping buckets. We met them already here (Hebrew), and we will meet more in future posts. Initially, the tipping bucket is leveled, as shown in the drawing, but after seven and a half minutes it is filled with wine towards its tip, and the bucket tilts and discharges all the wine through the pipe to the hollow silver fish. The silver fish is mounted on an axle, and its lower part is slightly heavier, so the fish is tilted upwards. With the wine, the fish head becomes heavier and sinks until it is near the goblet and the wine flows into the goblet. Under the weight of the wine, the arm of the slave descends as if he were offering the glass to the king. The king takes the glass, drinks from it, and returns it to his hand, which has risen to its previous position. This repeats every seven and half minute intervals until the reservoir is empty.
“Chromium” by Primo Levi or removing the onion from the varnish
Primo Levi, a wonderful Italian author, his best-known works are related to his personal life story as a Holocaust survivor like “If This Is Man”, “The Truce” and others, but I particularly like the “The Periodic Table”. In my defense I am (also) a chemist and Primo Levi himself wrote:
“I write because I am a chemist. My trade has provided my raw material, the nucleus to which things join … Chemistry is a struggle with matter, a masterpiece of rationality, an existential parable … Chemistry teaches vigilance combined with reason.”
Many of my students of chemistry, physics and computational science, to their surprise I should say, heard me over the years reading the story “Chromium” from “The Periodic Table” which opens:
“The entrée was fish, but the wine was red. Versino, head of maintenance, said that it was all a lot of nonsense, provided the wine and fish were good; he was certain that the majority of those who upheld the orthodox view could not, blindfolded, have distinguished a glass of white wine from a glass of red… Old man Cometto added that life is full of customs whose roots can no longer be traced… I made a rapid mental review to be sure that none of those present had as yet heard it, then I started to tell the story of the onion in the boiled linseed oil. This dining room, in fact, belonged to a company of varnish manufacturers. “
The story begins in a prescription book for varnish. Advice is given to introduce into the boiling oil two slices of onion, without explanation or purpose and ends with ammonium chloride in a chromate-based anti-rust paint. For those who do not speak “chemistry” as a native language both are absurd. The weird and wonderful story is the essence of what is science and technology. I will explain the story of the onion, briefly but one who wants really to indulge in the story should read “The Periodic Table”. The onion was inserted into the oil before thermometers were used. When the onion started frying it indicated the proper temperature was reached and it is time to end the boiling process. Over the years varnish manufacturers switch to thermometers but forgot the original reason for using the onion and did not dare to deviate from the recipe they knew. This is how the recipe found its way to the book. When I read about the automaton of al-Jazari, I remembered this conversation and was wondering if they drank from the fish white or red wine? What do we know about the drinking habits in the twelfth century? Apparently quite a bit.
Drinking habits in the twelfth century
For many years diners were isolated from wine drinking sessions. In ancient Greece, the Symposium (Greek: συμπίνειν, = to drink together) was a feast which took place after dinner. Drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, or a good conversation. The modern use of symposium as an academic scholarly discussion is quite different. Although the Romans drank during dinner, wine mixed with water, they had a separate drinking party (comissatio) after dinner. Similarly, Arabic-Islamic culture in the middle ages enjoyed wine only after finishing the meal. In the chapter on alcohol consumption in medieval Cairo, Paulina Lewicka, from Warsaw University, wrote about drinking sessions called majlis al khmar (الخمر مجلس) literally the wine council. The second category of “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices ” is dedicated to “Vessels and Figures Suitable for Drinking Sessions.” In all ten chapter, every chapter covers one device there is not a single meal. It seems that in the palace in Diyarbakir the meals were separated from drinking parties. This makes the question which wine goes with a fish irrelevant. It is still interesting to know what kind of wine they’re drinking? In the chapter of the automaton of the slave holding a fish and a goblet, it “clarified wine” (sharab murawwaq) is mentioned. “Clarification” is the processes by which insoluble matter, like dead yeast cells, or various tannins, is removed before bottling, thus improving the wine quality and taste. Today this is part of the standard process, and this tells me very little about the actual wine they drank. In 1169 Saladin, already mentioned, became a Vizier in Cairo. He repented wine-drinking and turned from frivolity to religious life and later prohibited drinking alcoholic beverages altogether. Although the Artuqid ruler were vassals to Saladin, the prohibition was not implemented in Diyarbakir. In Cairo things were not simple either. While I was looking for information about wine drinking in this period, I found Firuzabadi’s “Wine-List.” This manuscript from the British Museum’s collections originated in 15th century Cairo. The author is careful to emphasize that he composed it in loyal support of the prohibition. By accident or intention the sub title is quite ironic: “The Cheery Companion, on the prohibition of old wine” Then he alphabetically names 357 (!). The majority are very descriptive, ” the golden “, “cock’s eye”, “mother of vice” and even ‘the one which is drunken in the morning.” Even though it is difficult to know how similar or different the wines in Diyarbakir were in comparison to what we drink, we can conclude that in Diyarbakır palace they probably had a fine selection of wines.
The passing of time and great truths
Back to Primo Levi; The use of oil of Sandarac, a varnish obtained from the small cypress-like tree appears many times in the “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices “. The idea of using onions to evaluate the temperature of the oil was certainly within reach of al-Jazari. Perhaps he would have enjoyed the story about the onion in the recipe even after precise thermometers were used. The story of the ammonium chloride was probably incomprehensible for him. First chromium was discovered in 1797 by the French chemist Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin, and the use of chromium in the paint industry would be strange. Secondly the “detective story” is based on chemistry that he could not know; Elements, Atoms, Acids and Bases belong to the future, centuries after his time. However, I think he would sympathize with the sweet sensations felt by Primo Levi (details in the story!) when he understood that ammonium chloride the formula is the result of his own work two decades ago. He wrote:
“But formulas are holy as prayers, decree-laws, and dead languages, and not an iota in them can be changed. And so my ammonium chloride by now completely useless and a bit harmful, is religiously ground into the chromate anti-rust paint on the shores of that lake, and nobody knows why anymore.”