1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick, and 4 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: I want to start this episode of the quote just 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 1: because this is where my mind instantly went for this episode, 6 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: which is going to be about the gimbal I. I 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,760 Speaker 1: thought of this of this line from the poem The 8 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: Jabberwocke by Lewis Carroll. Okay, twas brillig and the slivey 9 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,960 Speaker 1: toes to gyor and gimble in the wabe. Okay, So 10 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,199 Speaker 1: I was about to say that every noun, verb and 11 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: adjective in this u in this couplet is nonsense, but 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:47,520 Speaker 1: then I realized there are actually a couple of real 13 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,520 Speaker 1: verbs in there. There's twas and there's did. In fact, 14 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: actually twas I think contains a noun and a verb 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: because the t in twas is for it, so we 16 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: get it was and did. But yeah, everything else I 17 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:02,080 Speaker 1: don't know what those words mean. And you're I think 18 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: you're not supposed to, Well, gyre is real um to 19 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: whirl or or to gyrate um. Do you think that's 20 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: what it's supposed to mean? In this context, though I 21 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 1: think yes, or mostly yes. Stem But but that's the 22 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: thing about Lewis Carroll. A lot of nonsense words, and 23 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: then gimbal throws one off because when you look at 24 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: this gimbal, as in the title of this episode in 25 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 1: case you don't have the title in front of you, 26 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,039 Speaker 1: is spelled g I M B A L, and in 27 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: the Lewis Carroll poem it's spelled g I M B 28 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: L E. And if you look that spelling of gimbal 29 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 1: up in a dictionary, you get to make a face 30 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: or two grimace, which does not seem to be what's 31 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: going on here. Um. The gimble we're talking about is 32 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: is well to define more clearly in a bit a 33 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: mechanism typically consisting of rings pivoting at right angles for 34 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: keeping an instrument um horizon toll uh in a moving 35 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: vessel or on a moving plane, that sort of thing. Um. 36 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: So it that definition would seem to sort of line 37 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: up more with what's going on here, the idea of 38 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: some sort of um jy or some sort of revolution 39 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: going on. But I was reading, I read a little 40 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: bit more about this, and it turns out that Lewis 41 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: Carroll is absolutely of no help to us today. Um 42 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: he in this text, apparently Humpty Dumpty himself weighs in, 43 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: I either didn't know this or had forgotten this on 44 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: the meaning of all this pointing out that toathes are 45 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: a kind of lizard badger creature, and that gimbal in 46 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,239 Speaker 1: this context means quote to make holes like a gimlet. 47 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 1: A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling small holes 48 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: in wood. Slithy is a combination of lithe and slimy, 49 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: so it's a slimy badger lizard that rotates in bores. Okay, 50 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: I see, but wait, I'm still confused when you say 51 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: that gimbal in this line means to make holes like 52 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: a gimble. It was that a general definition of the 53 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: word at the time this poem was written, or is 54 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: that unique to the meaning within the poem. My understanding 55 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: is that this is a Lewis Carroll thing. Okay, Humpty 56 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 1: Dumpty is explaining it because, or at least in the 57 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 1: dictionaries I was looking at, I did not see this 58 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:24,079 Speaker 1: as an accepted definition or alternate definition for gimbal g 59 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: I M. B. L E. Well, in that case, that 60 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: would support my initial interpretation that even though gyre is 61 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,080 Speaker 1: a real word, in this context, is supposed to be 62 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: a nonsense word, right, but but the nonsense being perhaps 63 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: less removed from the reality. It's it's I mean, that's 64 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: I guess that the light of Lewis Carroll text. As 65 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: you have all of these nonsense words, you have words 66 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: that are are being used, at the very least in 67 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: the pursuit of some sort of nonsense. This may be 68 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: the most whimsical opening effort to a podcast about a 69 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: rotation mechanism. Yeah, it's probably a bad opening since the 70 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: com well, now the example does not have a useful 71 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,720 Speaker 1: definition of the word involved. It's more of a tangent. 72 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: But still, I mean entertaining, I would hope. I I 73 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: enjoyed going on this little Lewis Carroll journey with you. 74 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: But okay, so we're gonna talk about gimbals today. What 75 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,599 Speaker 1: is a gimbal? I think we might need to do 76 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 1: a little bit of concept sorting, because when I was 77 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: searching for information about gimbals on the internet, first of all, 78 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,600 Speaker 1: a lot of what comes up is just camera equipment, 79 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,159 Speaker 1: and we can discuss that later in the episode. But 80 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: even when you're just trying to find information about the 81 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:35,479 Speaker 1: underlying mechanical concept. A lot of what comes up seems 82 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,599 Speaker 1: to be references to a complex device made out of 83 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: three parts that are in fact each individually called a gimbal. 84 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: So anyway, I got this sorted out by consulting a 85 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: reference manual. I went to the Oxford Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. 86 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: If that's not an authoritative source, I don't know what is. 87 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: And according to this volume, a gimbal is quote, a 88 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: pivoted support that allows row tation of a supported object 89 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 1: about a single axis. Two orthogonal gimbals are used in 90 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: supports of, for example, compasses. So I think the object 91 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:14,840 Speaker 1: mounted within a gimbal is most often going to be 92 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: a platform that is supposed to maintain its orientation with 93 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: respect to gravity, or it's some kind of detector, sensor 94 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,279 Speaker 1: or measuring device. But when I was thinking about simple 95 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: examples that people might know from around their homes, actually 96 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: thought of the C shaped mounting for a globe. Uh 97 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: Actually was was looking at a globe just the other 98 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: day and admiring all of the like names of countries 99 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: that are no longer accurate on it um. But on 100 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: a globe, you've got this. You know often have this 101 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaker 1: either either a full ring or or sort of a 102 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,359 Speaker 1: C shaped metal ring that connects to the globe at 103 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: the poles and allows the globe to rotate within it. 104 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: Uh and of course this simulates the rotation of the Earth. Now, 105 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: often when you read about references to gimbals, they will 106 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,680 Speaker 1: be referring to systems that use two or three or 107 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:11,839 Speaker 1: even more gimbals in combination in succession with one another 108 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: to allow more dimensions of free rotation. For example, probably 109 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:19,920 Speaker 1: the most famous one is known as card Ends suspension, 110 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: and this is again according to the the Oxford Handbook 111 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 1: of Mechanical Engineering, quote a system that uses three gimbals 112 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: with orthogonal axis orthogonal meaning at at ninety degree angles 113 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:37,200 Speaker 1: orthogonal axis, so as to support a component in a 114 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: fixed orientation despite rotation of the mounting of the gimbals. 115 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: Card And, by the way, that's named for Geralamo Cardano, 116 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: a sixteenth century Italian polymath who developed a or made 117 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: use of a three ring gimbal. Right, and the handbook 118 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: goes on to say that the card and suspension is 119 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:01,919 Speaker 1: most often used to support gyroscopes for navigational use or 120 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: for various types of experiments about freely rotating bodies. So 121 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:09,920 Speaker 1: to return to the globe analogy, imagine you've got a 122 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: regular globe. It's got a C shaped mounting that allows 123 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: it to rotate freely on its axis. But then imagine 124 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: you mount that C shaped mounting to a ring that 125 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: allows the C shaped mounting to rotate freely on the 126 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: equatorial axis. So that's two dimensions of rotation. And then 127 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:31,280 Speaker 1: say you mount that within a third ring, and within 128 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: that ring you can actually have the globe rotate sort 129 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 1: of say top front to back. And with these three 130 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: rings you can rotate freely in all three dimensions of space, 131 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: the dimensions that in the context of, say talking about 132 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 1: the attitude of an airplane, you would call pitch, roll 133 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: and yaw. Now, there's normally no reason you would want 134 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: a globe to rotate in three dimensions, but there are 135 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: situations where it would be very useful to have an 136 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: object mounted within two or three gimbals. For example, what 137 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: if you want to create an object that maintains a 138 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: fixed orientation with respect to some outside frame of reference, 139 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,000 Speaker 1: even though the ground or the housing in which the 140 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:20,080 Speaker 1: object is mounted will itself move. So so you want 141 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: a platform that maintains orientation with respect to the Earth, 142 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: maybe the Earth's center of gravity, or maintains uh, maintains 143 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: orientation with respect to some point in the stars, or 144 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: some fixed point of focus like say the subject of 145 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:39,520 Speaker 1: a frame. Uh, when you're using a camera, all while 146 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: being mounted inside of housing that is prone to moving 147 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 1: and jostling around. For a simpler version of all that, 148 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: just imagine you want you want a cup holder or 149 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 1: any open reservoir for liquid that will stay upright and 150 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:58,520 Speaker 1: not spill, even though it's a mounted in a ship 151 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: that is expected to be going through rough seas. Yeah, 152 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: and looking around, I know you can get some some 153 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: gimbal duh drink holders for I think mostly boats. This 154 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: reminds me, though, I think the earliest example of this 155 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: mechanism that I remember seeing, uh, I mean I would 156 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: have seen compasses and so forth, but a situation where 157 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 1: someone who's really calling out the gimbal technology was some 158 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:25,839 Speaker 1: sort of I don't know if this was like a Mr. 159 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,440 Speaker 1: Wizard or Reading Rainbow or some Nickelodeon show, but it 160 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: was like something with kid inventors, and kids were rolling 161 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: out their inventions, and one of the kid inventions was 162 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: essentially a gimbal drink tray. Um so I think, if 163 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: memory serves, these weren't round frames, but they were square frames. 164 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: But it created the same sort of situation, and they 165 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,439 Speaker 1: demonstrated it showing like a glass of coke or PEPSI, 166 00:09:50,559 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 1: you know, they're in the middle of it. And I 167 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:54,920 Speaker 1: remember at the time thinking, well, this is phenomenal. This 168 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 1: is what we should use all the time. And and 169 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:00,440 Speaker 1: of course then you go back into the world you know, well, no, 170 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,120 Speaker 1: I guess, I guess the engineering benefits of this design 171 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: do not make this a better option than simply being 172 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: careful with a tray. But at the time I remember 173 00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:12,760 Speaker 1: being really impressed with it and thinking, well, this, this 174 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: is the way, This is the way we should be 175 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:16,640 Speaker 1: carrying drinks around on trays. We should see this in 176 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:20,439 Speaker 1: every restaurant in in every city around the world. Oh yeah, 177 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 1: I mean when you're carrying your coffee cup and it's 178 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: and it's too full, and it just starts slashing back 179 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:27,800 Speaker 1: and forth and you're like, I can't I've got to 180 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:30,200 Speaker 1: stop walking, or I've got to spill it there. That's 181 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,319 Speaker 1: pretty much it a sort of gimbaled sling for your 182 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 1: coffee cup. I suspect would help overcome that problem. Yeah, 183 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: or say a Martini glass where it's like this, This 184 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:43,719 Speaker 1: is a horrible design. I mean, and you know, I 185 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: could easily go off on the Martine glass is easy. 186 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 1: It's so easy to slash. But it makes you think, well, 187 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: we gotta have gimbal trays for these things. If we're 188 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: gonna insist on drinking out of these ridiculous glasses and 189 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,200 Speaker 1: not something more reasonable, like a like a coop or 190 00:10:57,200 --> 00:10:59,679 Speaker 1: a Nick and Nora, then well then well let's get 191 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 1: special lies trays. You know, I think the poor design 192 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,920 Speaker 1: of the Martini glass is actually intentional. There's like a 193 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,160 Speaker 1: psychological effect of the fact that it slashes so easily. 194 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: It makes the act of drinking the martini kind of 195 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: delicate experience. So you imagine, I don't know, Don Draper 196 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,400 Speaker 1: having a martini or whatever, and he's not just knocking 197 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 1: it back, you know, he's got to like hold it 198 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:24,600 Speaker 1: very carefully and sip it carefully, and it makes it 199 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:28,400 Speaker 1: a tender moment. Yeah, And then I guess the threshold 200 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: for for for becoming sloppy with your drink is that 201 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: much closer, and therefore maybe the idea as well if 202 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:37,440 Speaker 1: they're getting they're having too much to drink, They're gonna 203 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: spill more of it. They'll spill more of it on themselves, 204 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: and they'll think twice about ordering more of this particular bedridge. 205 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: They'll realize, I maybe I should just get a water 206 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:47,559 Speaker 1: and go home. Maybe I should just get six dozen 207 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: more oysters and then go to the meeting. Well, okay, anyway, 208 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: a lot of sources if you try to look for 209 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: the origins of the gimbal system. I think this is 210 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,320 Speaker 1: one of the many mechanical designs that we don't know 211 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:03,920 Speaker 1: for sure the the actual origin of it. But uh 212 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: the one of the earliest mentions of a gimbal is 213 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: often cited to a third century b c. E. Greek 214 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:18,199 Speaker 1: engineer and author named Philo of Byzantium or Philon of Byzantium. 215 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,479 Speaker 1: I was reading about this in a book called Gears 216 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:27,760 Speaker 1: by Vincenzo Vulo published by Springer in and there's just 217 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,560 Speaker 1: a short paragraph about Philo here, uh A, Vulo writes quote. 218 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 1: Filo was also the first to describe a gimbal. It 219 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: was applied to an eight side ink pot that could 220 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,440 Speaker 1: be turned anyway, driven by gears without the ink being poured. 221 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: This was done by suspending the ink well at a 222 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:50,400 Speaker 1: central plate after assembling this on a series of concentric 223 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:54,000 Speaker 1: metal rings which were stationary regardless of how the pot 224 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:58,199 Speaker 1: could rotate. Now, like many things, like many inventions mentioned 225 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: in ancient Greek reference texts, this doesn't necessarily mean that 226 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,560 Speaker 1: Filo was the inventor of the subject, or that Filo 227 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 1: was the inventor of the gimbal or the gimbal system. 228 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,680 Speaker 1: But this does appear to be a very early, if 229 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: not the earliest written reference to it. Yeah, in looking 230 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: at and considering the history of the gimbal, i'm i'm 231 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: reminded of our discussions of the wheel. So you look 232 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: at the history and go, certainly we have an invention 233 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:26,199 Speaker 1: episode on the wheel, at least one, I can't remember. 234 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: It's a one part or two partner. But one of 235 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: the things we touched on is that it's one thing 236 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,840 Speaker 1: to happen upon the concept, to invent the concept of 237 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,599 Speaker 1: the wheel. But then how practical is it if you 238 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,680 Speaker 1: don't have roads? And so if we have various examples 239 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,840 Speaker 1: of cultures where there wasn't really a practical use of 240 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,800 Speaker 1: the wheel, but the wheel was still around as a novelty. 241 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: We'd see that would the one would see it in 242 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,079 Speaker 1: the use of toys for children, And so one can 243 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: easily imagine a situation where the gimbal is much the 244 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: same where UH, craftsmen and curious minds would have happened 245 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:01,720 Speaker 1: upon this property, would have developed this. But if there's 246 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: not something that you need to keep stable and then 247 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 1: then then why roll it out? Why make any more 248 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,840 Speaker 1: of a of an issue out of it? Because again 249 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,120 Speaker 1: I come back to that example of the kid inventors 250 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: with the with the tray, Like that's cool and all, 251 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: but if it's not actually better than just carefully carrying 252 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: a tray, then it's not an invention that's going to 253 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:26,440 Speaker 1: actually have any legs. Right, And in the end, a 254 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: lot of the real uses of gimbal systems seem to 255 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: be highly specialized. They're not usually like everyday use kind 256 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: of objects. They're often for special kinds of uh detectors 257 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 1: and sensors in special contexts of course, in scientific experiments 258 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: and UH later we'll get to this in space travel 259 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,120 Speaker 1: after the invention of photography, but earlier than that, at 260 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: least in the use of c navigation. Right, right, at 261 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:56,760 Speaker 1: what point do you have something where it makes sense 262 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: to bust out this technology to keep it stationary. Thank 263 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:08,840 Speaker 1: and you just said the word sensor, you were, of 264 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:11,840 Speaker 1: course you're referring to a different spelling and usage of 265 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:15,040 Speaker 1: the word. But the in this we're coming back to 266 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: our discussion of incense and incense sensors from the previous 267 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 1: episodes of the show, because, as we teased towards the 268 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,600 Speaker 1: end of Incense Part two, this episode on gimbals is 269 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: kind of a continuation of that journey. Um So, while 270 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: a great deal of the history of incense usage has 271 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:36,840 Speaker 1: more to do with religion and pure aesthetics, there are 272 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,760 Speaker 1: still practical applications and we when we consider the technology 273 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: of sensors again dedicated incense burning containers and devices, Uh yeah, 274 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: things get a bit more complicated. And indeed, in this case, 275 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: we see links between sensors and gimbal technology that will 276 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 1: ultimately play a big role in say, the future of 277 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: things like photography and marine navigation and even rockets science. 278 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:05,320 Speaker 1: But but we can go back to very old traditions, 279 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: very old technologies involving the use of incense, and I 280 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,480 Speaker 1: guess you might might wonder, well, why would you need 281 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:13,920 Speaker 1: to use a gimbal on an incense, at which point 282 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:18,040 Speaker 1: does it pass that kid inventor test of the practicality 283 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: um overpowering the This is the pure novelty of the thing. 284 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: So one of my main sources for this is a 285 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: two thousand twenty two article by art historian Bing Wong 286 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:33,280 Speaker 1: published in the journal Religions UH. He cites several sources here, 287 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: including the work of noted sinologist Joseph Needham, whose writings 288 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,520 Speaker 1: we recently reference on the show as well. Um. This 289 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: is an individual who casts cast along shadow in the 290 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,440 Speaker 1: study of Chinese science and technology, especially in the West. 291 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: His multi volume work on the History of Science and 292 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: Civilization in China was very much a career defining work, 293 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 1: so as Huang describes here, it would seem based on 294 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: Needham's reas Urchin writings, the Chinese knowledge of the gimbal 295 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: dates back at least to the second century CE, but 296 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: also possibly to the second century b C. We have 297 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,200 Speaker 1: a poet by the name of Sima scheng Ru who 298 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: makes a reference to the jin Zoo and Chuang. These 299 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 1: are the metal rings containing the burning perfume, and this 300 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: is in the marin fu uh. This is owed on 301 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:31,239 Speaker 1: beautiful women a poem that contains a seduction scene and 302 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: in doing so describes the various these a bed chambers 303 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:39,359 Speaker 1: and the items inside that bed chamber. And it's inferred 304 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:43,879 Speaker 1: then in Needham's writing that, based on other texts, the 305 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:48,320 Speaker 1: artifact described here might in fact be a gimbal suspension 306 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:53,359 Speaker 1: to keep the burning perfume stable. Okay, So much like 307 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,439 Speaker 1: you might have, say a cup holder on a boat 308 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,960 Speaker 1: that could use a gimbal system in order to keep 309 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,640 Speaker 1: the drink from spilling while the boat rocks in the waves, 310 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:06,399 Speaker 1: this could potentially be a container for burning incense that 311 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,119 Speaker 1: would use a gimbal system to keep it stable, to 312 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,200 Speaker 1: make sure it didn't it didn't spill. Right now that 313 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: you may be wondering about the again the kid inventor 314 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: test here, like why is it really necessary? Well, there's 315 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,639 Speaker 1: a potential answer for that, and I'll get through that 316 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:24,600 Speaker 1: in a second. But um, if this is this is true, 317 00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:28,760 Speaker 1: if this would seem to position the earliest Chinese references 318 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,440 Speaker 1: to gimbal um pretty early on. In some case, I 319 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:35,359 Speaker 1: don't know if this would necessarily be earlier than um 320 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: than than Philo, but but certainly this would be pretty 321 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:44,000 Speaker 1: early on. Um and Eastern traditions compared with Western traditions. 322 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: I should note that when it comes to critics of 323 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:51,200 Speaker 1: need Him, a common one was that he tended towards 324 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 1: Chinese superiority in his analysis. Apparently. Other critics, however, argued 325 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,879 Speaker 1: quite the opposite, that he struggled to shake free of 326 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:04,119 Speaker 1: the shackles of Europe in exceptionalism in his synology. So um, 327 00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:07,119 Speaker 1: you know, ultimately, I'm not sure exactly where the truth 328 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: falls on all of that, but uh, probably worth reminding 329 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:14,399 Speaker 1: everyone the need Him live and and and it was 330 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: I think pretty active up and towards the toward towards 331 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:19,399 Speaker 1: the end of his life, as like an editor of 332 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:23,600 Speaker 1: these volumes. But Um long does not raise the spectr 333 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 1: of either inclination, though he does look at new evidence, 334 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: disagrees with a few Needham theories, but otherwise did not 335 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,679 Speaker 1: does not seem to oppose the second century BC date, Uh, 336 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: though does firmly base it in the analysis of need Um. So, anyway, 337 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,040 Speaker 1: coming back to this question, Okay, why why would you 338 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,440 Speaker 1: need your burning perfume? Why would you need your incense 339 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: to have some sort of a mechanical system to keep 340 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:46,040 Speaker 1: it level? I mean, if you're taking a gut on 341 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,359 Speaker 1: a ship. Are you running with it? Right? Like? What's 342 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,600 Speaker 1: the what's the purpose? Yeah? Well this brings us to 343 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: consideration of the spherical incense burner that had been previously 344 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: referred to by archaeologists as as a perfume ball, but 345 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 1: eventually written descriptions were discovered that referred to them as 346 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: a hung nun, which Huong translates as sachet, in which 347 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: Yabla Chinese, which is a website for translating Mandarin, translates 348 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: as spiceball. Now, to be clear, these are metal uh 349 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,080 Speaker 1: spheres as opposed to silk or cloth bound bags of incense. 350 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: So one points out that these metal spheres seem to 351 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:29,560 Speaker 1: have two primary uses. In Tang dynasty China, this would 352 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,679 Speaker 1: be uh, we're we're moving ahead several centuries here. This 353 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:36,760 Speaker 1: would be the period of six eighteen through nine oh 354 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,160 Speaker 1: seven CE, So they would have two purposes basically as 355 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,560 Speaker 1: an incense burner, but also as a hand warm warmer 356 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: as well as quote a sensor amid the covers which 357 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: allowed it to set or I guess even roll around 358 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:57,160 Speaker 1: on bedding without fear of tipping over. WHOA, yeah, so 359 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: and I so this is something that based on some 360 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,719 Speaker 1: of the the the explanations I was reading. It kind 361 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 1: of brings the mind this idea of like, here's this 362 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,640 Speaker 1: and you can look up images of this their ornate. Uh, 363 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: it's a it's a metal sphere, and inside there's a 364 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,760 Speaker 1: gimbaled system to keep a tray of burning coals and 365 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,439 Speaker 1: and incense from tipping over. And then you would be 366 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,719 Speaker 1: able to place this amid some some some regal bedding, 367 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:25,640 Speaker 1: and the fumes from it would of course, uh make 368 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,400 Speaker 1: the bed smell nice. The heat from it would would 369 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,720 Speaker 1: potentially warm the bed, and I mean, I'm not sure 370 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:33,680 Speaker 1: from the descriptions I was reading if this is something 371 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:35,760 Speaker 1: that would actually stay there all night. Maybe it would. 372 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: And maybe that's the idea that you could be in 373 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 1: the bed and you wouldn't have to worry about kicking 374 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: it over and you know, then burning your covers, even 375 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:45,879 Speaker 1: with the gimbals. I don't know that that would kind 376 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:48,640 Speaker 1: of freak me out, but I guess I'm not used 377 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,680 Speaker 1: to it. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's a 378 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:53,440 Speaker 1: there's a fun history. I don't know if we could 379 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:55,960 Speaker 1: get a full Invention episode out of this, But when 380 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,760 Speaker 1: you get into the history of bed warmers. It's pretty 381 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: fascinating the use of everything from essentially just hot bricks too, 382 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: of course, bottles of water, and and then of course 383 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: various technological systems. I think we did touch on some 384 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: of these in our History of the bed, you know, 385 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,679 Speaker 1: ideas where you have bed and heating apparatus in a 386 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,399 Speaker 1: home far more integrated than we're used to today in 387 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,680 Speaker 1: many parts of the world world I should I should 388 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:22,120 Speaker 1: mention there are parts of the world where you still 389 00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:26,239 Speaker 1: find this integration. So this is this is insightful. Here 390 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 1: Huong's Chairs a description of of this invention from a 391 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:34,639 Speaker 1: Western Hans source. The sources as the translated title of 392 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,480 Speaker 1: Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital, and it even credits 393 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: some key inventors and innovators. Here quote Ding Juan, a 394 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,879 Speaker 1: skilled craftsman from chang On, made an always full lamp. 395 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,400 Speaker 1: It had extraordinary decorations, sporting seven dragons and five phoenixes, 396 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,880 Speaker 1: which were supported by lotus shaped platforms resting on stalks. 397 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: He also created an incense burner which lay on the bedcloths. 398 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,879 Speaker 1: It was also called the censor amid the covers. The 399 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:08,679 Speaker 1: technique is original from Feng Feng, a Han dynasty skilled 400 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:13,199 Speaker 1: artisan whose skills are unprecedented but now lost. It is 401 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,399 Speaker 1: not until ding Juan that the technique is made possible again. 402 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 1: To make it, Dinghan fashioned a series of mechanically connected rings. 403 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: The sensor could roll in any direction and yet the 404 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 1: central incense burning chamber would remain level. Thus one could 405 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: position it on the bed covers. This is how it 406 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,720 Speaker 1: acquired its name. Wow, so it is like the cup 407 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: holder on board a ship, except instead of the ocean, 408 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 1: it is the the roll king tide and waves of 409 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:45,760 Speaker 1: the bed. Yeah. Yeah, So this would be a situation 410 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: seemed to be a situation where at least on some 411 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:51,160 Speaker 1: level it passes the kin inventor test and someone's like, no, look, 412 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,560 Speaker 1: we cannot have the bed govers burned anymore. We can't 413 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: risk the bed govers being burned anymore. Is there not 414 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,080 Speaker 1: some sort of system we could employ here? And and 415 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:02,880 Speaker 1: once you see examples of it too, I think it's 416 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: a situation where you you kind of buy into the 417 00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: style of it as well. Uh, this idea that here's 418 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,959 Speaker 1: this this sensor that you know has this internal novelty 419 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,640 Speaker 1: to it but also looks quite beautiful and then apparently 420 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,600 Speaker 1: can also be picked up and held as a handwarmer. 421 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 1: Like it allows the like space between the heat source, 422 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,399 Speaker 1: which again would not be a roaring fire, but like 423 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,440 Speaker 1: some hot coals, and that would allow UM. I think 424 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,199 Speaker 1: like that. It's often when it's depicted or described, it's 425 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,679 Speaker 1: often like noble women or royal um uh, female members 426 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,160 Speaker 1: of the of the the king's entourage, of those kinds 427 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,600 Speaker 1: of individuals that might be holding one of these to 428 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:47,360 Speaker 1: keep them warm. So something fancy but also useful. Other 429 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:49,879 Speaker 1: inventions attributed to Ding Juan, by the way, include an 430 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:54,440 Speaker 1: evaporative cooling system and something that might have just been 431 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 1: like a flip book, but might have been some sort 432 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: of zootrope kind of device like it gets. I think 433 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,600 Speaker 1: historians are kind of split on exactly what this might 434 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:06,919 Speaker 1: have been. It also might have just been some novel 435 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: form of sequential artwork, the first graphic novel. Yeah, I mean, 436 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:12,920 Speaker 1: you know, maybe so, yeah, they have. The history of 437 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: sequential art is quite quite fascinating. So so some of 438 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:21,880 Speaker 1: these these balls, these are these mental spheres. Um. They 439 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,680 Speaker 1: they had chains for hanging, others did not. Um. These 440 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,199 Speaker 1: were apparently more used for for betting or handwarmers. So 441 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:31,080 Speaker 1: I think that's interesting. As well, that you end up 442 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,919 Speaker 1: with with hanging varieties of these where I guess in 443 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,399 Speaker 1: I guess that would make sense. I don't know what 444 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,440 Speaker 1: would be shaking the room or the house so much, 445 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,240 Speaker 1: but I guess if you're gonna have something hanging from 446 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:46,399 Speaker 1: a chain, you there's the potential for that movement to 447 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,240 Speaker 1: take place, and therefore the gimbal system would would potentially 448 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,080 Speaker 1: be useful. And then during the Ming dynasty, it's also 449 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,959 Speaker 1: mentioned that specific types of incense could be used in 450 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,639 Speaker 1: one of these devices to ward away insects. So we 451 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: have another uh practical use of the device here. And 452 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,080 Speaker 1: One describes that this design eventually spreads from China to 453 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:12,680 Speaker 1: the Islamic world and Venice quote possibly influencing the development 454 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: of the gyroscope from maritime navigation in Europe, and he 455 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,199 Speaker 1: points out that while incense was widely used throughout the 456 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:24,199 Speaker 1: Islamic world, this was fascinating. It never became, according to 457 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: this author, an essential part of Islamic ritual. But of 458 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: course the same cannot be said for Christianity, as we 459 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,760 Speaker 1: discussed in the in those incense episodes, so we do 460 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: see the appearance of spherical incense burners in Islamic culture 461 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,240 Speaker 1: as though not in religious ritual again based based on 462 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 1: this paper, but also we we do see spherical incense 463 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: burners popping up in European churches and being involved in 464 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:53,639 Speaker 1: or very closely alongside religious rituals within Catholicism. Okay, so 465 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 1: generally yes, secular but not religious uses of incense in 466 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 1: the Islamic world. In Christianity, we talked about this in 467 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: the in the previous series on incense, that incense was 468 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:09,719 Speaker 1: mostly missing from Christian religious use until around the fourth 469 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:13,359 Speaker 1: and fifth century and and then um it seems to 470 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: be concurrent with the with the overtaking of the Roman Empire, 471 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,360 Speaker 1: with Christianity is a dominant religion, that incense becomes an 472 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,880 Speaker 1: integral part of Christian worship. Yeah. Now, an important thing 473 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:28,640 Speaker 1: here and this is I thought this was a great 474 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,520 Speaker 1: point and it's it makes so much sense when you 475 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,920 Speaker 1: hear it spelled out. But when we talk about technologies 476 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: and ideas spreading from one culture to the next, we 477 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:42,239 Speaker 1: often think of just a very sequential arrangement, like you 478 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 1: imagine something say traveling on the Silk Road out of China, 479 00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: or in this case, you can imagine this ball like Okay, 480 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,080 Speaker 1: now the ball goes to um goes, it goes to 481 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:52,400 Speaker 1: the Middle East, and it takes on Middle Eastern properties, 482 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,120 Speaker 1: and then it travels to Venice, and then it takes 483 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,680 Speaker 1: on European properties. End of story. But but one points 484 00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,600 Speaker 1: out that it's not it's not just a matter of 485 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,680 Speaker 1: the technology traveling from China eventually to Europe, but there's 486 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,280 Speaker 1: a rather a fair amount of eventual back and forth 487 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:10,240 Speaker 1: involving not only European craftsmen but also Sasanian craftsmen. Um. 488 00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: We of course talked about the Sasanian Empire in previous 489 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: episodes as well. Uh uh Persian Iranian craftsmen adding their 490 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,119 Speaker 1: own touches to this uh to to this type of technology, 491 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,560 Speaker 1: and then some of that flowing back. So quote. The 492 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: metal work utilized in the Tang dynasty Sensor is a 493 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,679 Speaker 1: consequence of the chasing and hammering techniques taught to the 494 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,680 Speaker 1: Chinese by the Sasanian goldsmiths of Persia, while the culture 495 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,479 Speaker 1: of burning incense is from Indian Buddhism, so they're there 496 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,160 Speaker 1: are various beautiful examples of where like you can look 497 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: up the Chinese examples of these incense of spears that 498 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 1: you can also find some wonderful examples, for example, included 499 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,560 Speaker 1: a picture here for you, Joe, of of one of 500 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: these that was apparently forged in Damascus around the thirteenth century. 501 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,200 Speaker 1: And you can see the and like the elegant script 502 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: in here. Yeah, it's beautiful. So with this invention we 503 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 1: see an early use of the gimbal um, which at 504 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: this time is largely I guess best used for just 505 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,160 Speaker 1: this purpose. Like, here is something that you would want 506 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,720 Speaker 1: to keep stable, so here is how you can keep 507 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 1: it stable, and then I and then like the the 508 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: the art artistry of the invention seems to take on 509 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: a life of its own, and we see it employed 510 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,880 Speaker 1: in situations where maybe it doesn't doesn't make as much sense. 511 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: But once you're crafting these beautiful globes of of like 512 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,840 Speaker 1: silver and bronze and so forth in there you can 513 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: imagine them emitting this a sweet smelling smoke, it like 514 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: kind of takes on a life all its own. Now, 515 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: another example that came up in the research here is 516 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:57,320 Speaker 1: the patheke eon um. This is an example of a 517 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 1: gimbal in action, and we have reference is to a 518 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: device called the pothecon or little ape as it is 519 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: often translated in a second century text on siegecraft titled 520 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,760 Speaker 1: on Machines by an author that is referred to by 521 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:18,560 Speaker 1: historians as Athenaeus Mechanicals. Oh, i'd seen this is an 522 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: interesting coincidence. I'd sometimes seen a Philo of Byzantium, the 523 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 1: person cited with this early description of the gimble in 524 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:31,520 Speaker 1: the third century BC, as sometimes called Philo Mechanicus. So 525 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 1: I don't know where that appellation comes from. Apparently in 526 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: this case it's because um Uh Athenaus was a common 527 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: enough name, and then there in referring to this particular Athenaus, 528 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: we just add the title of the text. They're most 529 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:51,800 Speaker 1: known for on Machines, So this is Athenaus Mechanicals. Some 530 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: historians identify them with Athenaeus of Solutia, but there are 531 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,120 Speaker 1: also some alternative theories as well. Again, this is a 532 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 1: common name, and apparently some of the dating of it 533 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:07,880 Speaker 1: is based on the book's preface, which references one Marcellus, 534 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:13,000 Speaker 1: and according to historian David Whitehead Uh, this causes the 535 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 1: dating of the text to oscillate from as early as 536 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: the late third century b C. To the mid third 537 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: century CE. But anyway, the the Salucia idea would date 538 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 1: this to mid to late first century BC. Okay, the 539 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:33,920 Speaker 1: Whitehead white Head here along with pH blythe they're responsible 540 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,640 Speaker 1: for a two thousand and four translation of the on 541 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:41,000 Speaker 1: Machines text, so anyway, it would regardless on which Apanaus 542 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,680 Speaker 1: wrote it and when exactly during this time period it 543 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: was written. The book is largely concerned with siege machinery um, 544 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: and it's not that long of a text either. But 545 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:55,120 Speaker 1: later in the work the author does make mention of 546 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: the patheke eon or a little ape. Whitehead describes it 547 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 1: as fall follows in the paper Athanaus Mechanicals for the 548 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: Oxford Classical Dictionary quote a device perhaps involving nets or 549 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: gimbals for stabilizing shipborn machines when they are deployed in 550 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: choppy seas. Why is this an ape? I'm so curious 551 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,840 Speaker 1: about the name. I yeah that I have a lot 552 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,880 Speaker 1: of questions about that as well. Uh and and I 553 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: ultimately have maybe more questions than answers here for everyone. 554 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: But apparently this does relate to Roman siegecraft, in which 555 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,880 Speaker 1: they would take merchant ships yoked them together to bear 556 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:40,000 Speaker 1: the weight of siege weapons in attacking coastal towns. The 557 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,920 Speaker 1: little ape here was used, and this is where I 558 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,560 Speaker 1: get kind of foggy, apparently used to keep the machines 559 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,240 Speaker 1: from rolling around with the movement of the ships. That's 560 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:54,520 Speaker 1: one interpretation that I've seen, but I'm not sure about that. 561 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: The quote from the text from All Machines says, you quote, 562 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: you must fix the chion on the platform attached to 563 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,600 Speaker 1: the merchant ships in the middle, so that the machine 564 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,680 Speaker 1: stays upright in any angle. Well, I don't know. I mean, 565 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 1: at this period of time, I don't know how much 566 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,840 Speaker 1: minute aiming would be involved in the use of siege weapons. 567 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,080 Speaker 1: But of course gimbals are very useful in the mounting 568 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,640 Speaker 1: of of modern weapons like of you know, machine gun 569 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,360 Speaker 1: turrets and stuff like that, or if they're within like 570 00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,200 Speaker 1: a ship or an airplane or something, they can be 571 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: mounted within gimbals in order to stabilize for aiming purposes, 572 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,240 Speaker 1: because otherwise, like you're trying to aim while the ground 573 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,360 Speaker 1: or the housing is rocking all over the place. Yeah. 574 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 1: I have a very hard time imagining a gimbal system 575 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,440 Speaker 1: big enough on a Roman ship that would accommodate some 576 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: sort of really robust form of siege work. Machinery, you know, 577 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 1: like some sort of a large crossbow or catapult type device. Um. 578 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,480 Speaker 1: It seems like it would make more sense if it 579 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:02,400 Speaker 1: was designed for some more subtle too of siegecraft, some 580 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: sort of as we see in in the nautical traditions, 581 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: something uh that would aid in the use of siege weapons, 582 00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:13,200 Speaker 1: but not the siege weapon itself. Yeah. And when I 583 00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:16,400 Speaker 1: looked around for more examples, more descriptions of what the 584 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,000 Speaker 1: pathechion would have looked like, indeed why it it is 585 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: compared to an ape um, I wasn't able to find 586 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,720 Speaker 1: much I was looking at. In one case, I was 587 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: reading about deck based weapons. I was looking at The 588 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: Navies of Rome by Michael Potassi, and they mentioned that 589 00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: during the war between Caesar and POMPEII, the later constructed 590 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:42,920 Speaker 1: three story towers the top merchant ships and mounted artillery 591 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: on them. Uh and and use these against Caesar's blockade, 592 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,759 Speaker 1: just as an example of something that the Romans would 593 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,640 Speaker 1: have would have done with merchant ships and some sort 594 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 1: of a combat scenario. But there's no mention of gimbal 595 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,120 Speaker 1: technology in that book as far as I could tell. 596 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,920 Speaker 1: And he does site a text by Athenaeus at one 597 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: point or by unaps. But yeah, so I wasn't really 598 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,560 Speaker 1: able to find much in the way of answers about 599 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:13,440 Speaker 1: exactly what the little ape was achieving. But it seems 600 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,520 Speaker 1: based on all these other examples, it seems like we 601 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,360 Speaker 1: would probably be talking about a way to keep some 602 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:22,000 Speaker 1: sort of measurement tool steady as opposed to some sort 603 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 1: of large catapult or crossbow or what have you. Okay, 604 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,919 Speaker 1: I did find a wonderful illustration though this was used. 605 00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:33,080 Speaker 1: I think this was in Wang's article. Uh, I could 606 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,799 Speaker 1: be mistaken on that, but it's um a drawing from 607 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:42,839 Speaker 1: fifteen sixty seven UM by Jacques Bisson's book. Let's say, 608 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,760 Speaker 1: what is this lick Cosmo LABU uh like Cosmo Lab, 609 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,839 Speaker 1: Cosmo Lab, but it's a it's it's a wonderful illustration 610 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 1: of a ship. And we see this fascinating and I 611 00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,719 Speaker 1: have a hard time imagining if this was ever built either. 612 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,759 Speaker 1: But we see like a table, um and chair, like 613 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,320 Speaker 1: a basically of the little desk, a little office mounted 614 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:13,680 Speaker 1: inside this large spherical gimbal system. Um that it takes 615 00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,719 Speaker 1: up a large portion of the ship in this illustration. Yeah, 616 00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:18,719 Speaker 1: I see, you gotta have a gimbal system if you 617 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,880 Speaker 1: want to like mount a platform on which you can 618 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 1: put a pool table on a ship so that you 619 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,399 Speaker 1: can play pool or you can play ping pong. Yeah, 620 00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,719 Speaker 1: I I wonder with illustrations like this, it's if it's 621 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,719 Speaker 1: more about sort of illustrating the purpose or if it's 622 00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 1: a or a telephone game of of relating what a 623 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,000 Speaker 1: gimble is and how it functions and enable context. And 624 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,400 Speaker 1: then of course you're also probably getting into the situation 625 00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,600 Speaker 1: where why while it might if you're just familiar with 626 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:46,680 Speaker 1: the basics of the gimble, you might think, well, yeah, 627 00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,399 Speaker 1: let's just put the whole office in the gimbal. Why 628 00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,880 Speaker 1: can't we put the whole ship in the gimbal? Everybody 629 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:53,600 Speaker 1: on the ship is in the gimble, and then nobody 630 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: will get sick. And the reality is probably a bit 631 00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,399 Speaker 1: different from that. Umus, once you get an off weight, 632 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,160 Speaker 1: you're probably putting a lot of strain on the on 633 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,239 Speaker 1: the little pivot hinges for those rings. Yeah, so you 634 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 1: probably come up and come back to the situation then 635 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:13,839 Speaker 1: either in practicality, oh you know, through experimentation, or through 636 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,080 Speaker 1: just learning more about what they're actually doing out there 637 00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: at say you realize, now this makes the most sense 638 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:25,200 Speaker 1: as a way to keep specialized tools steady, generally small 639 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:29,959 Speaker 1: measurement tools or burning incense. Certainly, yeah, that makes sense 640 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: to me. So we mentioned earlier that systems of orthogonal 641 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: gimbals are used in many technologies today, and one major 642 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,880 Speaker 1: theater of use is space travel. And funny enough, I 643 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,359 Speaker 1: actually found an old house Stuff Works article about this 644 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,560 Speaker 1: by our colleague Jonathan Strickland of the podcast tech Stuff 645 00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:51,160 Speaker 1: highlighting the use of gimbals by NASA. If you're if 646 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,160 Speaker 1: you're not familiar, uh, Rob and I we've been doing 647 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 1: this podcast for a while, but we started doing it 648 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,239 Speaker 1: long ago under the auspices of a website called how 649 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:04,400 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. So in this short little article, Jonathan highlights 650 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,000 Speaker 1: a number of different uses of gimbals by by NASA. 651 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 1: For example, a harness mounted within a gimbal system is 652 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,759 Speaker 1: sometimes used to simulate spacewalks during astronaut training. So you 653 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,200 Speaker 1: want to get astronauts used to, um, you know, the 654 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,640 Speaker 1: different ways that their body will sort of float around 655 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:24,960 Speaker 1: and reorient smoothly in space if they're trying to do say, 656 00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:28,839 Speaker 1: external repairs on a on a spacecraft or something. Of course, 657 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,279 Speaker 1: the gimbals will not remove the influence of Earth's gravity, 658 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: but they will simulate other aspects of of space walking, 659 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 1: the way that you can you know, change your body's 660 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,239 Speaker 1: orientation in any direction in space. And then of course 661 00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:43,719 Speaker 1: there are lots of other uses within spacecraft and the 662 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,320 Speaker 1: mechanical parts, so like you might have motorized gimbals to 663 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: orient solar panels to keep facing the sun even as 664 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:54,160 Speaker 1: the position of a space station changes. Of course, there 665 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:57,480 Speaker 1: are detectors and sensors. For example, an instrument called the 666 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:01,799 Speaker 1: inertial Measurement Unit UH, which is a sort of mechanical 667 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:06,280 Speaker 1: inner ear. It measures the orientation of the spacecraft so pitch, 668 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: role and yaw, and it also measures acceleration. And I 669 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,319 Speaker 1: guess this also highlights different ways that gimbals can be used. 670 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,680 Speaker 1: I mean, most of the gimbals we've been talking about 671 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:22,160 Speaker 1: um have been free rotating gimbals that are supposed to allow, 672 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:27,040 Speaker 1: say a platform to keep its orientation with respect to 673 00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:30,440 Speaker 1: the Earth's gravity no matter how the outer housing moves. 674 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,120 Speaker 1: So in that case it would just be the goal 675 00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:36,239 Speaker 1: of the different gimbals in the in the card end 676 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,320 Speaker 1: suspension or the or you know, even just one or 677 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: two gimbals the purpose would just be that they can 678 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,960 Speaker 1: rotate easily and freely smooth movement to allow a naturally 679 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: gravity oriented platform to stay as it is. But you 680 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,359 Speaker 1: can also, of course create motorized gimbals if you want 681 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:59,120 Speaker 1: to intentionally maintain the orientation of a central object or platform, 682 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:03,440 Speaker 1: uh with some kind of external control mechanism and gimbal 683 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:07,080 Speaker 1: systems like this or have proven very useful for cameras. 684 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:11,320 Speaker 1: So imagine you are trying to shoot something, keep something 685 00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:13,840 Speaker 1: in focus, keep a subject of a frame in focus 686 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:17,600 Speaker 1: while the camera itself is moving. You're shooting moving video. 687 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,760 Speaker 1: If you just hold a camera and then you walk 688 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,840 Speaker 1: or run. If you ever tried this rob like, you 689 00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,840 Speaker 1: will often be very dissatisfied with the results. There's a 690 00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:30,759 Speaker 1: lot of jostling, yeah, like like blair, which effect at 691 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,680 Speaker 1: times ten Yeah. So to keep the movement smooth, you 692 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:39,440 Speaker 1: can make a mounting system with motorized gimbals that detect 693 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: the movement coming up through the frame that's holding the 694 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:47,120 Speaker 1: camera and then use little computers inside to algorithmically adjust 695 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,560 Speaker 1: the camera itself to cancel out that movement. So it's 696 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,600 Speaker 1: not just allowing the camera to sort of like rotate 697 00:40:54,680 --> 00:41:00,080 Speaker 1: freely within the gimbal system, it's actually making adjustments deliberately 698 00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:04,280 Speaker 1: to smooth out any jostling that comes through the housing. 699 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:06,760 Speaker 1: You know, in the in the natural world, of course, 700 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 1: as we're looking around, there's kind of a gimbling effect 701 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:14,839 Speaker 1: just to our the way we position our head. But 702 00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,759 Speaker 1: it's also been pointed out that the chicken is a 703 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,520 Speaker 1: is a like a natural gimbal. It's nature's gimbal, the 704 00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:26,040 Speaker 1: the way a chicken can keep its head perfectly stationary 705 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,000 Speaker 1: whilst someone holding the chicken moves its body around. Oh yeah, 706 00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:32,480 Speaker 1: there's some really fun videos of this, including one that 707 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,560 Speaker 1: uh that I'm not sure if this was an April 708 00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:38,480 Speaker 1: Fools video or not, but it's a it's a parody 709 00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:41,480 Speaker 1: in which they're saying, well, we've discovered the ultimate for 710 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:45,520 Speaker 1: photography and filmmaking gimbals. We just put a little camera 711 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,640 Speaker 1: on top of the chicken's head and then use the 712 00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:52,719 Speaker 1: chicken as the gimble, which I thought was very very funny. Now, um, not, 713 00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: not only can you keep things stable with this kind 714 00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:56,920 Speaker 1: of a layout, you can also, of course just mess 715 00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:01,200 Speaker 1: with whatever is strapped in the middle. Particularly I'm thinking 716 00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:05,839 Speaker 1: of those various uh gyroscope um mounting systems. You would 717 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,800 Speaker 1: see these sometimes and get like carnivals. I remember seeing these, 718 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,920 Speaker 1: uh perhaps at carnivals or in sort of like carnival 719 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,319 Speaker 1: type towns where you could come up, you paid your 720 00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:16,839 Speaker 1: money and they would strap you into one of these 721 00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,160 Speaker 1: things and just spin you around. Um. I think sometimes 722 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,880 Speaker 1: there's a virtual reality headset that is employed in these. 723 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:26,399 Speaker 1: And of course, if you've ever seen any kind of 724 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:31,640 Speaker 1: VR VR exploitation film, I'm particularly thinking of the lawnmower 725 00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,719 Speaker 1: Man films here, but films like that, there's always going 726 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:36,879 Speaker 1: to be a scene where somebody puts some some sort 727 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:40,839 Speaker 1: of shiny jumpsuit, uh, some VR goggles and then they're 728 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,720 Speaker 1: put in some sort of like Neon Strobe light gyroscope 729 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:48,680 Speaker 1: or uh you know, or or Gimbalt system and then 730 00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:51,719 Speaker 1: they're spinning all over the place. It's pierrece brasman get 731 00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:53,480 Speaker 1: in one of those or is that is that just 732 00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:57,719 Speaker 1: Jeff Ahey? I think they both do. Yeah, okay, I 733 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,279 Speaker 1: think also sometimes with Max you see this, right, I 734 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,560 Speaker 1: can't remember if we saw this sort of outfit in 735 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:06,560 Speaker 1: robot jocks, but I feel like maybe they had it 736 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:08,440 Speaker 1: in I don't know, a Pacific room or one of 737 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:13,200 Speaker 1: these type of shows. Well, we've hit our lawnmower man quota, 738 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,399 Speaker 1: so I think it may be time to call this episode. Yeah, yeah, 739 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:21,000 Speaker 1: but I thought this was fascinating, especially when you get again. 740 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,920 Speaker 1: It's kind of like the wheel where you begin asking questions. 741 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,279 Speaker 1: All right, at what point in human history is this 742 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:32,279 Speaker 1: technology both possible and uh, you know, achievable and also recognizable? Like, 743 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:34,400 Speaker 1: at what point might someone have made one of these 744 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,000 Speaker 1: at least as a lark? But then at what point 745 00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:40,360 Speaker 1: does it become practical to put something in the middle 746 00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 1: of it? At what point point is it practical, uh, 747 00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:46,319 Speaker 1: to to put to build a card, to build even 748 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,600 Speaker 1: a very simple card. At what point? What point does 749 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: it become practical to build some sort of gimbald system 750 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,800 Speaker 1: to keep something steady if there's not truly a practical 751 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,680 Speaker 1: reason for it. When will we discover the meaning of 752 00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,520 Speaker 1: the little ape? Yeah? So if anyone out there has 753 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:03,920 Speaker 1: insight on that, certainly right in let us know, and 754 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:10,000 Speaker 1: just in general, examples of amazing gimbals from other technologies, 755 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,440 Speaker 1: other cultures and histories. Right in, we would love to 756 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:15,279 Speaker 1: hear from you. I especially would love to hear from 757 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:18,399 Speaker 1: anyone who's seen some other great examples of these uh 758 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 1: these these these globes that burn in since and various 759 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,640 Speaker 1: cultures in which they were built and uh and designed. 760 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,160 Speaker 1: Uh so yeah right in let us know, send us 761 00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:30,359 Speaker 1: your photos. We'd love to hear from. We would love 762 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:33,000 Speaker 1: to see them. In the meantime, we'll remind you that 763 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:35,880 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind publishes its core episodes on 764 00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,000 Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, and this Stuff to Blow your Mind 765 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:41,239 Speaker 1: podcast feed. Uh, you'll find that feed wherever you get 766 00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:45,759 Speaker 1: your podcasts these days. And on Mondays we do listener mail. 767 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:49,040 Speaker 1: On Wednesdays we do a short form artifact or monster 768 00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,560 Speaker 1: fact episode, and then on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. 769 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,080 Speaker 1: That is a time for us to set aside most 770 00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:58,000 Speaker 1: serious concerns and just talk about a weird film. And 771 00:44:58,040 --> 00:44:59,799 Speaker 1: I have to say, we didn't even think about the 772 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:04,279 Speaker 1: energy between this episode and the movie that we're going 773 00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:07,560 Speaker 1: to be discussing this Friday. Huge thanks as always to 774 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,439 Speaker 1: our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would 775 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:13,400 Speaker 1: like to get in touch with us with feedback on 776 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:15,880 Speaker 1: this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for 777 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,120 Speaker 1: the future, or just to say hello, you can email 778 00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:28,920 Speaker 1: us at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. 779 00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,440 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I heart Radio. 780 00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:34,120 Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 781 00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:36,920 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listening to your 782 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:46,760 Speaker 1: favorite shows.