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