20 Islamic inventors/inventions that changed the world

[thunderbalt]

13.Fountain Pen:

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_pen

History

The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates to the 10th century but it is likely that attempts at a fountain pen go back much further into the past. In his Delicia Physic-Mathematicae (1636), Daniel Schwenter described a pen made from two quills. One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill. The ink was sealed inside the quill with cork. Ink was squeezed through a small hole to the writing point. The earliest surviving reservoir pens date to the 18th century. Progress in developing a reliable pen was slow, however, into the mid-19th century. That slow pace of progress was due to a very imperfect understanding of the role that air pressure played in the operation of the pens and because most inks were highly corrosive and full of sedimentary inclusions. Starting in the 1850s there was a steadily accelerating stream of fountain pen patents and pens in production. It was only after three key inventions were in place, however, that the fountain pen became a widely popular writing instrument. Those inventions were the iridium-tipped gold nib, hard rubber, and free-flowing.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/A948530

Pens manufactured in metal were known in Classical times, but were rarely used. For example, a bronze pen was found in the ruins of Pompeii.

Different writing instruments:

From: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm



Ancient writing instruments - From left to right: quills, bamboo, pen sharpeners, fountain pens, pencils, brushes.

From: http://www.quido.cz/objevy/pero.a.htm

The history of the fountain pen cannot begin otherwise than with the quill pen. The quill pen was used for the writings of Egyptian kings 4,000 years ago. They most often used a goose feather carved into a sharp tip and dipped into ink of vegetable origin.
It remained like this until the end of the 18th century when the metal pen was invented.
Efforts to manufacture a pen with its own ink supply began in the year 1656. For example, Samuel Pepys had one in the year 1663. It functioned in such a way that a small pipe above the tip of the feather was filled with ink by means of a small piston. But a slightly more practically usable pen came to the world in the 19th century. A fountain pen which functioned on the same principle (a pen with a piston) was created by the inventor Folsch in 1809.

Those who claim that the fountain pen was invented in AD 953 need to produce the evidence.

[thunderbalt]

18. Earth is round (continuation):

Greek Period: Alexandria University and Library:

From: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Ellen/Museum.html

The Organization:

While it is doubtful the library had a perfectly systematic organization, but rather tended to house new chests and shelves of papyri in the groups in which they were acquired, the Alexandrians from Callimachus onwards tried to keep track of their holdings via a subject catalog. In this they followed Aristotle's divisions of knowledge, or at least his style of breaking up what had previously fallen under the umbrella of "philosophy" into subdivisions of observational and deductive sciences.
Since this paper is an overview of the work and scholarship carried out at Alexandria, I will adhere to the subject divisions first set forth by Callimachus in his Pinakes, of mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and geometry, as well as philology. I have added the Aristotelian category of mechanics for some of the applied science which grew out of Alexandrian studies.

Mathematics:

Alexandrian mathematicians concerned themselves for the most part with geometry, but we know of some researches specific to number theory. Prime numbers were a source of fascination from the time of the Pythagoreans onwards. Eratosthenes the Librarian dabbled in numbers along with everything else, and is reported to have invented the "sieve", a method for finding new ones.[20] Euclid also was known to have studied this tricky subject.
Eudoxis of Cnidus (see biography), Euclid's pupil, probably worked out of Alexandria, and is known for developing an early method of integration, studied the uses of proportions for problem solving, and contributed various formulas for measuring three dimensional figures. Pappus (See biography), a fourth century A.D. scholar, was one of the last of the Greek mathematicians and concentrated on large numbers and constructions in semicircles (See Vatican manuscript), and he was also an important transmitter into European culture of astrology gleaned from eastern sources.[21] Theon and his daughter Hypatia also continued work in astronomy, geometry, and mathematics, commenting on their predecessors, but none of their works survive.

Astronomy:

Astronomy was not merely the projection of three-dimensional geometry into a fourth, time, although this is how many Greek scientists classified it. The movements of the stars and sun were essential for determining terrestrial positions, since they provided universal points of reference. In Egypt, this was particularly vital for property rights, because the yearly inundation often altered physical landmarks and boundaries between fields. For Alexandria, whose lifeblood was export of grain and papyrus to the rest of the Mediterranean, developments in astronomy allowed sailors to do away with consultation of oracles, and to risk year-round navigation out of sight of the coast.[22] Earlier Greek astronomers had concentrated on theoretical models of the universe; Alexandrians now took up the task of detailed observations and mathematical systems to develop and buttress existing ideas.

Maps of Heaven:

Eratosthenes, the versatile third librarian, amassed a poetic catalog of 44 constellations complete with background myths, as well as a list of 475 fixed stars.[23] Hipparchus was credited with inventing longitude and latitude, importing the 360-degree circular system from Babylonia, calculating the length of a year within six minutes accuracy, amassing sky-chart of constellations and stars, and speculated that stars might have both births and deaths.[24]

Schemes of the Universe:

Aristarchus applied Alexandrian trigonometry to estimate the distances and sizes of the sun and moon, and also postulated a heliocentric universe (biography). A fellow Museum scholar, the Stoic Cleanthus, accused him of blatant impiety.[25] Hipparchus of Bithynia, during the reign of Ptolemy VII, discovered and measured the procession of the equinoxes, the size and trajectory of the sun, and the moon's path.[26] 300 years later Ptolemy (no known relation to royalty, see biography) worked out mathematically his elegant system of epicycles to support the geocentric, Aristotelian view,[27] and wrote a treatise on astrology, both of which were to become the medieval paradigm.[28] (See Vatican manuscript on astronomy and exhibit on geography.)

Geometry:

The Alexandrians compiled and set down many of the geometric principles of earlier Greek mathematicians, and also had access to Babylonian and Egyptian knowledge on that subject. This is one of the areas in which the Museum excelled, producing its share of great geometers, right from its inception. Demetrius of Phaleron is said to have invited the scholar Euclid (biography) to Alexandria, and his Elements are well-known to be the foundation of geometry for many centuries. [29] His successors, notably Apollonius of the second century B.C.E., carried on his research in conics (Vatican manuscript, biography), as did Hipparchus in the second century A.D. Archimedes (biography)is credited with the discovery of pi.[30]

Eratosthenes and Spherical Geometry: Calculating the Earth's circumference:

The third librarian of Alexandria, Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.E), calculated the circumference of the earth to within 1%, based on the measured distance from Aswan to Alexandria and the fraction of the whole arc determined by differing shadow-lengths at noon in those two locations. He further suggested that the seas were connected, that Africa might be circumnavigated, and that "India could be reached by sailing westward from Spain." Finally, probably drawing on Egyptian and Near Eastern observations, he deduced the length of the year to 365 1/4 days and first suggested the idea of adding a "leap day" every four years.[31]

[img]
Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.E)

More about Round Earth:

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

Measurement of the Earth

Eratosthenes (The Father of Geography) knew that on the summer solstice at local noon on the Tropic of Cancer, the Sun would appear at the zenith, directly overhead — though Syene was in fact slightly north of the tropic.
He also knew, from measurement, that in his hometown of Alexandria, the angle of elevation of the Sun would be 7° south of the zenith at the same time. Assuming that Alexandria was due north of Syene- Alexandria is in fact on a more westerly longitude- he concluded that the distance from Alexandria to Syene must be 7/360 of the total circumference of the Earth.
The distance between the cities was known from caravan travellings to be about 5,000 stadia.
There were some errors in this calculation although today we can use his method using correct measurements. Syene is not exactly on the Tropic of Cancer, and is not directly south of Alexandria; nor is the Sun at infinite distance. (Eratosthenes knew the latter, but we are not told he corrected for it.) More seriously, angles in antiquity could be measured only to degrees or quarter-degrees, and measurement of overland distances was worse. He established a final value of 700 stadia per degree, which implies a circumference of 252,000 stadia. The exact size of the stadion he used is no longer known (the common Attic stadion was about 185 m), but it is generally believed that Eratosthenes' value corresponds to between 39,690 km and 46,620 km. The circumference of the Earth around the poles is now measured at around 40,008 km. Eratosthenes' method was used by Posidonius about 150 years later.
About 200 BC Eratosthenes is thought to have coined or to have adopted the word geography, the descriptive study of the Earth.
[img]http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/eratosthenes/technique1[/img]
The Eratosthenes Technique for Determining the Size of the Earth

Another illustration of Eratosthenes Technique for Determining the Size of the Earth

Simplified illustration of Eratosthenes Technique for Determining the Size of the Earth



Mechanics: Applied Science

Archimedes (see biography) was one of the early Alexandria-affiliated scholars to apply geometers' and astronomers' theories of motion to mechanical devices. Among his discoveries were the lever and-- as an extension of the same principle-- the "Archimedes screw," a handcranked device for lifting water.[32] He also figures in the tale of the scientist arising from his tub with the cry of "Eureka" after discovering that water is displaced by physical objects immersed in it.[33]

Hydraulics was an Alexandria-born science which was the principle behind Hero's Pneumatics, a long work detailing many machines and "robots" simulating human actions. The distinction between practical and fanciful probably did not occur to him in his thought-experiments, which included statues that poured libations, mixed drinks, drank, and sang (via compressed air). He also invented a windmill-driven pipe organ, a steam boiler which was later adapted for Roman baths, a self-trimming lamp, and the candelaria, in which the heat of candle-flames caused a hoop from which were suspended small figures to spin.[34] His sometimes whimsical application of the infant sciences are reminiscent of the modern Rube Goldberg's "inventions" during the technological revolution of this century.

Medicine:

The study of anatomy, tracing its roots to Aristotle (see Andrea's case study on Aristotelian anatomy), was conducted extensively by many Alexandrians, who may have taken advantage both of the zoological gardens for animal specimens, and Egyptian burial practices and craft for human anatomy. One of its first scholars, Herophilus, both collected and compiled the Hippocratic corpus, and embarked on studies of his own. He first distinguished the brain and nervous system as a unit, as well as the function of the heart, the circulation of blood, and probably several other anatomical features. His successor Eristratos concentrated on the digestive system and the effects of nutrition, and postulated that nutrition as well as nerves and brain influenced mental diseases. Finally, in the second century A.D., Galen drew upon Alexandria's vast researches and his own investigations to compile fifteen books on anatomy and the art of medicine.[35] (See Vatican manuscript).

Conclusion:

The Museum of Alexandria was founded at a unique place and time which allowed its scholars to draw on the deductive techniques of Aristotle and Greek thought, in order to apply these methods to the knowledges of Greece, Egypt, Macedonia, Babylonia, and beyond. The location of Alexandria as a center of trade, and in particular as the major exporter of writing material, offered vast opportunities for the amassing of information from different cultures and schools of thought. Its scholars' deliberate efforts to compile and critically analyze the knowledge of their day allowed for the first systematic, long-term research by dedicated specialists in the new fields of science suggested by Aristotle and Callimachus. Whole new disciplines, such as grammar, manuscript preservation, and trigonometry were established. Moreover, the fortuitious collection of documents in an Egyptian city allowed the transmission and translation of vital classical texts into Arabic and Hebrew, where they might be preserved long after copies were lost during the Middle Ages in Europe. Alexandria and its cousins, the Lyceum, Academy, and the younger Pergamon library, were probably the prototypes both for the medieval monastery and universities. While modern scholars often lament the amount of information lost through the centuries since the Museum's fall, an amazing number of Alexandrian discoveries and theories, especially in mathematics and geometry, still provide the groundwork for modern research in these fields. Finally, the methods of research, study, and information storage and organization developed in the Library are much the same as those used today, but just as the medium of linear scrolls gave way to books in its halls, we now are watching the transformation from books to multilayered documents in the electronic medium.

[PunkMaister]

[everybee]

Leaders in modern science.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/02/21/eu.technology.ap/

http://www.geocities.com/milkmandan2003/braindrain2.htm

http://www.geocities.com/milkmandan2003/AgeBar1.htm

http://www.geocities.com/milkmandan2003/AgeBar2.htm

http://home.ripway.com/2003-12/43034/text/NobelPrizes.doc
_________________
origin of the mythology

[everybee]

The smarter ones move to the west.
_________________
origin of the mythology

[Richard_The _Lionheart]

http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/NationalScienceWeek/NSWNews/_1001Inventions.htm

[PunkMaister]

[Yohan]

[PunkMaister]

[happy_X]

Great job thunderbalt.
This thread should be saved and even printed, not only it proves muslim's lying and propaganda, but also it is very educational, it restores the credit to the people who actually served the humanity by their inventions.

It also discredits our new muslim spammer and his/her cheering harem buddies
_________________
islam is terrorism

[Kittymom]

[PunkMaister]

Has anyone noticed that the muslims can never produce real hard evidence for their claims so their links always go to pro-islamists websites instead of any official and verifyable sources?

It's just sad it really is!
_________________
Why are no SIGs of any kind allowed here?

[ExposingIslamofascism]

Who cares?Is this supposed to make all the HORRORS of Islam ok?Is that the best you can do Muslim?All of you people repeat the same STUPID excuses over and over.Try and wake up.The world doesnt believe you anymore.

[thunderbalt]

[thunderbalt]

Even the Three-course meal Muslim invention is debunked!

15. Three-course meals:

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/tech_04.shtml

Celtic cooking had probably been a one-pot affair, such as a mess of potage to be shared by the household, but the Romans introduced the three-course meal.

Next is From:
http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/arl_dinner_party.htm

The dinner party:

Dinner parties - A means to an end

The affluent members of Celtic society had little choice in deciding their future status under the Romans. They had to either accept the new rulers and retain their standing in society, or have their properties taken from them and be cast out to live with the masses.
The converted upper classes were the ones who benefited most by co-operating with the Romans. Under the new regime they could see their standard of life improve and they could partake in that great Roman ritual - the dinner party.

For someone with status in the community it was an accepted rule that the family would hold a regular dinner party. This was not just a gathering of friends for an evening meal, it a method of influencing those who could help the careers of the host. Like a visit to the Roman baths, this was an occasion for mingling with local and regional dignitaries with a view to gaining their friendship and support.
Seating arrangements for the dinner party

Preparing the meal:

With the husband at work during the day, it was the wife who would plan and arrange the party. She would arrange everything from the seating arrangements to the food and drink for each course. The servants would have been hard at work for much of the afternoon, gathering and preparing the food for each course.

The meal was not just a mixture of items thrown together. Every course was meticulously planned so that every flavor in the meal was designed to be work with another. Appearance and flavor had to be just right. For each course there was a main flavor such as fish, beef, pork and the flavors of the food that accompanied each course had to accentuate the main flavor.

Of particular interest is the liquamen. This is a sauce used in cooking and is important to the meal because it is used throughout the cooking process in a variety of dishes. Liquamen is made by mixing small fish with the organs and innards of larger fish and pounding them to near liquid form. Then the resulting pulp is then left in the sun to develop it's unmistakable taste. It was then pressed through cloth and the resulting juice was poured over the meat just before serving.
By early evening the meal is ready.
The dining room tables are rectangular in shape, low on the ground and surrounded on three sides by low couches. Place settings have been arranged and the tableware laid out. Bowls of fruit, jugs of wine and bowls containing tepid water for cleaning the hands between each course are placed within easy reach of all the guests.

The tableware is meaningful to the overall impression. Items made of Samian pottery were considered the height of elegance and enhanced the reputation of the family.

As we have cookery books to day, so did the Romans. The most famous cook was the first century Marcus Gavius Apicius who wrote many books on the subject.

The starter:
After the preliminaries of greeting and introduction are over everyone would head to the dining room and take their allotted place around the dining area.

The starter is often fish. Haddock, herring, mullet and mackerel were popular. They would be gutted, then boiled and presented in a sauce of herbs with wine and honey. It was the norm for Roman sauces to be thick in texture. To achieve this they added wheat starch in much the same way we use cornflower today.

A great delicacy was British oysters served in a sauce of lovage (a herb), vinegar, wine, oil and pepper. The hosts may have tried to impress their guests by choosing something more adventurous. The lark is a small British bird, and one dish the Romans were fond of was marinated larks tongues. About 1000 larks would be needed for this recipe.

The main course:

Meat was the most popular choice and usually red meat such as beef, pork or venison was used. This would have been roasted for most of the afternoon over an open spit above a wood burning hearth in the kitchen. Servants took turns to rotate the meat regularly and ensure it was cooked thoroughly an consistently on all sides. It was then sliced, had the prepared sauce poured over and placed onto china plates ready for serving.

The Romans had very much the same vegetables as we do today. Cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, onions, parsnip. All these were prepared by boiling and served with the main course.

The dessert:

With the coming of the Romans, Britain saw a marked increase in the variety of fruits that became available. This was evident at dinner parties by the way exotic fruits such as dates and figs made an appearance. The dessert was mostly fruit. Not just served on it's own but prepared to add extra flavour.
Dates would be stuffed and fried. Apples would be soaked in a cream sauce. Pastries were in abundance.
Some were more like biscuits in texture. There were made from flour and then cooked in oil and had lashings of honey and pepper poured over them.
Those more inclined to try new ideas mixed the cakes with aniseed, cheese and the bark of a laurel twig that was grated. This whole combination would have been roasted over bay leaves.

After the dinner:

The three courses mentioned here are just basic. The actual dinner party usually consisted of several courses spread or a few hours with interludes in between courses for chatter, wine drinking and to allow the last course to digest. The dinner was accompanied by abundant amounts of wine consumed throughout the evening.

After the meal, everyone would assemble in the main room and consume more wine. There would be readings from the classics, a poetry recital, talk of literature or the men would talk of business, where the host tried to impress those present with his knowledge and skill. It was at this point the host would take his guests on a tour of the house and show them the mosaics, paintings and ornaments he had accumulated. All this was meant to give the impression of a man who was intellectual and articulate. Well suited to a higher office.

The departure:

When some of those assembled began to feel weary, the evening drew to a close. There would be a session of final farewells and the host would add a final touch by having a servant see the guests safely home.
There was no street lighting, so the servant would carry a torch to light the way.
It frequently took a while to get home as the wine had taken effect by now and the men would find their legs now had the supporting power of a jelly. But they eventually arrived home in one piece. The hosts meanwhile, had lit their oil lamps and were making their own way to their much needed beds.


A Roman dinner party

Next is From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_eating_and_drinking

Cena

Among members of the upper classes, who did not engage in manual labor, it became customary to schedule all business obligations in the morning. After the prandium the last responsibilities would be discharged and then a visit would be made to the baths. Around 3 o'clock, the cena would begin. This meal could last until late in the night, especially if guests were invited, and would often be followed by a comissatio (a round of drinks).

Especially in the period of the kings and the early republic, but also in later periods (for the working classes), the cena essentially consisted of a kind of porridge, the puls. The simplest kind would be made from spelt, water, salt and fat. The more sophisticated kind was made with olive oil, with an accompaniment of assorted vegetables whenever possible. The richer classes ate their puls with eggs, cheese and honey, and (only occasionally) meat or fish.

Over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into two courses, a main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood (e.g. molluscs, shrimp). By the end of the Republic, it was usual for the meal to be served in three parts: first course, main course, and dessert.

Next is From: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq7.html

ANCIENT GREECE & ROME

"The Athenians were also responsible for inventing the original hors d'oeuvre trolley, which other Greeks adduced as proof of their miserly disposition. An Athenian dinner, claimed Lynceus, was an insult to a hungry man. 'For the cook sets before you a large tray on which are five small plates. One of these holds garlic, another a pair of sea urchins, another a sweet wine sop [probably some scraps of wine-soaked bread or marinated fish], another ten cockles, the last a small piece of sturgeon'."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 69)

"The Romans served many different appetizers to begin their banquets. The most popular items were seasoned eggs and egg-based dishes, vegetables, salad, mushrooms and truffles, assorted shellfish, cheese with herbs, olives, sausages, and even more filling dishes, such as complicated fricassees and casseroles, which today would be considered complete meals in themselves."
---A Taste of Ancient Rome, Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa [University of Chicago:Chicago] 1992 (p. 49) [book includes recipes adated for modern kitchens]

"Starters (prommolsis and gustation). The aperitif was supposed to aid digestion. Aperitifs included vermouth (wormwood), spiced wine, mead or Muslim; it was traditionally poured into a communal drinking-bowl and passed from guest to guest. The ritual, called potio, consolidated the sense of convivality. The promulsis might consist of oysters, marinated octopus, marinated vegetables, cauliflower, onion, garlic, snails, sea urchins, wild mushrooms and, above all, salsamentum, such as ham, bacon and especially salted fish. A Roman meal usually began with eggs and ended with fruit...Eggs were boiled, baked, or sucked raw from the shell. Patinae usually involved large numbers of eggs: hot or cold stuffed omelettes, custards, and tarts like quiches...Olives were rarely absent. Black or green and salted as they ar today, they were served without further preparation. Sometimes they were pitted and gorund into a kind of tabenade: epithyrum...Dishes such as epithyrum were eaten with bread, which was never absent. It was also the base for various moretum dishes...Rabbit, sow's udder and roast pork might appear as starters, but lighter dishes, like sausages, fish and meatballs, dormice, small fish and birds, were more usual."
---Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, Patrick Faas [Palgrave MacMillan:New York] 1994 (p. 78-9)
"Salads, cooked vegetables, fungi and some light egg or fish dishes supplied the 'gustus' or hors d'oeuvre at a Roman meal."
---Food and Drink in Britain, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 326)

Antipasto?
Antipasto denotes the dishes served before (anti) the pasta (pasto) course. These are often similar to those served for gustatio. Antipasto is also more broadly defined as before the meal,' referring to all food served as appetizers. Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food states: "Typical itmes are olives, pieces of raw or cured ham, marinated mushrooms or other vegetables, and items of seafood. As the popularity of Italian food increased in the second half of the 20th century this term acquired wide currency in English" (p.22)
"Antipasto...is an Italian term for hors d'oeuvres'...English actually took the word over in the sixteenth century, and partially naturalized it to antepast ( The first mess [course], or antepast as they call it, is some fine meat to urge them to have an appetite,' quoted in the Harleian Miscellany, 1590)."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 7)