Middle Ages

The earliest practical wind-powered machines, the windmill and wind pump, first appeared within the
Muslim global all through the Islamic Golden Age, in what at the moment are Iran, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan, by using the ninth century AD.[31][32][33][34] The earliest practical steam-powered system
was a steam jack driven by way of a steam turbine, described in 1551 through Taqi al-Din Muhammad
ibn Ma'ruf in Ottoman Egypt.[35][36]

The cotton gin changed into invented in India with the aid of the sixth century AD,[37] and the spinning
wheel turned into invented within the Islamic international via the early eleventh century,[38] both of
which have been fundamental to the increase of the cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a
precursor to the spinning jenny, which changed into a key development during the early Industrial
Revolution inside the 18th century.[39]

The earliest programmable machines were developed inside the Muslim global. A tune sequencer, a
programmable musical device, changed into the earliest form of programmable gadget. The first track
sequencer changed into an automated flute player invented by means of the Banu Musa brothers,
defined of their Book of Ingenious Devices, within the 9th century.[40][41] In 1206, Al-Jazari invented
programmable automata/robots. He described 4 automaton musicians, along with drummers operated
by means of a programmable drum machine, in which they can be made to play exceptional rhythms
and special drum patterns.[42] The fort clock, a hydropowered mechanical astronomical clock invented
through Al-Jazari, changed into the primary programmable analog pc.[43][44][45]

A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556

Before the development of modern engineering, mathematics became used by artisans and craftsmen,
which include millwrights, clockmakers, device makers and surveyors. Aside from those professions,
universities had been not believed to have had a whole lot practical importance to era.[46]: 32 

A wellknown reference for the kingdom of mechanical arts at some stage in the Renaissance is given
within the mining engineering treatise De re metallica (1556), which additionally includes sections on
geology, mining, and chemistry. De re metallica was the same old chemistry reference for the next one
hundred eighty years.[46]