Donald Hill Quotes

2 Sourced Quotes

It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of al-Jazari's work in the history of engineering. Until modern times there is no other document from any cultural area that provides a comparable wealth of instructions for the design, manufacture and assembly of machines… Al-Jazari did not only assimilate the techniques of his non-Arab and Arab predecessors, he was also creative. He added several mechanical and hydraulic devices. The impact of these inventions can be seen in the later designing of steam engines and internal combustion engines, paving the way for automatic control and other modern machinery. The impact of al-Jazari's inventions is still felt in modern contemporary mechanical engineering

Donald Hill

We see for the first time in al-Jazari's work several concepts important for both design and construction: the lamination of timber to minimize warping, the static balancing of wheels, the use of wooden templates (a kind of pattern), the use of paper models to establish designs, the calibration of orifices, the grinding of the seats and plugs of valves together with emery powder to obtain a watertight fit, and the casting of metals in closed mold boxes with sand.

Donald Hill

Donald Hill

Donald Hill

Born: 1922

Died: 1994 (aged 72)

Bio: Donald Routledge Hill was an English engineer and historian of science and technology. especially known for his translation of The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices of the muslim engineer Al-Jazari.

Donald Hill on Wikipedia

Suggest an edit or a new quote

British Historian Quotes

Historian Quotes

20th-century Historian Quotes