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Podcast: Drum History
Episode: 1000 Year Old Robotic Drummers!?
Description: In this solo episode, I take a deep dive into the 1000 year old automaton drummers that were created by 12th century Islamic inventor, Al-Jazari. Theseย VERY early robots are amazing marvels of engineering and predominantly feature drummers who play kettle drums and cymbals to alert people in Mesopotamia (now Turkey) of the time of day with extremely elaborate clocks. These drummers are direct predecessors to modern day cars and machinery, as Al-Jazari is credited with the creation of turning rotary motion into linear motion with crank and connecting rods, which is essential for making pumps and engines possible. Basically, d...