From the Vault: The Invention of the Gimbal

be what's going on here. The gimbal we're talking about is well to define more clearly, intern a bit a mechanism typically consisting of rings pivoting at right angles for keeping an instrument horizontal In a moving vessel or on a moving plane, that sort of thing. So that definition would seem to sort of line up more with what's going on here, the idea of some sort of gyre, some sort of revolution going on. But I was reading.

I read a little bit more about this, and it turns out that Lewis Carroll is absolutely of no help to us today in this text. Apparently Humpty Dumpty himself weighs in. I either didn't know this or had forgotten this on the meaning of all this pointing out that toads are a kind of lizard badger creature, and that gimble in this context means quote to make holes like a gimblet. A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling

small holes in wood. Slythy is a combination of lithe and slimy, so it's a slimy badger lizard that rotates and bores.

later in the episode. But even when you're just trying to find information about the underlying mechanical concept of what comes up seems to be references to a complex device made out of three parts that are in fact each individually called a gimbal. So anyway, I got this sorted out by consulting a reference manual. I went to the Oxford Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. If that's not an authoritative source,

I don't know what is. And according to this volume, a gimbal is quote, a pivoted support that allows rotation of a supported object about a single axis. Two orthogonal gimbals are used in supports of, for example, compasses. So I think the object mounted within a gimbal is most often going to be a platform that is supposed to maintain its orientation with respect to gravity, or it's some

kind of detector, sensor or measuring device. But when I was thinking about simple examples that people might know from around their homes. I actually thought of the C shaped mounting for a globe. I actually was looking at a globe just the other day and admiring all of the names of countries that are no longer accurate on it.

But on a globe you've got this. You know, often have this either a full ring or sort of a C shaped metal ring that connects to the globe at the poles and allows the globe to rotate within it. And of course this simulates the rotation of the Earth. Now, often when you read about references to gimbals, they will be referring to systems that use two or three or even more gimbals in combination in succession with one another

to allow more dimensions of free rotation. For example, probably the most famous one is known as Cardan's suspension, and this is again according to the Oxford Handbook of Mechanical Engineering, quote a system that uses three gimbals with orthogonal axes orthogonal meaning at ninety degree angles orthogonal axes so as to support a component in a fixed orientation despite rotation of the mounting of the gimbals.

freely on the equatorial axis. So that's two dimensions of rotation. And then say you mount that within a third ring, and within that ring you can actually have the globe rotate sort of say top front to back. And with these three rings you can rotate freely in all three dimensions of space, the dimensions that in the context of say talking about the attitude of an airplane, you would

call pitch, roll and yaw. Now, there's normally no reason you would want a globe to rotate in three dimensions, but there are situations where it would be very useful to have an object mounted within two or three gimbals. For example, what if you want to create an object that maintains a fixed orientation with respect to some outside frame of reference, even though the ground or the housing

in which the object is mounted will itself move. So, say you want a platform that maintains orientation with respect to the Earth, maybe the Earth's center of gravity, or maintains maintains orientation with respect to some point in the stars, or some fixed point of focus, say the subject of a frame when you're using a camera, all while being mounted inside a housing that is prone to moving and

jostling around. For a simpler version of all that, just imagine you want you want a cup holder or any open reservoir for liquid that will stay upright and not spill, even though it's say, mounted in a ship that is expected to be going through rough seas.

mechanism that I remember seeing. I mean I would have seen compasses and so forth, But a situation for someone who's really calling out the gimbal technology was some sort of I don't know if this was like a Mister Wizard or Reading Rainbow or some Nickelodeon show, but it was like something with kid inventors, and kids were rolling out their inventions, and one of the kid inventions was essentially a gimbaled drink tray. So I think, if memory serves,

these weren't round frames, but they were square frames. But it created the same sort of situation, and they demonstrated it showing like a glass of coke or PEPSI, you know, there in the middle of it. And I remember at the time thinking, well, this is phenomenal. This is what we should use all the time. And of course then you go back into the world and you realize, well, no, I guess, I guess the engineering benefits of this design do not make this a better option than simply being

careful with a tray. But at the time I remember being really impressed with it and thinking, well, this is the way, this is the way we should be carrying drinks around on trays. We should see this in every restaurant in every city around the world.

or Phylon of Byzantium. I was reading about this in a book called Gears by Vincenzo Vulo, published by Springer in twenty twenty, and there's just a short paragraph about Filo here a Vulo writes quote. Filo was also the first to describe a gimaimbo. It was applied to an eight side ink pot that could be turned any way, driven by gears without the ink being poured. This was done by suspending the ink well at a central plate after assembling this on a series of concentric metal rings

which were stationary regardless of how the pot could rotate. Now, like many things, like many inventions mentioned in ancient Greek reference texts, this doesn't necessarily mean that Philo was the inventor of this object, or that Philo was the inventor of the gimbal or the gimbal system. But this does appear to be a very early, if not the earliest written reference to it.

if you don't have roads. And so if we have various examples of cultures where there wasn't really a practical use of the wheel, but the wheel was still around as a novelty, we'd see the one would see it in the use of toys or children, and so one can easily imagine a situation where the gimbal is much the same where craftsmen and curious minds would have happened upon this property, would have developed this. But if there's not something that you need to keep stable, then why

roll it out? Why make any more of an issue out of it? Because again I come back to that example of the kid inventors with the tray, Like that's cool and all, but if it's not actually better than just carefully carrying a tray, then it's not an invention that's going to actually have any legs.

of a continuation of that journey. So while a great deal of the history of incense usage has more to do with religion and pure esthetics, there are still practical applications. And when we consider the technology of sensors again dedicated incense burning containers and devices, yeah, things get a bit more complicated. And indeed, in this case we see links between sensors and gimbal technology that will ultimately play a big role in say, the future of things like photography

and marine navigation and even rocket science. But we can go back to very old traditions, very old technologies involving the use of incense and I guess you might wonder, why would you need to use a gimbal on an incense? At which point does it pass that kit inventor test of the practicality overpowering the pure novelty of the thing. So one of my main sources for this is a twenty twenty two article by art historian Bing Wong published

in the journal Religions. He had several sources here, including the work of note sonologist Joseph Needham, whose writings we recently referenced on the show as well. This is an individual who casts a long shadow in the study of Chinese science and technology, especially in the West. His multi volume work on the History of Science and Civilization in China was very much a career defining work. So, as Huang describes here, it would seem based on Needum's research

and writings. The Chinese knowledge of the gimbal dates back at least to the second century CE, but also possibly to the second century BCE. We have a poet by the name of Sima shang Ru who makes a reference to the jin zhun Shun. These are the metal rings containing the burning perfume, and this is in the marin Fu. This is Owdede on Beautiful Women, a poem that contains a seduction scene, and in doing so describes the various

these bedchambers and the items inside that bedchamber. And it's inferred then in Needham's writing that, based on other texts, the artifact described here might in fact be a gimbal suspension to keep the burning perfume stable.

Western traditions. I should note that when it comes to critics of need Him, a common one was that he tended toward Chinese superiority in his analysis. Apparently other critics, however, argued quite the opposite, that he struggled to shake free

of the shackles of European exceptionalism in his sonology. So you know, ultimately, I'm not sure exactly where the truth falls on all of that, but probably worth reminding everyone that need Him lived nineteen hundred through nineteen ninety five, and it was I think pretty active up and towards

toward the end of his life. As like an editor of these volumes, but Huong does not raise the specter of either inclination, though he does look at new evidence, disagrees with a few Needum theories, but otherwise does not seem to oppose the second century BCE date, though does firmly base it in the analysis of Needen. So anyway, coming back to this question, Okay, why would you need your burning perfume? Why would you need your incense to have some sort of a mechanical system to keep it level?

I mean, if you're taking it on a ship, are you running with it, right, like, what's the purpose? Yeah, well, this brings us to consideration of the spherical incense burner that had been previously referred to by archaeologists as a perfume ball, but eventually written descriptions were discovered that referred to them as a sheng nang, which Huong translates as sachet in which Yablo Chinese, which is a website for

translating Mandarin, translates as spice ball. Now, to be clear, these are metal spheres as opposed to silk or cloth bound bags of incense. So Loong points out that these

metal spheres seem to have two primary uses. In Tang dynasty China, this would be we're moving ahead several centuries here, this would be period of six eighteen through nine oh seven CE, So they would have two purposes basically as an incense burner, but also as a hand warmer as well as quote a sensor amid the covers which allowed it to set or I guess even roll around on

bedding without fear of tipping over. WHOA, Yeah, So this is something that based on some of the explanations I was reading, it kind of brings the mind this idea of like, here's this, and you can look up images of this there ornate. It's a metal sphere and inside there's a gimbled system to keep a tray of burning coals and incense from tipping over. And then you would be able to place this amid some regal bedding, and the fumes from it would of course make the bed

smell nice. The heat from it would potentially warm the bed, And I mean, I'm not sure from the descriptions I was reading of this as something that would actually stay there all night. Maybe it would. And maybe that's the idea that you could be in the bed and you wouldn't have to worry about kicking it over and you know, and burning your covers.

far more integrated than we're used to today. Yeah, in many parts of the world world I should I should mention there are parts of the world where you still find this integration. So this is this is insightful. Here Whoong shares a description of this invention from a Western Hans source. The source is as the translated title of Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital, and it even credits some key inventors and innovators. Here quote Ding Huan, a

skilled craftsman from Chang'an, made an always full lamp. It had extraordinary decorations, sporting seven dragons and five phoenixes, which were supported by lotus shaped platforms resting on stalks. He also created an incense burner which lay on the bedcloths. It was also called the censor amid the covers. The technique is original from feng Fing, a Han dynasty skilled artisan whose skills are unprecedented but now lost. It is not until Ding Juan that the technique is made possible again.

To make it Ding Huan fashioned a series of mechanically connected rings. The censor could roll in any direction, and yet the central incense burning chamber would remain level. Thus one could position it on the bed covers. This is how it acquired its name.

some sort of system we could employ here? And then once you see examples of it too, I think it's a situation where you kind of buy into the style of it as well, this idea that here's this sensor that has this internal novelty to it, but also looks quite beautiful and then apparently can also be picked up

and held as a handwarmer. Like it allows the space between the heat source, which again would not be a roaring fire, but like some hot coals, and it would allow I think it's often when it's depicted or described, it's often like noble women or royal female, members of the of the king's entourage, of those kinds of individuals that might be holding one of these to keep them warm.

So something fancy but also useful. Other inventions attributed to Ding Juan, by the way, include an evaporative cooling system and something that might have just been like a flip book, but might have been some sort of zootrope kind of device. I think it's I think historians are kind of split on exactly what this might have been. It also might have just been some novel form of sequential art.

I guess in I guess that would make sense. I don't know what would be shaking the room or the house so much, but I guess if you're gonna have something hanging from a chain, there's the potential for that movement to take place, and therefore the gimbal system would potentially be useful. And then during the Ming dynasty, it's also mentioned that specific types of incense could be used

in one of these devices to ward away insects. So we have another practical use of the device here, and Wong describes that this design eventually spreads from China to the Islamic world and Venice quote possibly influencing the development of the gyroscope for maritime navigation in Europe. And he points out that while incense was widely used throughout the Islamic world, this was fascinating. It never became, according to

this author, an essential part of Islamic ritual. But of course the same cannot be said for Christianity, as we discussed in those incense episodes. So we do see the appearance of spherical incense burners in Islamic cultures, though not in religious ritual again based on this paper, but also we do see spherical incense burners popping up in European churches and being involved in or very closely alongside religious rituals within Catholicism.

much sense when you hear it spelled out. But when we talk about technologies and and ideas spreading from one culture to the next, we often think of just a very sequential arrangement, like you imagine something, say traveling on the Silk Road out of China, or in this case, you can imagine this ball like Okay, now the ball goes to goes to the Middle East, and it takes on Middle Eastern properties, and then it travels to Venice and then it takes on European properties. End of story.

But one points out that it's it's not just a matter of the technology traveling from China eventually to Europe, but there's rather a fair amount of eventual back and forth involving not only European craftsmen but also Sasanian craftsmen. We of course talked about the Sasanian Empire in previous episodes as well Persian Iranian craftsmen adding their own touches to this type of technology, and then some of that

flowing back. So quote the metal work utilized in the Tang dynasty sensor is a consequence of the chasing and hammering techniques taught to the Chinese by this Sanian goldsmiths of Persia, while the culture of burning incense is from Indian Buddhism. So there are various beautiful examples of where you can look up the Chinese examples of these incense

spirits that you can also find some wonderful examples. For example, included a picture here for you, Joe, of one of these that was apparently forged in Damascus around the thirteenth century, and you can see like the elegant script in here.

make as much sense. But once you're crafting these beautiful globes of like silver and bronze and so forth in there, you can imagine them emitting this a sweet smelling smoke. It like kind of takes on a life of its own. Now, another example that came up in the research here is

the pathechion. This is an example of a gimbal in action, and we have references to a device called the pathekion or little ape as it is often translated in a second century text on siege craft titled on Machines by an author that is referred to by historians as Athanaeus Mechanicus.

also some alternative theories as well. Again, this was a common name, and apparently some of the dating of it is based on the book's preface, which references one Marcellus, and according to historian David Whitehead, this causes the dating of the text to oscillate from as early as the late third century BCE to the mid third century CE, but and anyway, the Slucia idea would date this to

mid to late first century BCE. Okay Whitehead here, along with pH blythe they're responsible for a two thousand and for translation of the On Machines text. So anyway, regardless on which Athenaeus wrote it and when exactly during this time period it was written, the book is largely concerned with siege machinery, and it's not that long of a text either. But later in the work, the author does

make mention of the pathechion or the little ape. Whitehead describes it as follows in the twenty fifteen paper Athenaeus Mechanicus for the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Quote a device perhaps involving nets or gimbals, for stabilizing ship born machines when they are deployed in choppy c's.

of the ships. That's one interpretation that I've seen, but I'm not sure about that. The quote from the text from All Machines says you, quote, you must fix the pathechion on the platform attached to the merchant ships in the middle, so that the machine stays upright in any angle.

in the use of siege weapons. But of course gimbals are very useful in the mounting of modern weapons, like of machine gun turrets and stuff like that, or if they're within like a ship or an airplane or something, they can be mounted within gimbals in order to stabilize for aiming purposes, because otherwise, like you're trying to aim while the ground or the housing is rocking all over the place.

siege weapons, but not the siege weapon itself. Yeah, And when I looked around for more examples, more descriptions of what the Pathechion would have looked like, indeed why it is compared to an ape. I wasn't able to find much I was looking at. In one case, I was

reading about deck based weapons. I was looking at the Navies of Rome by Michael Patassi, and they mentioned that during the war between Caesar and POMPEII, the later constructed three story towers the top merchant ships and mounted artillery on them and use these against Caesar's blockade, just as an example of something that the Romans would have done with merchant ships in some sort of a combat scenario. But there's no mention of gimbel technology in that book

as far as I could tell. And he does cite a text by Athenaeus at one point, or by Unathenaeus. But yeah, so I wasn't really able to find much in the way of answers about exactly what the little ape was achieving. But it seems based on all these other examples, it seems like we would probably be talking about a way to keep some sort of measurement tool steady as opposed to some sort of large catapult or crossbow or what have you. Okay, I did find a

wonderful illustration though this was used. I think this was in Huang's article. It could be mistaken on that, but it's a drawing from fifteen sixty seven by Jacques Bisson's book Let's say, what is this li Cosmo LABU le cosmo lab le cosmo LB. But it's a wonderful illustration of a ship. And we see this fascinating and I have a hard time imagining if this was ever built either.

But we see like a table and chair like basically of the little desk, a little office mounted inside this large sphericle gimbal system that it takes up a large portion of the ship in this illustration.

the gimbal, and then nobody will get sick. And maybe the reality is probably a bit different from that.

If you're not familiar, Rob and I we've been doing this podcast for a while, but we started doing it long ago under the auspices of a website called how Stuff Works. So in this short little article, Jonathan highlights a number of different uses of gimbals by NASA. For example, a harness mounted within a gimbal system is sometimes used

to simulate spacewalks during astronaut training. So you want to get astronauts used to, you know, the different ways that their body will sort of float around and reorient smoothly in space if they're trying to do say, external repairs on a spacecraft or something. Of course, the gimbals will not remove the influence of Earth's gravity, but they will simulate other aspects of of space walking, the way that you can change your body's orientation in any direction in space.

And then of course there are lots of other uses within spacecraft and the mechanical parts, So like you might have motorized gimbals to orient solar panels to keep facing the sun even as the position of a space station changes. Of course, there are detectors and sensors. For example, an instrument called the inertial measurement unit, which is a sort of mechanical inner ear. It measures the orientation of a spacecraft.

So pitch, roll and yaw, and it also measures acceleration, and I guess this also highlights different ways that gimbals can be used. I mean, most of the gimbals we've been talking about have been free rotating gimbals that are supposed to allow, say a platform to keep its orientation with respect to the Earth's gravity no matter how the outer housing moves. So in that case it would just be the goal of the different gimbals in the card an suspension or the or you know, even just one

or two gimbals. The purpose would just be that they can rotate easily and freely smooth movement to allow a naturally gravity oriented platform to stay as it is. But you can also, of course create motorized gimbals if you want to intentionally maintain the orientation of a central object or platform with some kind of external control mechanism, and gimbal systems like this have proven very useful for cameras.

So imagine you are trying to shoot something, keep something in focus, keep a subject of a frame in focus while the camera itself is moving. You're shooting moving video. If you just hold a camera and then you walk or run. If you ever tried this, rob like you will often be very dissatisfied with the results. There's a lot of jostling.

body around. Oh yeah, there's some really fun videos of this, including one that I'm not sure if this was an April Fool's video or not, but it's a parody in which they're saying, well, we've discovered the ultimate for photography and film making gimbals. We just put a little camera on top of the chicken's head and then use the chicken as the gimbal, which I thought was very, very funny. Now, not only can you keep things stable with this kind of a layout, you can also, of course just mess

with whatever is strapped in the middle. Particularly, I'm thinking of those various gyroscope mounting systems. You would see these sometimes like carnivals. I remember seeing these perhaps a carnivals or in sort of like carnival type towns where you could come up, you paid your money, and they would strap you into one of these things and just spin you around. I think sometimes there's a virtual reality headset

that is employed in these. And of course, if you have ever seen any kind of VR exploitation film, I'm particularly thinking of the lawnmower Man films here, but films like that, there's always going to be a scene where somebody puts some some sort of shiny jumpsuit, some VR goggles, and then they're put in some sort of like Neon Strobe light gyroscope or you know, or or gimbaled system and then they're spinning all over the place.

to build even a very simple cart. At what point? What point does it become practical to build some sort of gimbaled system to keep something steady? If there's not truly a practical reason for it.

let us know, send us your photos. We'd love to hear from. We would love to see them. In the meantime, will remind you that stuff to blow your mind at public Is It's core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and this stuff to blow your mind podcast feed. You'll find that feed wherever you get your podcasts these days and on Mondays we do listener mail. On Wednesdays we do a short form artifact or monster fact episode, and then

on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. That is a time for us to set aside most serious concerns and just talk about a weird film, and I have to say we didn't even think about the synergy between this episode and the movie that we're going to be discussing this Friday.