Field mill (carriage)

[4] Other mechanical figures included ten Daoists dressed in monastic robes who continually rotated around the Buddha while periodically bowing, saluting, and throwing incense into a censer.

[5] Xie and Wei created a similar device operated by wheel motion called the field mill, although it served a more practical purpose than the theatrical display of moving statues and water-spouting dragons.

[7] The Italian military engineer Pompeo Targone, who was most notably involved in the Siege of La Rochelle (1627-1628) in western France, invented the field mill in Europe by 1580.

[1] As shown in the Italian Vittorio Zonca's engineering treatise of 1607, two mills mounted to a wagon are rotated by a horse whim and gearing while in a stationary position at military camp or near billets.

[1] In the Yuanxi Qiqi Tushuo Luzui ('Collected Diagrams and Explanations of the Wonderful Machines of the Far West') compiled and translated in 1627 by German Jesuit Johann Schreck (1576–1630) and Ming Dynasty Chinese author Wang Zheng (王徵 1571–1644), a field mill is shown amongst other devices.