Hydraulics

Hydraulic topics range through some parts of science and most of engineering modules, and they cover concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, fluidics, and fluid control circuitry.

[9][7][10] The earliest evidence of water wheels and watermills date back to the ancient Near East in the 4th century BC,[11] specifically in the Persian Empire before 350 BCE, in the regions of Iraq, Iran,[12] and Egypt.

Zhang Heng was the first to employ hydraulics to provide motive power in rotating an armillary sphere for astronomical observation.

[18] Macro- and micro-hydraulics to provide for domestic horticultural and agricultural needs, surface drainage and erosion control, ornamental and recreational water courses and retaining structures and also cooling systems were in place in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.

[19] In Greco-Roman Egypt, the construction of the first hydraulic machine automata by Ctesibius (flourished c. 270 BC) and Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 – 80 AD) is notable.

Hero describes several working machines using hydraulic power, such as the force pump, which is known from many Roman sites as having been used for raising water and in fire engines.

At least seven long aqueducts worked it, and the water streams were used to erode the soft deposits, and then wash the tailings for the valuable gold content.

[21][22] In the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and Arab Agricultural Revolution (8th–13th centuries), engineers made wide use of hydropower as well as early uses of tidal power,[23] and large hydraulic factory complexes.

By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from Al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.

The first music sequencer was an automated water-powered flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described in their Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century.

[30] In 1619 Benedetto Castelli, a student of Galileo Galilei, published the book Della Misura dell'Acque Correnti or "On the Measurement of Running Waters," one of the foundations of modern hydrodynamics.

[33][citation needed] Several cities developed citywide hydraulic power networks in the 19th century, to operate machinery such as lifts, cranes, capstans and the like.