Al-Jazari

Engineer to the Artuqid court and author of The Compendium of Theory and Useful Practice in the Making of Machines, the clearest illustrated engineering book of its era. He invented the famous elephant clock for the king, rare automatons (robot servants pouring water, a lion shaking its head), a programmable machine with pegged cylinders playing a melody, and described for the first time the crankshaft principle — the mechanical heart of today's engines.