User:Spacepotato/Misuse of sources

Antikythera mechanism
This edit adds the following material to Antikythera mechanism: Similarly complex astronomical instruments were constructed by al-Biruni and other Muslim astronomers from the 11th century. The references given are "In search of lost time", Jo Marchant, Nature 444, #7119 (30 November 2006), pp. 534-538,, and "Archaeology: High tech from Ancient Greece", François Charette, Nature 444, #7119 (30 November 2006), pp. 551-552,. However, the first reference says that although some geared mechanisms were constructed during the medieval Arabic period, similar complexity to the Antikythera mechanism did not appear until later in western Europe. The reference also says that geared mechanisms were described (not constructed) by Al-Biruni: But ideas cannot be melted down, and although there are few examples, there is some evidence that techniques for modelling the cycles in the sky with geared mechanisms persisted in the eastern Mediterranean. A sixth-century AD Byzantine sundial brought to Wright at the Science Museum has four surviving gears and would probably have used at least eight to model the positions of the Sun and Moon in the sky. The rise of Islam saw much Greek work being translated into Arabic in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, and it seems quite possible that a tradition of geared mechanisms continued in the caliphate. Around AD 1000, the Persian scholar al-Biruni described a “box of the Moon” very similar to the sixth-century device. There’s an Arabic-inscribed astrolabe dating from 1221–22 currently in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, UK, which used seven gears to model the motion of the Sun and Moon. But to get anything close to the Antikythera Mechanism’s sophistication you have to wait until the fourteenth century, when mechanical clockwork appeared all over western Europe.... ("In Search of Lost Time", p. 537) The second reference is similar, stating that the device described by al-Biruni was simpler than the Antikythera mechanism: ...But the realization that this was the earliest-known device involving an arrangement of gear-wheels came only slowly. In fact, staggeringly, the Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated such object yet found from the ancient and medieval periods.... ...It was a long time before gearing mechanisms of this sophistication re-emerged, at least on the current archaeological record. Certain elements of the mechanism are encountered, albeit in much simpler design, in fifth-century Byzantium, and again in medieval Islam. The celebrated Persian scholar al-Biruni described, shortly before AD 1,000, a mechanical lunisolar calendar that was usually inserted within an astrolabe with displays on the back, and that approximated the Metonic cycle by means of eight gear-wheels (Fig. 2). An astrolabe from thirteenth-century Iran containing such a device is in the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford, UK... ...This tradition probably derives from ancient technology that was either an antecedent form or a later simplification of the Antikythera Mechanism. But it is equally obvious that much of the mindboggling technological sophistication available in some parts of the Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman world was simply not transmitted further. The gear-wheel had, in this case, to be reinvented.... ("High tech from Ancient Greece", pp. 551, 552.) In short, the sources contradict rather than support the claim.

Elephant clock
This edit adds the following material to the article Elephant clock, which deals with a water clock described in Al-Jazari's Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (written 1206): This was the first clock in which an automaton reacted after certain intervals of time. In the mechanism, a humanoid automata strikes the cymbal and a mechanical bird chirps, like in the later cuckoo clock, after every hour. This was the first mechanism to employ a flow regulator, which was used here to determine the time when the clock strikes at hourly intervals. The hourly intervals were determined with the use of a small opening in a submersible float, which was calibrated to give the required rates of flow under different water rates. This also appears to be the earliest example of a closed-loop system. The clock functioned as long as there were metal balls in its magazine. The source cited is "The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din", by Salim T. S. Al-Hassani. The same claims of invention were added to Inventions in medieval Islam in this edit, citing the same source: The elephant clock described by al-Jazari in 1206 is notable for several innovations. It was the first clock in which an automaton reacted after certain intervals of time (in this case, a humanoid robot striking the cymbal and a mechanical bird chirping), the first mechanism to employ a flow regulator, and the earliest example of a closed-loop system in a mechanism. In addition, similar claims were added to Timeline of historic inventions in this edit, but without citing any source:
 * 1206: Clock automaton: Al-Jazari
 * 1206: Flow control regulator: Al-Jazari
 * 1206: Closed-loop system: Al-Jazari

What does the source say? It does mention that the clock uses the devices and subsystems mentioned above, but does not say that this was the first use. Indeed, clock automata were used earlier, as described by Procopius in the 6th century: One forerunner of the Islamic monumental clocks is the great magic clock of Gaza described by Procopius in the first half of the 6th century A.D.... The clock was located in the center of the city; it was about 6 meters high and 2.7 meters wide, and performed a number of automatic mythological displays every hour. Hercules would fulfill one of his twelve labors, a Gorgon would roll her eyes, and the god Helios would appear.... (p. 28, The Origins of Feedback Control, Otto Mayr, MIT Press, 1970, ISBN 126213067X.) Flow regulation and a closed-loop control system also appeared earlier in the Pneumatica of Hero of Alexandria (Mayr, pp. 19-26.) So, the claims that these devices and subsystems were used in the elephant clock for the first time are unsupported by the source and are incorrect.

The first glass factory?
This edit added the following claims to Factory: The first industrial complex for glass and pottery production was built in Ar-Raqqah, Syria, in the 8th century. Extensive experimentation was carried out at the complex, which was two kilometres in length, and a variety of innovative high-purity glass were developed there. Two other similar complexes have also been discovered, and nearly three hundred new chemical recipes for glass are known to have been produced at all three sites. The first glass factories were thus built by Muslim craftsmen in the Islamic world. The first glass factories in Europe were later built in the 11th century by Egyptian craftsmen in Corinth, Greece. The sources quoted are "﻿Radical changes in Islamic glass technology: evidence for conservatism and experimentation with new glass recipes from early and middle Islamic Raqqa, Syria", J. Henderson et al., Archaeometry 46, #3 (August 2004), pp. 439-468,, and "Transfer of Islamic technology to the West: Part III: Technology Transfer in the Chemical Industries: Transmission of Practical Chemistry Technology Transfer in the Chemical Industries", by Ahmad Y Hassan. The same claims were added to Inventions in medieval Islam in this edit. Also, similar claims were added to Timeline of historic inventions, using the first source, in this edit, and to Timeline of science and engineering in the Islamic world, using the first source, in this edit: Unfortunately, the edits show a lack of understanding of the sources they are based on.
 * 700s: Glass factory in Syria
 * 700s: Pottery factory in Syria
 * 700s - [glass, pottery] The first industrial factory complex for glass and pottery production is built in Ar-Raqqah, Syria. Extensive experimentation is carried out at the complex, which is two kilometres in length, and a variety of innovative high-purity glass are developed there. Two other similar complexes are also built, and nearly three hundred new chemical recipes for glass are produced at all three sites.
 * Source #1 does discuss an "industrial complex", but this term is meant in the archaeological sense:"The Raqqa Ancient Industry Project is an interdisciplinary investigation of a 2 km long, eighth to 12th century extramural Islamic industrial complex associated with the city of al-Raqqa...The industrial complex consists of up to 7 m of stratified material and was a centre for the manufacture of glazed and unglazed pottery, and of glass. Rescue excavations at six sites have revealed an eighth to ninth century glass workshop (see below), large-scale evidence of the destroyed remnants of several eighth to ninth, 11th and 12th century glass tank furnaces, and the remains of 14 eighth to ninth century pottery kilns, including two for the production of moulded wares. (Henderson et al., pp. 440-441)"The complex consists of rubble which accumulated over centuries from a variety of sources; the source does not, as the edits imply, describe a single large structure built at one time in the 8th century.
 * Source #1 does not say that there were around 300 chemical recipes used to make glass, but rather, it gives chemical analyses of around 300 samples of glass which were found at the site. (Henderson et al., Table 1)  The analysis was done by electron microprobe. Different samples may have been produced by the same recipe and indeed the authors group the samples into just a few main types.
 * Source #1 does not say that two similar complexes have also been discovered; it discusses two excavated sites, Tell Zujaj and Tell Fukhkhar, within the complex. (Henderson et al., p. 441)
 * Source #1 does not say that the al-Raqqa complex was the first glass factory, or the first industrial complex for glass and pottery production.
 * Source #2 does say that Egyptians built some glass factories in the 11th century in Greece, but does not say that they were the first glass factories in Europe. (In fact, glass was produced continuously in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance.  See pp. 18 ff., Glass: a world history, Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin, ISBN 0226500284.)