Drebbel in China
Drebbel’s 德爾貝 Telescope in China ?
Around the year 1600, from Europe, some Jezuits arrive in Beijing. Their aim: conversion of the app. 200 million Chinese to Christianity. They follow their trusted tactics, start from the top, with the emperor and his wife. When they are converted, the rest will follow. In China, the conversion did not work, but the emperor was quite interested in the scientific goodies, the Jezuits brought with them. Like the triangular measurement, the telescope, the Yuanjingshuo, which is the Chinese translation of the Look-far-ahead. With the telescope, the observations of the galaxies improved substantially. Much to the dismay of the Chinese astronomers. The telescope, the Jezuits brought with them might have been made by Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633) from Alkmaar. It is certain that in Rome, from where these Jezuits came, telescopes and micros-copes, made by Drebbel, were sold by Jacob Kuffeler, the brother of Drebbels’ two sons-in-law. In November 1622 Jacob dies in Rome from the plague, while on a business trip with Drebbel’s instruments…… The Chinese might also have been familiar with Drebbel’s feed back control system.
Source: Illustrations and Explanations of Wonderful Machines www.wdl.org/en/item/7104
Description
Qi qi tu shuo (Illustrations and explanations of wonderful machines) is the first Chinese translation of a work that introduced Western mechanics and machine engineering to China. It was dictated by Deng Yuhan and recorded and translated by Wang Zheng (1571–1644). Deng Yuhan was the Chinese name of Johann Terrenz (1576-1630), a Jesuit missionary who was born in Konstanz, Germany and came to China in the late Ming era. A talented man with wide-ranging knowledge, Terrenz mastered many languages and was also a renowned physician, botanist, and astronomer. Early on, he worked in the area of Zhejiang Province. He was then summoned to Beijing to assist Xu Guangqi in the revision of the calendar, but he died on May 13, 1630, before the work was finished. Wang Zheng, a native of Jingyang, Shaanxi Province, converted to Catholicism at the age of 52 and took the name Philippe. Interested in applied technology, Wang saw the 7000-volume collection of Western books brought to China by Jin Nige (Nicolaus Trigault, 1577–1628), among which were books on science and technology with finely printed illustrations, from which he could envision how to construct pieces of equipment. He asked for help from Terrenz, who made use of works by Vitruvius, Simon de Bruges, Georgius Agricola, Agostino Ramelli, and others. While Terrenz went through the books, giving explanations, Wang made notes. Terrenz used more than 50 illustrations, depicting machines for lifting, moving, and shifting heavy weights; machines for diverting water, turning millstones, and cutting wood, stone, and rocks; and such devices as a sundial and a fire engine. The translated texts were issued in three volumes. All the illustrations were annotated, with those relating to irrigation for agriculture being especially detailed. The earliest edition of the book was printed in the first year of the Chongzhen reign (1628) of the last Ming emperor, by Wu Weizhong, an assistant instructor at the Confucian school in Yangzhou. The work’s original title was Yuan Xi qi qi tu shuo lu zui (The best illustrations and descriptions of extraordinary devices of the Far West) and it was printed together with Wang Zheng’s Zhu qi tu shuo (Illustrations of various devices).
又再一次取得相同發明的專利，其設計酷似希羅在十七個世紀前設計的老古董（圖六）。漂浮式調節器很快贏得普遍的賞識，視為鍋爐給水的一種方法。今天它更是廣泛的應用到各種場合。恆溫器沒有很古老的歷史。它的第一個原始型式出現在十七世紀初，是荷蘭工程師德爾貝來（Cornelis Drebbel）所發明的，他那時已移居到英國。他設計這個器械的主要目的是用在煉金術（alchemy）上；他相信要是能把煉金的溫度，長時間保持穩定，就能把基本金屬變成金子。德爾貝來的裝置基本上是個盒子，底部是火爐，再上面有一根內裝空氣或酒精的管子，管的一端有U形頸，這部份裝填水銀（圖七）。當盒內溫度升高時，內管中空氣或酒精蒸汽的壓力增加，就把水銀向上頂，進而推舉一根桿子，藉機械力關閉節氣閘，使火勢減低。反過來說，若溫度比所需的低，汽壓減小，水銀下降，機械聯桿就使節氣閘開得大點。德爾貝來的裝置不僅可做熔化試驗，還能使孵卵器維持一定溫度。他這個調溫器的操作似乎相當良好，使許多倫敦皇家學會的會員，包括波義耳(Robert Boyle）列恩 (ChristopherWren)，與晚一輩的虎克（Robert Hooke)
Vertaling:. De thermostaat.
Het eerste oorspronkelijke type verscheen in de 17e eeuw, gemaakt door de Nederlandse ingenieur Delbert (CornelisDrebbel). Hij emigreerde naar het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Hij belangrijkste doel van dit apparaat, dat werd gebruikt in de alchemie was om de temperatuur voor een lange tijd te stabilseren. Delbert apparaat is eigenlijk een box, op de bodem een vuurtje/haard en met ingebouwde luchtbuizen, gevuld met alcohol. Een uiteinde van de buis is een U-vormige hals, deels gevuld met kwik (Figuur 7). Wanneer de oven temperatuur toeneemt, wordt in de de binnenbuis door de toename van de druk van de lucht of alcohol de kwik-damp omhoog gebracht, waardoor door een palletje de mechanische kracht wordt omgezet om de kleppen te sluiten. Omgekeerd; als de temperatuur hoger is dan de vereiste lage dampdruk, dan daalt het kwik en openen de mechanische verbindings-kleppen. De Delbert apparaat werd niet alleen gebruikt bij het smelten, maar ook om een bepaalde constante temperatuur, in een broedmachine te handhaven. De thermostaat bediening werkte heel goed; veel leden van de Royal Society of London, met inbegrip van Boyle (Robert Boyle), Len (Christopher Wren), en van latere generatie, Hooke (Robert Hooke) gebruikten het apparaat.
