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We're never resting! Our representative, Mr. Ferrauto, will be visiting the TIB Trade Show at RomExpo, in Bucarest, October 5th to 7th , meeting new potential members for our network. If you're around, drop us a line and we'll arrange a meeting for you over a nice cup of coffee!

This coming summer, we'll head over to Asia once more, on yet another mission to bring new entrepreneurs in our Network and expand our range of possibilities. We've got quite a busy schedule - but we can always find a spot for a chat with one of our members!

Mr. Pirota and Mr. Ferrauto will be visiting Asia between June 23rd and July 2nd, stopping by Bangkok, Taipei, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. If you're in those areas, and would like to arrange for a meeting with them, drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com - we'll get you set!

The history of Industrial Automation, although it surely results from centuries of ideas, inventions and applications, has its definite beginning in Industrial Revolution England. Two centuries before the beginning of the Revolution, however, in the same Country, and in the very same field which gave a start to the Revolution itself - that of the textile Industry - a machine appeared which clearly foreshadowed the direction Industry was going to take: William Lee's Stocking Frame.

Knitted hoses and stockings - of course made by hand - were an essential piece of clothing in Tudor England, between 1500 and 1600. Men wore them of course, but so did women as well, under the long skirts in use at the time - an enormous market, where the manufacture of a pair of woolen stockings, hand-knit, took around four working days.

This is where William Lee, curate of the small town of Calverton, in England, comes onto the scene. According to legend, to free a girl he was courting from the massive hand-knitting work which took all of her time, more likely foreseeing the economic possibilities in the market,  Lee developed, step by step, a machine which exactly imitated the knitters' hand-movements, but at extraordinarily improved speed - in the end, up to twelve times faster. The Stocking Frame could manufacture enormous quantities of woollen stockings, and later, silken stockings as well - but paradoxically, this was the very reason which brought Queen Elizabeth the 1st to deny Lee a patent. The interests of the thousands of english Knitters and their Guilds would be severely endangered by a machine which could work so much faster, and the times, clearly, were not yet right. Lee had better fortune in France, where he subsequently moved, and managed to obtain a patent: unfortunately, though, his ambitions, and new factory in Rouen, were quashed by the growingly hostile local climate towards his nationality and religion. Lee died, in great distress, in Paris, in 1614.

Despite his misfortune, William Lee thus stands, with his Stocking Frame, as one of the immediate precursors of that world-shaking event that was the Industrial Revolution - the event from which much of our modern world stemmed, surely including our work with Automation. The hooked shape of the needles in his machine is still identical today, four centuries later, in modern knitting machines; and so is his guiding principle of inventing, and constantly improving, machines such as those which move our Industry, every day.

Our recent mission to the Baltic Countries has proven intense, and very satisfying. We're happy to say that, once more, we met with exceptional local entrepreneurs who loved the idea of our Network. Let us all welcome together our new members with a virtual applause!

Our representative for the French-speaking areas, Mr. Ceresa, will be visiting Casablanca nest week, on the 25th and 26th of May. His schedule is quite tight, but should any of you be in the area and desire to meet with him, feel free to drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com - we'll be happy to try and arrange for you to have a chat!

Nowadays more than ever before, atmospheric pollution on our planet brings us to consider with growing attention the importance of developing methods for generation and exploitation of energy which pollute little, or ideally not at all. But the invention we'll be discussing this time - although it surely deserves to define itself as "absolutely not polluting" - was not born of this noble goal, but came from the far more practical issue of not having any cheaper energy sources than the wind itself.

The mind, and hand, behind this particular invention are those of an Italian man, Guido da Vigevano, a true genius of the fourteenth century who is a precursor in some ways, like the broadness of his interests, of the far more famous Leonardo. Guido da Vigevano was, indeed, both a doctor (and a brave experimenter, since he describes in his writings how he long studied an efficacious antidote, to the point of testing the substance on himself) and an engineer, especially for military applications, always studying new methods to build war machines - the 14th century is still a time of great castles and long sieges - so that they were light-weighted and could even be easily disassembled, so that pack animals could carry them.

But a pack animal is expensive, it must be fed, it grows tired, it can be wounded, and it could panic at a key moment. And probably while reflecting on this problem, Guido da Vigevano
 invented and described what is probably the oldest ancestor of our modern cars: the wind wagon.

More than a car, this vehicle, with its twenty-five feet of length, was probably supposed to serve the functions of a van, and carry soldiers "propelled by the wind with no draft animals, dashing violently on open land to the confusion of all troops"; thus does his inventor present his machine, and everything leads us to think it must have been intended as quite the impressive sight.

The technology we can study in the original designs, although these are quite difficult to interpret (it's 1335, and nobody has, as yet, invented linear perspective: there are no clear ways yet to precisely represent a solid object on the surface of a parchment) clearly betrays its inspiration, which is anyways clearly presented in written descriptions: we're talking of another essential technology of the time, that of the windmill. And the very arms of this "windmill on wheels" were supposed to move the central shaft, which would carry movement to the wheels and thus propel the entire vehicle. The turret itself, besides hosting this "engine", would protect and contain soldiers as they were rapidly deployed. And for windless days, a concern which couldn't be ignored, Guido imagined a manual engine system, where the passengers themselves, sheltered within the turret, would move the shaft and thus the wagon - a mechanism we shall find again, with improvements, in Leonardo's "armored tank".

Time! No other concept is as elusive and at the same time as essential, and for this reason, so fascinating; and measuring it, precisely and constantly, has been a challenge for several centuries. Today, we shall see an extraordinary solution to this need - an automatic clock dating back to the golden period of Arab Automation, between 1100 and 1200 AD.

The mechanism is the work of a figure holding a place of capital importance in the history of Arab engineering: Al-Jazari, chief engineer at Artuklu Palace and author of the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, an essential work in the history of automation and robotics. And it certainly cannot be said that the Elephant clock puts such a famous father to any shame!

The way the Clock looks is surely eye-catching; a huge statue of an elephant, driven by its Mahout. On the beasts's back, a tower rises, and at its top, another figure looks out. A snake, or perhaps a dragon, is climbing its way up the tower; and on the roof roosts a large bird, perhaps the legendary phoenix.
The heartof the mechanism, however, is a simple water reservoir, hidden inside the elephant. In this water, a bowl with a hole floats - and of course, slowly fills up with water, and is calibrated to sink exactly after half an hour. And at that moment, the clock's mechanisms activate:

- in sinking, the bowl pulls on strings, which release a heavy metal sphere in the Dragon's mouth. In turn, this figure tips ahead, thus pulling the bowl back up at floating level, and resetting the system;
- meanwhile, a second system of strings acts on the figure at the top of the tower, causing it to lift its right or left hand, whether the clock is chiming a half hour or a full one;
- at the same time, the elephant driver, or mahout, strikes its drum, and the phoenix on the roof chirps - much like in modern cuckoo clocks;
- in the end, the dragon tips back to its original position; the system is fully reset and recharged.

The whole cycle repeats, automatically and precisely, as long as the special reservoir contains metal spheres to power its movement. But it holds even greater value to consider how the mechanism provided for a daily regulation, in order to take into account the varying length of the day throughout the year; to do this, a second water reservoir was linked to the first one, through a flow control regulator: a submersible float calibrated to ensure that the system beat at exact hours, every day. This a system which will be extremely popular, for example in the boilers of steam engines - but this only during the Industrial Revolution, in the eighteenth century, more than five hundred years later!

Mr. TERRY CHIAH is the Sales Manager of Four Star Enterprises, a company founded in 1990 and based in Singapore. With a mission to supply control and monitoring products to a large customer base such as the Packaging, Oil and Gas, and Lift and Marine Industry, FSE has joined the B4 Network in 2010.

Four Star Enterprises deals in products from several important brands, such as Red Lion and Electro-Sensors: this allows them to deal in high-end technology, and thus act as an efficient supplier for a varied range of industries, ranging from generic Factory Automation to high technical content Process Industries, like Oil and Gas.

FSE, and Mr. Kamal, can be found at their website, www.fse.com.sg. Pay them a visit and welcome them to our Network!

It was 2007 when Intech Automazione created, and became the first member of, the B4 Network. 4 years later, today, we are a mighty network numbering around 300 members, and just a few days ago we hit an important mark - ONE THOUSAND OFFER REQUESTS. In four years, counting holidays, it practically means not a single day has gone by, on average, without a request being made.

We couldn't have got here without you all. And we're not going to stop here. We'll keep finding new Companies to join and empower our Network; we'll keep devising new and better tools for us all to use; we'll invent new ways we can put our numbers and competences to work.

But today, a "thank you" is due to you all, from the first to join to the new members who only learned of us a couple weeks ago.

Thank you. Fasten your seat belts and stay with us - a journey of a thousand steps is just the beginning.

Dear members,

 it's March, and this means the important appointment of the Istanbul WIN Trade Show is closing in. Of course we'll be visiting, and although our schedule is already quite busy, we'll be sure to find some time to meet any of you who are in the area. Mr. Pirota and Mr. Ferrauto, our representatives, will be visiting the WIN Trade Show  between March 19th and March 20th: if you're around, drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com, and we'll be glad to meet and chat about business!

 See you in Istanbul!

Although it can be something of a sobering thought, it must be recognized that often, throughout History, the push for technological innovation - not least in Automation - came from needs of a warlike nature. This is the case with the incredible machine we shall discuss today: the Polybolos, or repeating catapult, the invention of which, by the texts we have available, can be dated around the third century BC.

Described within the writings of Philo of Bysantium, also known as Philo Mathematicus, Greek engineer and author famous for his Compendium of Mechanics, where he covered topics from Maths to Sieges, and more exotic ones like Cryptography, the invention of the Polybolos is attributed to Dionysius of Alexandria, who worked as an engineer in the third century BC at the Arsenal of Rhodes - an island famous throughout ancient Greece for the quality of its engineers, who were celebratedfor their mechanisms and automata (so much so that Myth  expressed this through the well-known "Colossus of Rhodes", a gigantic artificial man). And actually, although we have no archaeological proof that it was ever used in battle, the Polybolos is undoubtedly a device of extraordinary design.

Built to shoot lethal arrows twenty inches long (which, when raining down after being thrown, could penetrate shields and armors and literally pin a man to the ground), the device is distinguished among its peers by a unique conception: that of avoiding reloading operations after every single shot. Dionysius designed a vertical magazine, filled with missiles, which could be reloaded without suspending fire - and most of all, he designed the mechanisms which allowed the Polybolos (literally "which throws many darts") to load and fire with the simple turning (in alternate sense according to some experts, and in a continuous fashion according to others) of a crank. Inside the machine, a mechanism received the dars from the magazine one by one, and at the same time, through a chain, it put the bowstring back in tension; and if it is extraordinary to think that this is the first application of the flat-link chain, the invention of which is usually attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, and on which transmission in bicycles and motorcycles is based today, it surely is almost incredible, when comparing the mechanisms, to discover that Dyonisius' is practically identical to that used in the first machine gun in History, the Gatling gun, which was patented in 1862 - more than two thousand years later!

This weapon's rate of fire has been calculated to be around five shots per minute, certainly insignificant if compared to that of modern automatic firearms, but probably terrifying at the time - even too far ahead of its times, since aiming speed couldn't match firing speed, and the device ended up repeatedly hitting  already downed targets. But the most amazing thing was probably its precision: at the beginning of the twentieth century, the German scholar and artillery officer Erwin Schramm built a reconstruction of the Polybolos and tested it in front of the Kaiser. On that occasion, the mechanism invented more than two thousand years earlier by Dionysius managed to do the unbelievable, and shot with such precision that a second dart shattered in half the one just shot a few seconds earlier!

Mr. Pirota has returned from his 2-week international mission, which first brought him to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and, following that, to Dubai. The mission has been a great success!

 We have met local entrepreneurs and discussed the concepts and merits of the B4 network: and we're glad to welcome FIVE new members from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and THREE new members from Dubai!

We'll soon let you know where we'll go next. In the meanwhile, keep up the great work and keep those requests coming. As always, Go B4!

Dear members,

Just a quick ntoe to keep you updated... Mr. Pirota isn't yet back from his mission in Bosnia and Serbia, and already we're preparing for his next mission, next week - this time we're going to Dubai! So stay tuned for news on the new entrepreneurs who'll be joining our Network - and of course, if you're around Dubai next week, drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com, and we'll gladly have a chat over a cup of coffee!

Mr. AHMED KAMAL is the General Manager of United Automatic Control, an Egyptian Company founded in 2009. With a mission to supply high-quality products at competitive prices, UAC deals both locally and internationally - with a particular focus on the Arab Gulf area, especially Saudi Arabia.  Mr. Kamal and UAC have joined the B4 Network at the end of 2010.

United Automatic Control has a varied and interesting Brand Mix, featuring among others Lenze, Telemecanique, Vacon and Parker - which allows to deal in a wide range of products, from AC Inverters and Motors to PLCs to Photoelectric and Load cells... and much, much more. Due to this large product basket diversification , UAC can both effectively supply products for Industrial Automation, locally and overseas, and design Machine upgrades for their customers.

UAC, and Mr. Kamal, can be found at their website, www.uacegypt.com. Pay them a visit and welcome them to our Network!

Happy new year, B4!

You know us and you know there's nothing better for us than finding new members to expand our Network. And true to our tradition, we're starting off this 2011 with yet another mission! Our Founder and CEO of Before, Mr. Paolo Pirota, will be meeting new entrepreneurs and presenting the B4 philosophy to them in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina between January 31st and February 4th. When returning from Belgrade and Sarajevo, we're sure we'll have some new members to introduce to you all!

Even more so than an engineer, an artist, an inventor – even more so than a genius, Leonardo da Vinci was an extraordinary dreamer. He saw possibilities where his contemporaries saw nothing, and he always knew how to think outside the box to overcome obstacles. For this reason, and as a tribute to such intellectual courage, we want to dedicate today’s issue, which closes this first series on Automation’s ancient history, to a couple projects he only dreamt of – but which were truly amazing. We’ll discuss the Mechanical Man and the Flying Machine.

The Mechanical Man was supposed to be contained, judging by the designs, inside one of the heavy plate armors which were common in the 1500s. Those who have been following us from the beginning of this ride through history may perhaps remember the Banu Musa’s Flute Player, or even more Al-Jazari’s Boat of Automaton Musicians: well, where these automatons had an extremely specific function, for which movement, and humanoid shape, were more of an aesthetic and showmanship decision than a functional one, Leonardo’s Automaton was designed to move, in all regards, exactly as a real man. And to this purpose, which he could only set as a goal thanks to his extreme knowledge of the human body, its proportions, and the mechanics of its movement, Leonardo did not devise a simple jointed structure, but one where joints were cunningly connected and dependant on each other, so that they could harmoniously move the different body parts, allowing for walking, moving the arms, even opening and closing the mouth.  He even included a system of percussions inside the chest, so that his creation could have a rudimentary “voice”. Leonardo’s automaton, thus, was not designed for show, or as a curiosity, but to be of real support to man, and take part in physically demanding endeavors.

The other, great dream, that of giving man the ability to fly, must have been with Leonardo ever since he was no more than a child, if we must judge by how often he would quote the anecdote describing how, as an infant, an eagle had set upon his cradle. What we can be sure of is that the very thought of flight was an obsession to him, and that he penned, and drew, hundreds of papers studying the flight of birds, the movement and structure of their wings, which always were his model; although he did design a helicopter, a gigantic propeller which was supposed to “screw” into air and lift a tiny platform (a perfectly valid principle, since it’s the same which allows our helicopters to actually fly), true human flight to Leonardo always equated to a “beating wing” mechanism. And perhaps one of the greatest obstacles he encountered in trying to obtain this goal was the lack of suitable materials (as happened many times during his life), strong and light enough to allow him to apply the principles which he saw in Nature around him.

Of course, we have no idea of what Leonardo would say of the incredible devices we use today, and of the world we have created. But we like to imagine that, to a mind like his, they would be springboards to even newer, greater dreams.

Our good friend Leonardo truly had few, if any, limits to the applications of his engineering genius.

If indeed, as we said,  his favorite projects were those in which his science was put to use to ease work, to help with a practical need, or simply to solve a problem with no apparent solution, we must not forget that Leonardo was not rich, and that he worked for clients who did, sure, finance arts and culture, but at the same time lived a political situation of constant strife, where war was a daily occurrence. And for this reason, very often, instead of asking him to develop a new method for treating cloth, or devise a way to build a larger and stronger bridge than any other ever built before, Leonardo’s clients asked him to invent weapons, and instruments of war. And though it might not be his favorite activity, his genius shines through in these projects as well.

Let us start with a project most of us may have seen depicted, for example: among Leonardo’s papers, we can find drawings of an actual war carriage, ancestor to the modern tank. Under a solid conical protection, soldiers could approach enemy lines, activating the vehicle’s wheels from the inside, through a system of cranks, while shooters could activate the cannons mounted on the carriage against enemies, in complete safety. It was, by the way, when studying a reconstruction of this project that historians discovered how Leonardo would often deliberately include imprecisions in his designs, which would make them useless to any who did not know how to rectify them. In the case of this tank, for example, had the vehicle been built exactly as designed, it would have spun in place, unable to move forward even by an inch; but the simple inversion of a gear would make it completely functional. A safety measure similar to writing backwards, which we often find in his papers.

And though his inventions were at times more scenic than practical – let us remember his giant crossbow, with a seventy-five foot bow, whose respectable power was immediately nullified by its size, which made it practically impossible to move and aim during battles – let us not forget that, in the era that saw the birth of fire powder, Leonardo invented the nose-cone shaped projectile (the same shape we use for missiles today), because it proves most effective in defeating air resistance;  and still in those same papers, we find drawings of bombards shooting powerful cluster projectiles. All for what he himself calls, in his writings, “a most bestial folly”: war.

We don’t want to close our discussion on Leonardo – and our journey through the ancient history of Automation – on such a sad note. So we’ll dedicate our next post to the discussion of one more item about Leonardo – his dreams.

Vasari wrote this about our man:
“He made drawings of mills, fullers, and devices, which could move under the power of water. [...]and every day did he make models, and drawings so that mountains could be easily climbed, and drilled through, to move from one level to another, and by way of levers, and pulleys, and screws he proved how great weights could be lifted and pulled: and ways of emptying harbors, and pipes to drain waters from low places; of which thoughts and endeavors, many are scattered among our art works in many drawings, and many I have personally seen.”

After such a long journey through time and space, from ancient Greece, to an almost legendary China, to Arabia of story and tale, we have reached the European  Renaissance and one of its hearts: Italy. And to welcome us, we find THE inventor , the genius, the Renaissance man by definition: Messere Leonardo da Vinci.  Such was his ingenuity that we shall only name a few of its applications, a scant number of his projects; and even so, it will take us several posts, just to give the man a small part of his due.

Today, then, we shall start by the scientific and civilian applications of Leonardo’s work, such as those Vasari quotes in admiration in his “Lives” between an anecdote and a quotation. Although it must be remembered that, at the time, no patents and no copyright existed, which makes it very difficult to deduce which of Leonardo’s inventions actually went into common use, we know for sure that Leonardo built, for example, an automated coil wrapper, a machine to test the tension resistance of metallic wire, and an apparatus to grind lenses – where a single gear rotates at a fixed speed both the plane where the lens is resting and the grindstone itself. After all, Leonardo is first and foremost a master of Mechanics; more proof of this can be found in his work on boats. He dedicated much time to the problem of making navigation faster and simpler, and he designed a gear system which, activated by human muscular force, would multiply it, by acting on rotating paddles, until a speed of eighty kilometers per hour could be attained – an exceptional result, which would be reached in the 1800s by the great river barges.
But let us remember that there were many applications for Leonardo’s genius which were neither civilian nor pacifist. Often, his patrons  required him to develop not the channels and bridges which he dreamt of, (such as the 240-meter single span bridge which the Sultan of Istanbul couldn’t believe could be built, and refused) but weapons and siege machinery. And he built them, of course: but even so, he never revealed all that he knew, and had imagined. Let us bid goodbye with his own words for now:
“[the inventions by which I can remain a long time underwater, or without food] I will not publish and divulge, and the reason is man’s evil nature: for man would use them as means of destruction, sinking ships and their crews.”.

The stage for this unusual show is North Syria; the time, the thirteenth century.
The protagonist is shrouded in mistery. All we know is his name, Abu al-'Iz Ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari – and  we will call him by the last part of that, al-Jazari, which is a nickname indicating the place of his birth (a bit like the Italian “da Vinci”…)
And actually, the parallel doesn’t end at that. Just like the great Leonardo, al-Jazari was a genius in several fields, and showed interest in a wide number of different areas, ranging from astronomy, to mathematics, to art, to the one we’re most interested in – engineering, with all of its practical applications. As a descendant of a long tradition of artisans, and  as Chief Engineer at Artuklu Palace, he indeed proved great interest in the skill necessary to build his devices, far more, actually, than in the underlying theoretical principles which allowed for their functioning. And for this very reason, in his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, he emphasizes more than once, and with a certain pride too, how he personally built and tested each of the fifty designs he describes.
And that pride, by the way, is absolutely justified: if we browse the Book, we can make some truly surprising discoveries. Back in the thirteenth century, Al-Jazari described:
-    The camshaft – which only appears in mechanisms of European design two centuries later;
-    The segmental gear– which makes its entrance into regular application in Europe with the work of Francesco di Giorgio, a Senese Engineer of the sixteenth century;
-    A suction-pump for water raising – which was capable, thanks to a reciprocating piston system, of raising water to 13,6 meters – an efficiency superior to that of pumps built in Europe three centuries later…
But while all of these are certainly extraordinary inventions, the most fascinating facet of our character is certainly al-Jazari’s interest in robotics and automata. We want to end this brief article with his own words: this is an excerpt  from Chapter 4 of his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, describing his “Boat of Automata”, and we can truly imagine it in full operation… and remember, the sailors, the flute player and the servants al-Jazari mentions are ALL automata, each of which was capable of dozens of different gestures and expressions!

"The boat is set on the surface of a large body of water, and seldom does it stand still, because it keeps moving over the surface. During all of the time that it moves, the sailors move as well, as they are mounted on shafts, and their oars move it on the water untile about half an hour has passed. Then, for some time, the flute player plays his instrument, and the servants their own, so that all the people at the gathering can hear them. Then they fall silent, and the boat slowly moves for another half hour. After that, the Flute player once more gives his signal, and as the first time, the servants play again. The whole thing lasts no less than fifteen full cycles.”

The son of an Ex-bandit, later become personal Astrologer to a Caliph, and brother to a celebrated Astronomer and a famous Mathematician, Ahmad ibn Musa Ibn Shakir has the adventurous origins which definitely make him a character fit to be the a protagonist. And in fact, together with his two brothers, he worked (becoming an expert in Engineering) at the House of Wisdom, the colossal Baghdad library which was the center of knowledge and learning in ninth- century Islam.

And the three , known collectively as the “Banu Musa” , that is “the sons of Musa”, are the authors, singularly, of books which had extraordinary importance in the golden age of Arab science, either for Astronomy (Abu'Jafar Muhammad, who made the hypothesis that physical laws are the same in any point in the universe, and postulated the existence of a force attracting celestial bodies to one another – centuries before Newton), or for Geometry and Mathematics  (al-Hasan, who wrote a book on the properties of the Ellipse) and especially, together, with a particular contribution by our friend Ahmad, of an exceptional book, wherein they describe a hundred mechanisms, devices and automata, and which is titled The Book of Ingenious Devices.  
And we’re not talking about simple curiosities, or objects having a merely cursory interest: Automation research in ancient Arabia aimed most of all at obtaining practical goals, which could actually improve the quality of life of those interested. And actually, in the Book, we find designs which, for the Ninth century, border on Science Fiction:
    Flow controls through the use of valves
    Clamshell grabs, similar to those used in our modern dredgers
    A completely automated flute player (probably the first programmable machine ever built in human history: we’ll see an evolution of this idea next issue, with utterly amazing results)
    Gas Masks
    And last, but not least, an automated water organ, which played melodies following a program contained… on cylinders with raised pins, which, in rotating,activated the keys. Does that remind you of something? Like, say, music boxes, or the automated pianos seen in Western movies? Well, you’re perfectly right. That cylinder mechanism remained THE method of choice for automatic music reproduction – for ten centuries.

What do China, Automatic Looms, the Compass and Theatre have in common?
The answer is the character we’ll discuss in this post – and his name is Ma Jun.

Inventor, engineer, and Government officer in the China of 200 DC, Ma Jun is an extremely modern character: he conquered a position of fame and importance not through his wealth (he was, it seems, of humble origins) nor through his charms (he was described as being shy, and introverted), but thanks to the genius of his inventions. As we anticipated, one of his first projects was an automatic loom of a totally new conception: rather than the fifty pedals which were typical in the looms at the time, Ma Jun introduced a model which boasted no more than twelve – and yet, not only allowed for faster, better work, but also to weave patterns which had been, up to then, impossible.
But Ma Jun’s fame is more tightly tied to an object which was almost legendary in China at the time, an object which has been several times forgotten and reinvented during history: the “South-Pointing Chariot”, practically a movable, reliable compass. In Ma Jun’s time, it was considered a legend, a mythological object which could not actually be built, and when Ma Jun argued that it could actually be realized, he became the target of the jeers of a good part of the Court. But the Chariot COULD be built – and he did it: a cart carrying a statue which, thanks to a system of differential gears (which marks one of the first uses in history of this kind of gear) also was a perfectly functioning compass, whose arm always pointed South.

Yet, perhaps, another invention, which Ma Jun created as a gift for Emperor Wei, can impress us even more. When the Emperor asked if it was possible to make the puppets move in the miniature theatre that had been gifted to him, Ma Jun’s answer was a definite “yes”. Not only did he manufacture different, perfectly articulated puppets, making each capable of several movements: he built them linking each one to a gear which, when moved by a hidden water flow,  could animate the entire scene. To describe the result, let us give you an excerpt of a contemporary account:
“ … [Ma Jun] furthermore arranged images of singing-girls which played music and danced, and when a particular puppet came upon the scene, other wooden men beat drums and blew upon flutes… Government officials were in their offices… cocks were fighting, and all was continually changing and moving ingeniously with a hundred variations…”

We know little about China and the Orient: usually this mystery, this exotic air, are what fascinates us so much about the Far East.  Perhaps just for this reason it is even more incredibile to consider what incredibile results were attained, in 125 AD, by Chang Heng’s mechanical and engineering abilities. Astronomer, Poet, and Engineer, Chang Heng’s works are studied even today in Chinese schools, like Leonardo da Vinci’s are studied in Western schools. Among his masterpieces, one of the places of honor surely goes to a colossal, completely automated seismograph, capable of detecting the original direction o fan earthquake – up to 400 miles away! – which was surely a precious tool to organize a quick sending of rescue teams in the vast Chinese Empire. Nonetheless, for people in our business, who have more of an eye and appreciation for delicate, complex automations, his automatic astrolabe is perhaps even more interesting.

The astrolabe was a known instrument: it allowed to reproduce the position of celestial bodies on its tracks, to facilitate complex astronomical calculations. The peculiarity of Chang Heng’s astrolabe consisted in all the complex movements of each element of the astrolabe being controller by a series of precise gears – which were moved by the force of water, which animated the whole apparatus by regularly dripping. The system was so delicate and elegant that it is deemed to be the basis of all the work of ancient Chinese clockmakers, and that it may have led, seven centuries later, to the invention of the escapement.

Little, in our history and in our culture, does not find its first roots in ancient Greece. But probably, not many imagine Automation can have such distant origins…

Hero of Alexandria, Born around 10 AD, is proof to the contrary. Although his work on automation was, at the time, seen as little more than a game, a pastime, and most definitely something with no real practical application, among his most interesting inventions is the first example of a steam engine in history (an invention which would not resurface until the first Industrial revolution, in 1700!), the Aeolipile, o Aeolus’ sphere.

Today, however, we want to discuss a project of his that’s far more astonishing – a completely automated door. Built to be an entrance to a Temple, the door, as shown in the diagram, was activated by simply lighting a fire on the altar. The fire heated a metal rod, which brought to boil the liquid contained in an underground reservoir. Changed to steam, the liquid went through a tube and re-condensed into a bucket; the increased weight caused the container to pull on stout ropes, which rolled a pair of twin columns which slowly (and we imagine, with a certain air of grandeur) opened the temple doors. Yet more amazing, as the fire died out, and the rod cooled off, the difference in pressure in the reservoir called back the liquid – and a counterweight closed the temple doors, once again automatically.

Although the lack of practical technology was a severe obstacle to the perfect realization of his projects (nobody in the First Century AD had the tools needed to build even a simple piston and cylinder, as an example ) we can recognize Hero of Alexandria as one of the first Automation Designers. And all of this without photoelectric sensors!

... and although it's early to draw a complete balance of what the year's been like, we'd like to tell you members at least a little something, like how many we are, and where we are.

So, this New Year's Eve, if you like, make a toast to all the other members - you'll be toasting together with 273 other Companies in 55 Countries all over the world. 

 Cheers!

Next week, our Representative Mr. Ceresa and Junior Representative Mr. Rusconi will be visiting the ELECTRICX POWER trade Show, the leading event for Power and Energy in the Middle East and Africa, on Dec. 6th and 7th. Although they have quite a busy schedule of meetings with prospective new members, they'd be delighted to meet any of our members who happen to be visiting the Trade Show - so if you're there, drop us a line and we'll arrange for a quick cup of coffee!

Go B4!

Next week, our representative and Founder, Mr. Pirota himself, will be visiting Lebanon and Syria on a commercial mission, between November 29th and Dec 2nd.  Be ready to welcome some new members, and profit from their best conditions on their top Brands!

Just a quick note to welcome our new Vietnamese members! We're currently adding their profiles and introducing them to the system - we have a dozen new friends to trade with!

Welcome!

Back from summer holidays, we're already back to our international missions to find new members for the B4 network!

Between September the 15th and the 17th, our Founder Mr. Pirota will be at booth J10 of the Elenex Trade Show in Saigon - coexibiting with our first member, Intech Automazione, and looking for new potential partners in our worldwide network!

We'll let you know how the mission goes. Till then, Go B4!

We're just back from our mission to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore - where we welcomed  new, enthusiastic members to our Network - and we're already preparing our suitcases for another journey!

Mr. Pirota will be on a commercial mission to Argentina and Chile between June 19th and 26th, to meet new entrepreneurs and introduce them to the B4 Network idea. If you've got time, and you're in the area, how about meeting up with him? it would be a wonderful occasion to chat a bit about our businesses, and see how we can do some good work together!

Drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com - we'll find a spot for you in Mr. Pirota's schedule!

For a few months now, we've been sending out our newsletter, The B4 Times! Offering a different, fun look at our world, that of Automation, we believe the B4 Times can become a wonderful tool to tighten our relationships, talk to each other, and communicate important news - have you taken a look? Read us every two weeks (more or less, for now, but we're working to regularize our schedule!)

PS: How about appearing on The B4 Times? it's free, and it's a way to get all members to see your face and learn a bit about your company. Drop us a line and let us get you on the papers! :)

And how better to celebrate than with a nice journey?

Our representatives, Mr. Pirota and Mr. Ferrauto, will be visiting  Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia between May 31st and June 5th, visiting old members and contacting potential new members for our network! If you're around, drop us a line - the schedule is VERY tight, but we'll try to slot in a meeting with you!

Go B4!

These have been busy times for B4. We've launched our newsletter, The B4 Times, and as members increase our collective business grows - yet, we're always on the look for new members, new Companies to welcome to our fold!

We've recently been to Dubai and to Tokyo - and on both occasions, three new Companies haev decided to change the way they work for the better, and have joined our Network. Let us welcome them here! And that's not all: at the end of March, our Mr. Pirota will be in Egypt for a couple days, to meet yet more Dealers and show them what B4's all about.

And HannoverMesse's coming... we'll be there, will you? Let's meet! Drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com, and we'll arrange to sit and have a nice business chat - perspectives are plentiful, and we all want todo better business!

Dear Members,

we're glad to inform you that Mr. Alessandro Ferrauto, Relations Manager for B4 Network, will be visiting the SPS in Nuremberg, the tradefair scheduled in November, from 24th to 26th.

It will be a great opportunity for all of us to discuss about your projects, and Mr. Ferrauto will be glad to meet you and talk about your activities on the network and improve our cooperation.

If you're around, drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com - we could arrange a meeting in person!

Go B4!

It's almost the half of October, and that means it's time for a new update on our International Missions to find new productive Members for our Network!

 We have a couple interesting events coming up in the next month:

- between Oct. 25th and 29th, we shall be meeting entrepreneurs in the Arab Emirates;

- and between Nov. 1st and 7th, we will be meeting new potential members in South Africa.

All this will mean new Brands, more requests, more offers, and better work for all of us. Stay tuned.

And as always, Go B4!

Dear Members,

summer holidays are over, and we're back to our schedule of missions all around the world to find new partners to welcome to our Network!  These upcoming months we have two main appointments:

1) Mr. Pirota, our Founder, and Mr. Ferrauto, our Relations manager, will be making a quick two-day Mission to the Balkans. They will be in Zagreb, Croatia, on Sept. 15th, and in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Sept. 16th.

2) Mr. Pirota will be present at Intech Automazione's stand at the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou (Canton), in the People's Republic of China, between Oct. 15th and 19th.

On both occasions, feel free to come over and say hi -  we'll be delighted to have a chat and see how you're doing!

Till next time, as always - Go B4!

As this year progresses, and well-deserved summer holidays finally are quite close, we've arranged for another Commercial Mission in July, to find yet more members for our developing Network. Mr. Pirota, our founder, will be in Taiwan between July 11th and 18th, meeting local entrepreneurs and introducing them to the idea of the B4 Network. We expect to make several good new contacts there, to the advantage of everyone in the Network - stay tuned for more news!

And on that very same note, we're glad to announce that our presence, through Intech Automazione's stand, at the FIEE ELETRICA Trade Show in Sao Paul, has been successful in spreading our idea to Brasil. Let us welcome FIVE new local members to the B4 Network!

Till next time, Go B4!

Summer's getting closer, but here at B4 holidays are still far from our minds, as we arrange for our June '09 appointments!

This month, we have two main events:

- INTECH AUTOMAZIONE, our founding member, will be an exhibitor at the FIEE-ELETRICA trade Show in Sao Paulo, Brasil, between June 1st and 5th. If you're around, you may find them at the ICE cluster of stands, L60 to M61. Pop in and say hi!

- Mr. Pirota, our founder, has planned another mission to meet with new potential members. This time it's India, a market where we believe great partners can be found... Mr. Pirota will be in India between june 21st and 27th.

As always, feel free to drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com if you want us to arrange a personal meeting for you!

Before we close this post, allow us to update you on the last B4 mission to indonesia - it's been a geat success, and here and today we gladly welcome ELEVEN new members to our ever-growing network!

Keep in touch - and always, Go B4!

Hi everybody!

How do you like the new website? By your first reactions, we'd say you're liking the change so far. Remember to always let us know if you see room for improvement!

Today marks the beginning of a new feature on your blog - B4 around the World. In these posts you'll find our schedul for International Missions, participations or visits to Trade Shows, and all opportunities for you to meet the people behind B4!

In May we have two main appointments:

- between May 9th and May 16th,  Mr. Pirota, our founder, will be visiting Indonesia on a Mission to contact new potential members;

- and Mr. Ferrauto, our Relations Manager, will be at the Youth Efida Meeting in Stuttgart, between May 14th and May 16th.

If you're around, drop us a line at centraloffice@b4-network.com - we could arrange a meeting in person!

Go B4! 

Welcome to the New B4 Network Website!

..and so, we were thinking here at the B4 Offices these past few days, we need a way to make instant communication with the B4 Network members easy and cheap. And what's cheaper than totally FREE? We've been having great results using Skype, the free VOIP software. If you have a Skype account, let us know! and if you don't, download and install it - it's easy, and we're sure you'll love it. Think of the possibilities: conferences among all members without ever moving from your office, instant clarifications on an offer you urgently need... all with a click. Hope to see you soon on Skype!

And so, it has started! Some of you have already begun to use the web interface to make orders. We're very pleased to see you like it!

Please, let us know if you think something can be improved. We believe we've done a good job, but surely, we can do even better!

Go B4!

Some of us are with the Network since the very beginning.

Others have learned of B4 just recently.

But for all of us, after a year spent building this project, this is a vital date.

Here's the place where B4 lives and grows: here's where we will change the way our job is done.  And it is YOUR place: comment, participate, ask, write. You're in your own home, when you're here.

Next year is close by. Let us spend these holidays preparing, resting, recuperating.

We have a big future ahead, and we'll need a lot of energy.

Welcome to B4.