Tech Story #11 · Golden Age G4: the Banu Musa brothers — a music machine you could program

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// WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Baghdad, about 850: the Banu Musa brothers' automatic flute player played a tune set by pins on a turning cylinder — one of the earliest known programmable machines.

// LESSON NOTES

Programmed music — over 1,000 years ago! 🎶⚙️

🏛️ Baghdad, about 850: three brothers — Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan, the Banu Musa ("sons of Musa").
📖 They built clever machines and wrote them all down: the Book of Ingenious Devices (about 100 devices!).
🎵 One of their machines played the flute all by itself, powered by water.
🤔 How did it know the tune?
📍 Pins on a turning drum! Each pin lifted a lever and opened a valve for one note.
🔁 Swap the drum, change the song — one of the earliest known programmable machines.

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