Like the modern crankshaft, Al-Jazari's mechanism consisted of a wheel setting several crank pins into motion, with the wheel's motion being circular and the pins moving back-and-forth in a straight line.[2] The crankshaft described by al-Jazari[2][3] transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion. 17th century: Samuel Morland experiments with using gunpowder to drive water pumps. 17th century: Christiaan Huygens designs gunpowder to drive water pumps, to supply 3000 cubic meters of water/day for the Versailles palace gardens, essentially creating the first idea of a rudimentary internal combustion piston engine.