3rd century: The earliest evidence of a crank and connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd century AD Hierapolis sawmill in Asia Minor (Turkey) as part of the Roman Empire. 5th century: Roman engineers documented several crankshaft-connecting rod machines used for their sawmills. 9th century: The crank appears in the mid-9th century in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices.[1] In 1206, al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft,[2][3] which he incorporated with a crank-connecting rod mechanism in his twin-cylinder pump.