history in the Western world, dating back to the Hellenistic period. However, the Western pipe organ did not make use of the reed, which the ancient Chinese mouth organ employed. The latter instrument, called a sheng and made traditionally of bamboo pipes, was first mentioned in the Shi Jing of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC). The Chinese sheng is considered the ancestor of the harmonica, harmonium, concertina, accordion, and all other reed organ instruments. A free reed organ was invented in the Arab world in the 13th century, while the German organ builder Heinrich Traxdorf (fl. 15th century) of Nuremberg built one around 1460 AD. It is thought that the classical Chinese sheng travelled west through Russia during the 19th century, as it was described then in Saint Petersburg. Fuses: Documented evidence suggests that the earliest fuses were first used by the Chinese between the 10th and 12th centuries. After the Chinese had invented gunpowder, they began adapting its explosive properties for use in military technology. By 1044 they were using gunpowder in simple grenades, bombs, and flamethrowers, all of which required a fuse to be lit before being thrown at the enemy. G Gas cylinder: The world's first natural gas cylinders were invented in China during the medieval Tang dynasty where the Chinese drilled deep boreholes to retrieve natural gas and used airtight jointed bamboo pipes to collect and transport it for many miles to towns and villages. Gas lighting: The ancient Chinese during the Spring and Autumn period made the first practical use of natural gas for lighting purposes around 500 B.C. where they used bamboo pipelines to transport and carry both brine and natural gas for many miles to towns and villages. Gimbal: The gimbal is known as the 'Cardan' suspension after Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576), yet it was known long before him. The British scientist, sinologist, and historian Joseph Needham writes that the earliest confirmed use of gimbals in Europe is the 9th century recipe book Little Key of Painting and English antiquary and book collector Thomas Phillipps's Mappae clavicula, which mentioned a vase surrounded by rings which allowed it to be undisturbed when in a rolling motion. Needham and Belgian-born American chemist and historian of science George Sarton both write that an Arabic translation—dated to roughly the era of Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833)—of an ancient Greek work now lost (i.e. Pneumatica) by 3rd-century BC