The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux: Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th Century

Francis C. Moon

tet 2007 · History of Mechanism and Machine Science Libri 2 · Springer Science & Business Media

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Ah the Machine; both coveted and criticized, life sustaining and life destr- ing yet always a symbol of human creativity and invention from the Rena- sance to robotics from the Wright brothers to the Wankel engine. There are more than a billion mechanical machines in our world of six billion humans. These machines are the source of both marvel and mayhem in the life of our planet. This book is about the evolution of these machines and the inv- tors and engineers who created them from the early Renaissance to the early 20th century. I have chosen two personalities who are icons of these two machine ages, Leonardo da Vinci [1452–1519] and Franz Reuleaux [1829– 1905], recognizing both the cadre of machine designers who in?uenced them as well as those who were in?uenced by the accomplishments of these two engineers. A major thesis of this book is that the evolution of machine design methodology, from the intuitive methods of the workshop to the math-based, engineering science analysis and synthesis of modern industrial design, was of equal achievement as the creation of the marvelous machines themselves. In the past two decades there has been increasing interest in rational me- ods of design from topology and optimization theories to genetic algorithms. In the teaching of design at the novitiate level, the importance of design - cles and iteration is emphasized. Yet often the historical background for e- lution of machine design is minimal or missing.

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Francis C. Moon is a Chaired Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineers. He is also a Fellow of ASME. Moon is Curator of the Reuleaux Collection of Kinematic Models at Cornell University. He has authored five published books with John Wiley including two popular books on chaotic dynamics; Chaotic Vibrations (1987, 2004), Chaotic and Fractal Dynamics and a textbook Applied Dynamics (1998) His research specialty includes dynamics of machines and structures as well as magneto-mechanical devices. He has lectured recently in ‘Introduction to Robotics’ for seniors and ‘Applied Dynamics’ for graduate students. He was the recipient of a Humboldt Prize award in 1988 and 2001. In 2001 he was a visiting scholar at the Archiv of the Deutsches Museum where he studied the papers of Franz Reuleaux. Moon is a member of the commission on the History of Machines and Mechanisms (HMM) of the International Federation for the Theory af Machines and Mechanisms. (IFToMM) He has published over 140 research papers and holds five patents. He was the Director of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace engineering at Cornell University from 1987-1992.
Moon is one of the creators of the history of mechanisms website; KMODDL: Kinematic Modelsfor Design, Digital Library [http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu]