Science Art: Britannia Co.’s Patent Screwing Machine, 1890.
“Screws at one single cut,” the ad boasts. This is an ad from the front of The Engineer’s Sketch-Book of Mechanical Movements, by Thomas W. […]
mechanical engineering
Science Art: Test Apparatus, 1960
A test apparatus, as used for the article “Modification of Force Feed Lubricators” in the 1960-05 edition of Lubrication Engineering. The idea was to study […]
Science Art: Page 219 from The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements, devices, appliances, contrivances and details…, 1890
This is a page of assorted parts – gizmos, “contrivances,” what-have-yous – for doing things in machines. It’s from a catalog of such bits and […]
Science Art: Single-Acting Force Pump with Ball Valves, 1903.
Among all the diagrams of force-vectors, there’s this wonderful illustration of a well-made machine in A Text-Book of Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, on archive.org. […]
Science Art: Pipes and playing-drum of a “Leierkasten” hand-drawn organ, by Rama
Click to embiggen This is a view of one of the automatic music-making devices collected by the Centre International de la Mécanique d’Art (CIMA), a […]
Science Art: Kircher’s fanciful design for a hydraulic organ, complete with dancing skeleton, from Musurgia Universalis, 1650.
Click to embiggen A hydraulic organ from the 17th century, as commemorated by Athanasius Kircher. It has a robotic skeleton! And a waterwheel! There are […]
Robot feet that don’t need batteries.
Nature studies the beauty of mechanical advantage… in exoskeleton boots that do what feet do just a little bit better, faster, stronger: People walking in […]
Want to make strong fibers? Use knots!
Laboratory Equipment points out that simple solutions can have bigger effects than you’d imagine, when it comes to the raw material we’re making things out […]