Mechanisms Resources

Historical Mechanisms

Antikythera –ancient Greek computer  100 BC

Pascaline – Blaise Pascal’s arithmetic machine 1642

Difference Engine – Charles Babbage’s device to calculate polynomials  1822

Curta Calculator 1948

Mechanism Motion Visualization

Slider crank mechanism

Peaucellier straight line mechanism

Geneva Stop Mechanism

Scotch Yoke Mechanism

Ratchet and Pawl

Pantograph

Pantograph for drawing straight lines

Pantograph for drawing circles

Pantograph for drawing ellipses

Automaton and Interesting Mechanisms

CBS Sunday Morning Lost art of Automatons alive again

A History of Robots

Humanoid Clockwork Robot Automaton

The Nutcracker

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests

Organic Motion Sculpture

Marble Machine

Other Useful Websites

  1. Cabaret Mechanical Theatre – http://cabaret.co.uk/making/
  2. AUTOMATA mechanical toys – http://www.mechanical-toys.com/Automata%20mainpage.html
  3. ROB IVES paper automata – https://www.robives.com/
  4. Kinematics Model Library Cornell – http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/collection-toc.php
  5. Animated mechanisms library – http://www.mekanizmalar.com/index.html
  6. 507 movements – http://507movements.com/