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Machine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about devices designed to perform tasks. For other uses, see
Machine (disambiguation).
A machine uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an intended
action. Machines can be driven by animals and people, by natural forces such as
wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a system
of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of
output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that
monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.
Renaissance natural philosophers identified six simple machines which were the
elementary devices that put a load into motion, and calculated the ratio of output
force to input force, known today as mechanical advantage.[1]
Modern machines are complex systems that consist of structural elements, mechanisms
and control components and include interfaces for convenient use. Examples include
a wide range of vehicles, such as automobiles, boats and airplanes, appliances in
the home and office, building air handling and water handling systems, as well as
farm machinery, machine tools and factory automation systems and robots.
Bonsack's machine
James Albert Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, invented in 1880 and patented in
1881
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Simple machines
4 Mechanical systems
5 Power sources
6 Mechanisms
6.1 Structural components
7 Controllers
8 Computing machines
9 Molecular machines
10 Impact
10.1 Mechanization and automation
10.2 Automata
11 Mechanics
11.1 Dynamics of machines
11.2 Kinematics of machines
12 Machine design
13 See also
14 References
15 Further reading
16 External links
Etymology
The English word machine comes through Middle French from Latin machina,[2] which
in turn derives from the Greek (Doric �a?a?? makhana, Ionic �??a?? mekhane
"contrivance, machine, engine",[3] a derivation from �???? mekhos "means,
expedient, remedy"[4]). The word mechanical comes from the same Greek roots.
However, the Ancient Greeks probably borrowed the word "mekhane" from the ancient
Hebrews. The word "Mekhonot" plural and "Mekhona" singular mentioned in the Hebrew
Bible - Torah; these "Mekhonot" were the ten contraption on four wheels that stood
at the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, built by King Solomon (2 Chronicles 4:14). The
ancient Greeks were familiar with the Hebrew scriptures and language, and often
borrowed words and terms.
In the 17th century, the word could also mean a scheme or plot, a meaning now
expressed by the derived machination. The modern meaning develops out of
specialized application of the term to stage engines used in theater and to
military siege engines, both in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The OED
traces the formal, modern meaning to John Harris' Lexicon Technicum (1704), which
has:
The word engine used as a (near-)synonym both by Harris and in later language
derives ultimately (via Old French) from Latin ingenium "ingenuity, an invention".
History
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012)
Flint hand axe found in Winchester
Perhaps the first example of a human made device designed to manage power is the
hand axe, made by chipping flint to form a wedge. A wedge is a simple machine that
transforms lateral force and movement of the tool into a transverse splitting force
and movement of the workpiece.
The idea of a simple machine originated with the Greek philosopher Archimedes
around the 3rd century BC, who studied the Archimedean simple machines: lever,
pulley, and screw.[5][6] He discovered the principle of mechanical advantage in the
lever.[7] Later Greek philosophers defined the classic five simple machines
(excluding the inclined plane) and were able to roughly calculate their mechanical
advantage.[1] Heron of Alexandria (ca. 10�75 AD) in his work Mechanics lists five
mechanisms that can "set a load in motion"; lever, windlass, pulley, wedge, and
screw,[6] and describes their fabrication and uses.[8] However, the Greeks'
understanding was limited to statics (the balance of forces) and did not include
dynamics (the tradeoff between force and distance) or the concept of work.
During the Renaissance the dynamics of the Mechanical Powers, as the simple
machines were called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how much useful
work they could perform, leading eventually to the new concept of mechanical work.
In 1586 Flemish engineer Simon Stevin derived the mechanical advantage of the
inclined plane, and it was included with the other simple machines. The complete
dynamic theory of simple machines was worked out by Italian scientist Galileo
Galilei in 1600 in Le Meccaniche ("On Mechanics").[9][10] He was the first to
understand that simple machines do not create energy, they merely transform it.[9]
James Watt patented his parallel motion linkage in 1782, which made the double
acting steam engine practical.[12] The Boulton and Watt steam engine and later
designs powered steam locomotives, steam ships, and factories.
The Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in
agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound
effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. It began in
the United Kingdom, then subsequently spread throughout Western Europe, North
America, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world.
Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts
of Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animal�based economy towards
machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile
industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of
refined coal.[13]
Simple machines
Table of simple mechanisms, from Chambers' Cyclop�dia, 1728.[14] Simple machines
provide a "vocabulary" for understanding more complex machines.
The idea that a machine can be decomposed into simple movable elements led
Archimedes to define the lever, pulley and screw as simple machines. By the time of
the Renaissance this list increased to include the wheel and axle, wedge and
inclined plane. The modern approach to characterizing machines focusses on the
components that allow movement, known as joints.
Wedge (hand axe): Perhaps the first example of a device designed to manage power is
the hand axe, also see biface and Olorgesailie. A hand axe is made by chipping
stone, generally flint, to form a bifacial edge, or wedge. A wedge is a simple
machine that transforms lateral force and movement of the tool into a transverse
splitting force and movement of the workpiece. The available power is limited by
the effort of the person using the tool, but because power is the product of force
and movement, the wedge amplifies the force by reducing the movement. This
amplification, or mechanical advantage is the ratio of the input speed to output
speed. For a wedge this is given by 1/tana, where a is the tip angle. The faces of
a wedge are modeled as straight lines to form a sliding or prismatic joint.
Lever: The lever is another important and simple device for managing power. This is
a body that pivots on a fulcrum. Because the velocity of a point farther from the
pivot is greater than the velocity of a point near the pivot, forces applied far
from the pivot are amplified near the pivot by the associated decrease in speed. If
a is the distance from the pivot to the point where the input force is applied and
b is the distance to the point where the output force is applied, then a/b is the
mechanical advantage of the lever. The fulcrum of a lever is modeled as a hinged or
revolute joint.
Wheel: The wheel is clearly an important early machine, such as the chariot. A
wheel uses the law of the lever to reduce the force needed to overcome friction
when pulling a load. To see this notice that the friction associated with pulling a
load on the ground is approximately the same as the friction in a simple bearing
that supports the load on the axle of a wheel. However, the wheel forms a lever
that magnifies the pulling force so that it overcomes the frictional resistance in
the bearing.
Illustration of a Four-bar linkage from Kinematics of Machinery, 1876
Illustration of a four-bar linkage from Kinematics of Machinery, 1876
The classification of simple machines to provide a strategy for the design of new
machines was developed by Franz Reuleaux, who collected and studied over 800
elementary machines.[15] He recognized that the classical simple machines can be
separated into the lever, pulley and wheel and axle that are formed by a body
rotating about a hinge, and the inclined plane, wedge and screw that are similarly
a block sliding on a flat surface.[16]
Simple machines are elementary examples of kinematic chains or linkages that are
used to model mechanical systems ranging from the steam engine to robot
manipulators. The bearings that form the fulcrum of a lever and that allow the
wheel and axle and pulleys to rotate are examples of a kinematic pair called a
hinged joint. Similarly, the flat surface of an inclined plane and wedge are
examples of the kinematic pair called a sliding joint. The screw is usually
identified as its own kinematic pair called a helical joint.
This realization shows that it is the joints, or the connections that provide
movement, that are the primary elements of a machine. Starting with four types of
joints, the rotary joint, sliding joint, cam joint and gear joint, and related
connections such as cables and belts, it is possible to understand a machine as an
assembly of solid parts that connect these joints called a mechanism .[17]
Two levers, or cranks, are combined into a planar four-bar linkage by attaching a
link that connects the output of one crank to the input of another. Additional
links can be attached to form a six-bar linkage or in series to form a robot.[17]
Mechanical systems
Boulton & Watt Steam Engine
The Boulton & Watt Steam Engine, 1784
Modern machines are systems consisting of (i) a power source and actuators that
generate forces and movement, (ii) a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator
input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement, (iii) a
controller with sensors that compare the output to a performance goal and then
directs the actuator input, and (iv) an interface to an operator consisting of
levers, switches, and displays.
This can be seen in Watt's steam engine (see the illustration) in which the power
is provided by steam expanding to drive the piston. The walking beam, coupler and
crank transform the linear movement of the piston into rotation of the output
pulley. Finally, the pulley rotation drives the flyball governor which controls the
valve for the steam input to the piston cylinder.
More recently, Uicker et al.[17] stated that a machine is "a device for applying
power or changing its direction." McCarthy and Soh[21] describe a machine as a
system that "generally consists of a power source and a mechanism for the
controlled use of this power."
Power sources
Human and animal effort were the original power sources for early machines. Natural
forces such as wind and water powered larger mechanical systems.
Waterwheel: Waterwheels appeared around the world around 300 BC to use flowing
water to generate rotary motion, which was applied to milling grain, and powering
lumber, machining and textile operations. Modern water turbines use water flowing
through a dam to drive an electric generator.
Windmill: Early windmills captured wind power to generate rotary motion for milling
operations. Modern wind turbines also drives a generator. This electricity in turn
is used to drive motors forming the actuators of mechanical systems.
Engine: The word engine derives from "ingenuity" and originally referred to
contrivances that may or may not be physical devices. See Merriam-Webster's
definition of engine. A steam engine uses heat to boil water contained in a
pressure vessel; the expanding steam drives a piston or a turbine. This principle
can be seen in the aeolipile of Hero of Alexandria. This is called an external
combustion engine.
Power plant: The heat from coal and natural gas combustion in a boiler generates
steam that drives a steam turbine to rotate an electric generator. A nuclear power
plant uses heat from a nuclear reactor to generate steam and electric power. This
power is distributed through a network of transmission lines for industrial and
individual use.
Fluid Power: Hydraulic and pneumatic systems use electrically driven pumps to drive
water or air respectively into cylinders to power linear movement.
Mechanisms
The structural components are, generally, the frame members, bearings, splines,
springs, seals, fasteners and covers. The shape, texture and color of covers
provide a styling and operational interface between the mechanical system and its
users.
The assemblies that control movement are also called "mechanisms." [23][24]
Mechanisms are generally classified as gears and gear trains, which includes belt
drives and chain drives, cam and follower mechanisms, and linkages, though there
are other special mechanisms such as clamping linkages, indexing mechanisms,
escapements and friction devices such as brakes and clutches.
Controllers
The Arithmometer and the Comptometer are mechanical computers that are precursors
to modern digital computers. Models used to study modern computers are termed State
machine and Turing machine.
Molecular machines
The biological molecule myosin reacts to ATP and ADP to alternately engage with an
actin filament and change its shape in a way that exerts a force, and then
disengage to reset its shape, or conformation. This acts as the molecular drive
that causes muscle contraction. Similarly the biological molecule kinesin has two
sections that alternately engage and disengage with microtubules causing the
molecule to move along the microtubule and transport vesicles within the cell.
These molecules are increasingly considered to be nanomachines.
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the
need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of
industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization
provides human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular
requirements of work, automation greatly decreases the need for human sensory and
mental requirements as well. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the
world economy and in daily experience.
Automata
Main article: automaton
The dynamics of a rigid body system is defined by its equations of motion, which
are derived using either Newtons laws of motion or Lagrangian mechanics. The
solution of these equations of motion defines how the configuration of the system
of rigid bodies changes as a function of time. The formulation and solution of
rigid body dynamics is an important tool in the computer simulation of mechanical
systems.
Kinematics of machines
See also
Main articles: Outline of machines and Outline of industrial machinery
History of technology
Machine (mechanical)
Technology
Automaton
References
Usher, Abbott Payson (1988). A History of Mechanical Inventions. USA: Courier Dover
Publications. p. 98. ISBN 0-486-25593-X.
The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition. Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1985.
"�??a??", Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
project
"�????", Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
project
Asimov, Isaac (1988), Understanding Physics, New York, New York, USA: Barnes &
Noble, p. 88, ISBN 0-88029-251-2.
Chiu, Y. C. (2010), An introduction to the History of Project Management, Delft:
Eburon Academic Publishers, p. 42, ISBN 90-5972-437-2
Ostdiek, Vern; Bord, Donald (2005). Inquiry into Physics. Thompson Brooks/Cole. p.
123. ISBN 0-534-49168-5. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
Strizhak, Viktor; Igor Penkov; Toivo Pappel (2004). "Evolution of design, use, and
strength calculations of screw threads and threaded joints". HMM2004 International
Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms. Kluwer Academic publishers. p.
245. ISBN 1-4020-2203-4. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
Krebs, Robert E. (2004). Groundbreaking Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of
the Middle Ages. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 163. ISBN 0-313-32433-6. Retrieved
2008-05-21.
Stephen, Donald; Lowell Cardwell (2001). Wheels, clocks, and rockets: a history of
technology. USA: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 85�87. ISBN 0-393-32175-4.
Armstrong-H�louvry, Brian (1991). Control of machines with friction. USA: Springer.
p. 10. ISBN 0-7923-9133-0.
Pennock, G. R., James Watt (1736-1819), Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and
Machine Science, ed. M. Ceccarelli, Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4020-6365-7 (Print)
978-1-4020-6366-4 (Online).
Beck B., Roger (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, Illinois:
McDougal Littell.
Chambers, Ephraim (1728), "Table of Mechanicks", Cyclopaedia, A Useful Dictionary
of Arts and Sciences, London, England, Volume 2, p. 528, Plate 11.
Moon, F. C., The Reuleaux Collection of Kinematic Mechanisms at Cornell University,
1999
Hartenberg, R.S. & J. Denavit (1964) Kinematic synthesis of linkages, New York:
McGraw-Hill, online link from Cornell University.
J. J. Uicker, G. R. Pennock, and J. E. Shigley, 2003, Theory of Machines and
Mechanisms, Oxford University Press, New York.
Oxford English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Definition of mechanical
Reuleaux, F., 1876 The Kinematics of Machinery (trans. and annotated by A. B. W.
Kennedy), reprinted by Dover, New York (1963)
J. M. McCarthy and G. S. Soh, 2010, Geometric Design of Linkages, Springer, New
York.
"Internal combustion engine", Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Third
Edition, Sybil P. Parker, ed. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994, p. 998 .
Reuleaux, F., 1876 The Kinematics of Machinery, (trans. and annotated by A. B. W.
Kennedy), reprinted by Dover, New York (1963)
J. J. Uicker, G. R. Pennock, and J. E. Shigley, 2003, Theory of Machines and
Mechanisms, Oxford University Press, New York.
Marras, A., Zhou, L., Su, H., and Castro, C.E. Programmable motion of DNA origami
mechanisms, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
McCarthy, C, DNA Origami Mechanisms and Machines | Mechanical Design 101, 2014
Jerome (1934) gives the industry classification of machine tools as being "other
than hand power". Beginning with the 1900 U.S. census, power use was part of the
definition of a factory, distinguishing it from a workshop.
"U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patent# 40891, Toy Automaton". Google Patents.
Retrieved 2007-01-07.
A. P. Usher, 1929, A History of Mechanical Inventions, Harvard University Press
(reprinted by Dover Publications 1968).
B. Paul, Kinematics and Dynamics of Planar Machinery, Prentice-Hall, NJ, 1979
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