Wow. Not only does it look great on my phone, but it loads quickly and the movements are seamless. Compare that to the 360 view of furniture on any big box website or cars on a dealers website.
This one's my favorite (although I haven't read the whole thing):
"This movement is designed to double the speed by gears of equal diameters and numbers of teeth—a result once generally supposed to be impossible. Six bevel-gears are employed..."
Great for assisting with mechanical engineering problem solving. I just sent this to my team. If you like this sort of thing, we also discovered an awesome set of mechanical animations on Youtube done by an experienced Vietnamese mechanical engineer in a similar vain (but 3D drafted). URL not handy, hopefully someone can find/share.
These types of books are helpful and proof that it’s hard to innovate mechanisms. However the animated GIFs are not the clearest. I’m more of a fan of this guy’s Youtube channel with carefully modeled animated 3D CAD of tons of amazing mechanisms. https://www.youtube.com/user/thang010146
For example, I predict the increasingly suffocating digital zeitgeist will give rise to a form of competition which would be the mechanist's version of a demo scene.
People will compete to "hack" non-digital mechanics as far as they can go, from analog sensors to mobile, programmable, multi-function automatons such as Theo Jansen's Strandbeests [0].
Resources like this, even if their maintainers have long gone, will become coveted gold mines.
It's not a dying art, it's "abstracted away". The servos are still internally utilizing these designs. You just don't have to worry about the gritty physical details, just some basic control code.
Two identical gears start moving at the same speed. Suddenly, one gear slows down, then lurches forward at a much faster speed, and then returns to its starting speed.
While the other, identically shaped gear, spins at a constant speed the whole time.
It appears that the left gear is the driving gear and the right is the driven. This means that the angular speed of the right gear is the ratio of the left radius to the right radius (speed_right = speed_left*radius_left/radius_right). Because the angular speed of the left gear is constant the only change to the angular speed of the right will come from the changing radius ratio of the two gears.
This behavior can be seen a bit more clearly with nautilus gears that have constantly changing radii.
I imagine the red gear is the one backed with a motor rotating at a constant speed. Which would explain why it never slows down or speeds up.
The blue one is being entirely driven by the red. It slows down because moving 2 notches at a greater diameter requires less rotation than moving 2 notches at a lesser diameter. It then speeds up because moving 3 notches at a lesser diameter requires more rotation than moving 3 at a greater diameter.
Others have talked to the changing ratio, however I think the possible implications(use cases) of this are also interesting. I'm imagining making room for something, also rotating at a the same speed, to slip into place by arresting the second gears speed before catching it up.
I'd love to get into watch building which likely utilizes a lot of these tricky movements.
By adjusting the distance from the center the ratio can be changed. Closer to the center on the driving cog (the left red one) will reduce rotation ratio and further away, will increase the rotation.
Only relative speed will be determined by the geometry (these gears, in effect, change the gear ratio throughout one revolution).
In this animation, the author decided that the left gear is driving the right one (while itself, presumably, being driven by a motor at constant speed or something similar).
As others have mentioned, the movements make perfect sense intuitively as soon as you realize that the red gear is rotating constantly (driven by a motor), and the blue gear is spinning freely.
The left wheel rotates at fixed speed, it's the source of the movement (connected to the source of power). The right wheel rotates according to the relative radii between them, the constant speed of the left wheel dictating its speed.
They are indeed identical but they're spinning in opposite directions, which in effect means one is flipped (going small->big instead of big->small). I believe that's how they can behave differently.
the gear on the left is the driving gear, moving at a constant rate. When the gear on the left allows the gear on the right to fit closer to the center of that left gear, the gear on the right moves more slowly. Similarly, when the gear on the right fits farther from the center of the left gear, the gear on the right moves more quickly
I used to spend a lot of time chasing a mower around the yard while trying to design a continuously variable transmission that used (for lack of the term of art) direct engagement (eg gears) rather than friction on bearing surfaces like belt-based cvt’s.
Came up with a few tantalizing geometries but would always find a problem after thinking it through.
Makes me wonder how many if these were deveoped under similarly mindless activities. Also makes me wonder what a genetic algorithm or ML-based optimization/search algorithm could find.
I am a bit nostalgic/sad about the fact that many young people who would've wanted to learn this craft a century ago are today choosing software engineering.
> The piston and crank connections are such that the steam acts on each piston during about two-thirds of the revolution of the crank, and hence there are no dead points.
Quite a clever solution to allow startup in any position!
This type of thing is very dangerous for me. I can end up browsing these for hours. Very similar to knots, how each one is tied, what it's pros and cons are, the history behind them, etc. I wish like knots these mechanical movements had names instead of just the index number.
I like http://507movements.com/mm_398.html which is a programmable drive system. Constant rotation input can give you a cyclic but irregular and arbitrary output movement.
Another good programmable mechanism is a spring made from sheet metal. Take a flat piece and cut a spiral with the width of the material proportional to the force you want at that part of the spring's travel. Stretch it out to form a little tower, with the base on a solid surface, and the load carried on the center of the spiral.
And SmallParts I think is now Amazon Supply or something, but dear god would I not trust Amazon for that sort of purchase. Especially PPE like allegedly 3M respirators. Who knows how much of this is counterfeit.
Given that these animations aren't interactive and run continuously as well as have a fixed resolution (I thought they were SVG at first, but zooming in disproves that), I feel like plain old GIFs would be far better for accessibility and maybe even bandwidth --- GIF's delta-frame encoding is surprisingly effective, especially for art like this.
There's also DMG-LIB[0] and KMODDL[1] which contain mechanism animations along with CAD models of some mechanisms. It's been mentioned before, but thang010146's youtube channel also has many of these mechanisms, sometimes they even have CAD models available of their models. I suspect that thang010146 might actually have the largest digital repository of mechanisms.
Those who find it interesting may also be interested to check out Polhem's mechanical alphabet [1], which was created nearly two centuries earlier. Fun fact: I learned about it from a Pettson and Findus tale I read to my children, and I was lucky enough to see parts of it in the museum in Stockholm [1] during last summer.
What a great project. I have a very similar book (1800 Mechanical Movements, Devices, and Appliances) and have a blast flipping through it. It is great to see the illustrations come alive. Great great job!
There are actually a great many of these "mechanical movement" books from that time period, circa 19th to early 20th century.
They are contemporary with similar books on "electrical machinery" (generators and motors, mainly), "steam engineering", "home and farm improvements/implements", and many other similar subjects.
Some were aimed at the professional engineer, while others were meant or accessible to the ordinary person with such interests or needs.
I enjoy discovering and adding these books to my collection when I can find them at used and antiquarian bookstores.
[+] [-] mohn|6 years ago|reply
[0] https://animagraffs.com
[+] [-] dyukqu|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mzs|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doitLP|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 52-6F-62|6 years ago|reply
(No really, thank you! This is great)
[+] [-] werds|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imraj96|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JasuM|6 years ago|reply
"This movement is designed to double the speed by gears of equal diameters and numbers of teeth—a result once generally supposed to be impossible. Six bevel-gears are employed..."
http://507movements.com/mm_226.html
[+] [-] contingencies|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harryday|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reitzensteinm|6 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/user/thang010146/videos
[+] [-] s1mon|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] londons_explore|6 years ago|reply
The modern way to achieve any kind of complex mechanical motion is to attach a servo to the thing and use a computer to set a motion profile.
A bit of a shame really.
[+] [-] soulofmischief|6 years ago|reply
For example, I predict the increasingly suffocating digital zeitgeist will give rise to a form of competition which would be the mechanist's version of a demo scene.
People will compete to "hack" non-digital mechanics as far as they can go, from analog sensors to mobile, programmable, multi-function automatons such as Theo Jansen's Strandbeests [0].
Resources like this, even if their maintainers have long gone, will become coveted gold mines.
https://www.strandbeest.com/
[+] [-] syn0byte|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] symplee|6 years ago|reply
Two identical gears start moving at the same speed. Suddenly, one gear slows down, then lurches forward at a much faster speed, and then returns to its starting speed.
While the other, identically shaped gear, spins at a constant speed the whole time.
[1] http://507movements.com/mm_038.html
[+] [-] scoyle|6 years ago|reply
This behavior can be seen a bit more clearly with nautilus gears that have constantly changing radii.
[+] [-] Parcle|6 years ago|reply
The blue one is being entirely driven by the red. It slows down because moving 2 notches at a greater diameter requires less rotation than moving 2 notches at a lesser diameter. It then speeds up because moving 3 notches at a lesser diameter requires more rotation than moving 3 at a greater diameter.
[+] [-] Rapzid|6 years ago|reply
I'd love to get into watch building which likely utilizes a lot of these tricky movements.
[+] [-] Zenst|6 years ago|reply
By adjusting the distance from the center the ratio can be changed. Closer to the center on the driving cog (the left red one) will reduce rotation ratio and further away, will increase the rotation.
[+] [-] balfirevic|6 years ago|reply
In this animation, the author decided that the left gear is driving the right one (while itself, presumably, being driven by a motor at constant speed or something similar).
[+] [-] lqet|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nachexnachex|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nition|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsheth|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lowboy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcims|6 years ago|reply
Came up with a few tantalizing geometries but would always find a problem after thinking it through.
Makes me wonder how many if these were deveoped under similarly mindless activities. Also makes me wonder what a genetic algorithm or ML-based optimization/search algorithm could find.
[+] [-] lqet|6 years ago|reply
http://507movements.com/mm_123.html
http://507movements.com/mm_185.html
This is basically how the pantarouter by Matthias Wandel [0] works:
http://507movements.com/mm_246.html
Or take a look at this weird engine:
http://507movements.com/mm_423.html
I am a bit nostalgic/sad about the fact that many young people who would've wanted to learn this craft a century ago are today choosing software engineering.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wZ1v4PIsYI
[+] [-] hannasanarion|6 years ago|reply
Like this video about number 049, a crank that only turns clockwise: https://youtu.be/y44_xMFsPQQ
[+] [-] skykooler|6 years ago|reply
> The piston and crank connections are such that the steam acts on each piston during about two-thirds of the revolution of the crank, and hence there are no dead points.
Quite a clever solution to allow startup in any position!
[+] [-] mbostleman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tlrobinson|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oasisbob|6 years ago|reply
https://www.amazon.com/507-Mechanical-Movements-Mechanisms-D...
[+] [-] thunderbong|6 years ago|reply
https://www.amazon.com/507-Mechanical-Movements-Henry-Brown/...
[+] [-] jzwinck|6 years ago|reply
Another good programmable mechanism is a spring made from sheet metal. Take a flat piece and cut a spiral with the width of the material proportional to the force you want at that part of the spring's travel. Stretch it out to form a little tower, with the base on a solid surface, and the load carried on the center of the spiral.
[+] [-] vanderZwan|6 years ago|reply
Arthur Ganson has used that to make kinetic artworks:
https://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_ganson_makes_moving_sculptu...
[+] [-] proee|6 years ago|reply
Years ago there was a website called "smallparts.com" but this was bought out and no longer exists.
[+] [-] wlesieutre|6 years ago|reply
https://www.mcmaster.com/
And SmallParts I think is now Amazon Supply or something, but dear god would I not trust Amazon for that sort of purchase. Especially PPE like allegedly 3M respirators. Who knows how much of this is counterfeit.
[+] [-] iancmceachern|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LyndsySimon|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbay808|6 years ago|reply
For random stuff, surplus shed is also fun to browse.
[+] [-] userbinator|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gene-h|6 years ago|reply
[0]https://www.dmg-lib.org/dmglib/main/portal.jsp [1]https://engineering.library.cornell.edu/kmoddl [2]https://www.youtube.com/user/thang010146
[+] [-] kazinator|6 years ago|reply
"Power as 1 to 7". I don't think so: the cable's tension is paralleled six ways against the load, so 6 times the force.
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pzs|6 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.tekniskamuseet.se/en/learn-more/swedish-inventor...
[+] [-] kevinguay|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cr0sh|6 years ago|reply
They are contemporary with similar books on "electrical machinery" (generators and motors, mainly), "steam engineering", "home and farm improvements/implements", and many other similar subjects.
Some were aimed at the professional engineer, while others were meant or accessible to the ordinary person with such interests or needs.
I enjoy discovering and adding these books to my collection when I can find them at used and antiquarian bookstores.