Ancient Machines

Discusses the invention of six simple machines in various ancient civilizations from the Stone Age to the fall of the Roman Empire.

South pointing chariots, walking machines and the astronomical mechanical clock are all used as illustrated examples in this fascinating and unique study of lost machinery in ancient China. This is the first book of its kind, combining creative mechanism design methodology with mechanical evolution and variation theory to set out how some ancient designs can be recreated. Furthermore the book reflects on how age-old wisdoms could stimulate stunning new machinery in the future.

Examines the machines created by ancient cultures.

Did you know . . . • Ancient people used bows to drill holes and start fires? • The ancient Chinese built a machine to detect earthquakes? •The ancient Romans operated a factory for milling grain? Machine technology is as old as human society itself. The first humans on Earth used basic machines. They used stone axes to butcher meat. They use levers to pry roots and rocks from the ground. Over the centuries, ancient peoples learned to make more complicated machines. People in the ancient Middle East devised wheels and pulleys. The ancient Chinese created wheelbarrows and bellows. The ancient Greeks built big war machines. What kinds of tools and techniques did ancient craftspeople use? Which methods worked and which didn’t? And how did ancient machines set the stage for our own modern machines? Learn more in Ancient Machine Technology.

Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.

Examines ancient methods of communication in the Middle East, India, China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Mesoamerica.

This book presents a unique approach for studying mechanisms and machines with drawings that were depicted unclearly in ancient Chinese books. The historical, cultural and technical backgrounds of the mechanisms are explained, and various mechanisms described and illustrated in ancient books are introduced. By utilizing the idea for the conceptual design of modern mechanisms, all feasible designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain members and joints that meet the technical standards of the subjects’ time periods are synthesized systematically. Ancient Chinese crossbows (the original crossbow and repeating crossbows), textile mechanisms (silk-reeling mechanism, spinning mechanisms, and looms), and many other artisan's tool mechanisms are used as illustrated examples. Such an approach provides a logical method for the reconstruction designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain structures. It also provides an innovative direction for researchers to further identify the original structures of mechanisms and machines with drawings in ancient literature. This book can be used as a textbook and/or supplemental reading material for courses related to history of ancient (Chinese) machinery and creative mechanism design for senior and graduate students.