Chapter I: Preface

ALTHOUGH strictly speaking the term “Mechanics” applies to that branch of Physics that deals with the actions of forces on material bodies, originally the word had a broader meaning embracing all machinery and mechanical inventions. To-day popular usage is restoring to the term its original broad interpretation, and it is in this popular but rather unorthodox sense that “Mechanics” has been chosen as the title of this book; for although certain elementary principles of mechanics are described and explained, the major portion of the book deals with machines and their evolution to their present stage of perfection.

Machines are man’s creation, and yet in a sense the man of to-day is a machine product; for modern civilization owes its material and in large measure its esthetic development to machinery. The story of machinery, from primitive man’s first attempts to augment his physical powers with mechanical aids down to the present era of gigantic, steel-muscled machinery and marvelously intricate mechanisms, is the story of human progress. It is this story that we have endeavored to tell in the following pages, but the subject is too large to be covered in a single volume or even a dozen volumes. Under the circumstances we have been obliged to confine ourselves to a mere outline, selecting certain avenues of progress more marked than others and presenting brief sketch maps of them. We have aimed in this way to give a bird’s-eye view of the whole story of human progress in things material.

The book has not been written for the mechanical engineer, but for the layman who would learn of the mechanical contrivances that contribute to his material welfare; hence technical terms have been avoided, as far as possible, and where unavoidable have been explained and defined.

A. RUSSELL BOND

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. TOOL-MAKING ANIMALS 9
II. THE ANATOMY OF A MACHINE 20
III. MACHINES FOR MAKING MACHINES 42
IV. COUNTING SECONDS 57
V. PUTTING RIVERS TO WORK 75
VI. LIQUID LEVERS AND GEARS 94
VII. AIR _vs._ WATER 109
VIII. AIR SPRINGS AND CUSHIONS 126
IX. POWER FROM HEAT 139
X. BURNING FUEL IN THE ENGINE CYLINDER 155
XI. WHEN COAL AND OIL ARE EXHAUSTED 171
XII. INVASION OF THE SEA 182
XIII. SLIDING, ROLLING, WALKING, AND CREEPING 203
XIV. INVASION OF THE SKY 219
XV. HELPING THE FARMER 239
XVI. MACHINING THE EARTH 251
XVII. FROM FIBER TO FABRIC 268
XVIII. THE MAKING OF PAPER 289
XIX. TYPESETTING AND PRINTING MACHINERY 300
XX. CAST IRON, WROUGHT IRON, AND STEEL 314
XXI. ANIMATED MACHINERY 326
XXII. HEAT VACUUMS 345
XXIII. ENGINES OF DESTRUCTION 359
XXIV. SUMMARY OF MECHANICAL PROGRESS 376

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE DROP FORGE--FORGING A STEEL PLATE _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

RAISING WATER WITH A CHAIN OF POTS--A PRIMITIVE
PUMP USED IN EGYPT 32

HORSE-OPERATED CHAIN PUMP USED IN GREECE 32

MULTIPLE SPINDLE DRILL IN A MOTOR CAR FACTORY 33

BUCKET OF A GIANT DREDGE WITH ITS JAWS WIDE OPEN 64

GOLD DREDGE EATING ITS WAY THROUGH RIVER SANDS 65

SUCTION DREDGE EXCAVATING A CHANNEL AND BUILDING NEW LAND 65

AIR LOCK OF A PNEUMATIC CAISSON 96

SUBAQUEOUS TUNNEL SHOWING THE SHIELD IN THE BACKGROUND 97

WHARF PROTECTED BY A PNEUMATIC BREAKWATER 128

SUN-POWER PLANT IN EGYPT 129

CLOSE-UP OF ONE OF THE REFLECTORS OF A SUN-POWER PLANT 129

GIANT CAPRONI HYDROAEROPLANE 160

CONCRETE STEAMSHIP “FAITH” 161

“VIRGINIAN,” THE LARGEST LOCOMOTIVE IN THE WORLD 161

LOOM PROVIDED WITH A JACQUARD ATTACHMENT 224

BATTERY OF MULE SPINNING FRAMES 225

JACQUARD ATTACHMENT FOR LOOM 225

DIGGING A TRENCH WITH A MACHINE OF THE CHAIN TYPE 256

MULTIPLE PLOWING ON A WESTERN WHEAT FIELD 257

SAWING LOGS OF PULPWOOD INTO 16-INCH LENGTHS 288

HEATER IN A PULP MILL WHERE THE WOOD PULP IS MIXED WITH CLAY 288

MODERN FOURDRINIER PAPER-MAKING MACHINES 289

MOLTEN METAL FROM A BLAST FURNACE 320

BESSEMER CONVERTER BLOWING AIR THROUGH A MASS OF MOLTEN IRON 320

STEEL BEAM PASSING THROUGH THE FINISHING ROLLS 321

COMPOSITOR AT WORK ON A LINOTYPE MACHINE 352

THE OPTOPHONE, WHICH ENABLES THE BLIND TO READ PRINT 353

BLIND MAN READING WITH HIS EARS 353