Essays on the History of Mechanical Engineering

This book treats several subjects from the History of Mechanism and Machine Science, and also contains an illustrative presentation of the Museum of Engines and Mechanisms of the University of Palermo, Italy, which houses a collection of various pieces of machinery from the last 150 years.

The various sections deal with some eminent scientists of the past, with the history of industrial installations, machinery and transport, with the human inventiveness for mechanical and scientific devices, and with robots and human-driven automata. All chapters have been written by experts in their fields.

The volume shows a wide-ranging panorama on the historical progress of scientific and technical knowledge in the past centuries. It will stimulate new research and ideas for those involved in the history of Science and Technology.

Section I: Eminent Scientists of the Past.- 1 Lagrange as a Historian of Mechanics, by Agamenon Rodrigues Eufrásio Oliveira.- 2 Giuseppe Antonio Borgnis and his Handbook of Machine Designs, by Marco Ceccarelli.- 3 Tribute to Reuleaux, Roberto Bragastini.- 4 Elia Ovazza, Professor of TMM in Palermo around the End of the 19th Century, by Marco Ceccarelli, Francesco Sorge, Giuseppe Genchi.- 5 Academician K.V. Frolov at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, by Olga Egorova, Gennady Timofeev.- Section II: History of Industrial Installations.- 6 Historical Watermills: Architectural, Mechanical and Hydraulic Heritage, by Mario Centofanti, Stefano Brusaporci, Vittorio Lucchese.- 7 The Mill at the Lagoon of Orbetello. Mechanisms and Hydraulic Energy, by Emanuela Chiavoni.- 8 The Sulphur Mining Industry in Sicily, by Vincenzo Ferrara.- 9 The History of Aircraft Manufacturing at the Brasov IAR Plant, by Horia Salca, Dan Savescu.- 10 Science, Technology and Industry in Southern Italy Before the Unification, by Cesare Rossi, Marco Ceccarelli.- 11 Medium Size Companies of Mechanical Industry in North Italy During the Second Half of the 19th Century, by Yibing Fang, Marco Ceccarelli.- Section III: History of Machinery and Transport.- 12 The Museum of Engines and Mechanisms. More than a Century of History of Technology, by Riccardo Monastero, Giuseppe Genchi.- 13 History of the Trains Used on the Spanish Railway Line Madrid – Almorox, by Daniel Fernández Caballero, Víctor Rodríguez de la Cruz, Julián Martín Jarillo, Manuel Esperón Mínguez.- 14 Airship – The American Dream by Quirico Filopanti, 1851, Pier Gabriele Molari.-  Section IV: Human Inventiveness for Mechanical and Scientific Devices.- 15 Archimedes’ Screw in the Four Books “De Cochlea” by Guido Ubaldo del Monte [Santa Maria] – Venice – 1615: the Engineering and the Language, by Elena Magnini, Pier Gabriele Molari.- 16 On the Birth and Growth of Pendulum Clocks in the Early Modern Era, by Francesco Sorge, Marco Cammalleri, Giuseppe Genchi.- 17 Machine Designs and Drawings in Renaissance Editions of De Architectura by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, by Michela Cigola, Marco Ceccarelli.- 18 Trompes or Water Bellows. A Way of Producing Wind through the Fall of Water, by Umberto Meneghetti.- 19 Determination of Torsional Stresses in Shafts: From Physical Analogies to Mathematical Models, by Augusto Ajovalasit, Vincenzo Nigrelli, Giuseppe Pitarresi, Gabriele Virzì Mariotti.- Section V: Robots and Human-Driven Automata.- 20 The Automaton Nysa: Mechanism Design in Alexandria in the 3rd Century BC, by Teun Koetsier, Hanfried Kerle.- 21 Hindu Temple Carts – Rathams­, by Jammi Srinivasa Rao, Babaji Raja Bhonsle, Bigil Kumar.- 22 Robots: An Evolving Species, by Alberto Rovetta, Vincenzo Iannone.