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Historical Mechanisms for Drawing Curves

Author
Taimina, Daina
Abstract
Mechanical devices such as linkages for drawing curves are known
already from Ancient Greece. Later linkages found use in different mechanical
devices and machines like we can see it in 13th century drawings by Honnecourt
or in 16th century machine drawings by Agricola. In 17th century Descartes
accepted only those curves that had a mechanical device to draw them.
Mechanical curve drawing devices later became incorporated into different
machine design. In this paper examples from Reuleaux kinematic model collection
in Cornell University are given and some history of linkages discussed.
Date Issued
2004-04-21Publisher
Cornell Library Technical Reports and Papers
Subject
Mechanical devices; drawing devices
Type
technical report