[ [76] See Weihe, op. cit. (footnote 75), p. 3; Hans Zopke, "Professor Franz Reuleaux," Cassier's Magazine, December 1896, vol. 11, pp. 133-139; Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1904-1905, vol. 26, pp. 813-817.
[ [77] Engineering, London, September 8, 1876, vol. 22, p. 197.
Reuleaux's original ideas on kinematics, which are responsible for the way in which we look at mechanisms today, were sufficiently formed in 1864 for him to lecture upon them.[78] Starting in 1871, he published his findings serially in the publication of the Verein zur Beförderung des Gewerbefleisses in Preussen (Society for the Advancement of Industry in Prussia), of which he was editor. In 1875 these articles were brought together in the book that established his fame—Theoretische Kinematik....[79]
[ [78] A. E. Richard de Jonge, "What is Wrong with Kinematics and Mechanisms?" Mechanical Engineering, April 1942, vol. 64, pp. 273-278 (comments on this paper are in Mechanical Engineering, October 1942, vol. 64, pp. 744-751); Zopke, op. cit. (footnote 76), p. 135.
[ [79] Reuleaux, op. cit. (footnote 68). This was not the last of Reuleaux's books. His trilogy on kinematics and machine design is discussed by De Jonge, op. cit. (footnote 78).
In the introduction of this book, Reuleaux wrote:
In the development of every exact science, its substance having
grown sufficiently to make generalization possible, there is a time
when a series of changes bring it into clearness. This time has
most certainly arrived for the science of kinematics. The number of
mechanisms has grown almost out of measure, and the number of ways
in which they are applied no less. It has become absolutely
impossible still to hold the thread which can lead in any way
through this labyrinth by the existing methods.[80]
[ [80] Reuleaux, op. cit. (footnote 68), p. 23.
Reuleaux's confidence that it would be his own work that would bring order out of confusion was well founded. His book had already been translated into Italian and was being translated into French when, only a year after its publication, it was presented by Prof. Alexander B. W. Kennedy in English translation.[81]
[ [81] Ibid.,, p. iii.