[ [99] North-American Review and Miscellaneous Journal, 1819, new ser., vol. 8, pp. 13-15, 25.
The Scientific American, which appeared in 1845 as a patent journal edited by the patent promoter Rufus Porter, carried almost from its beginning a column or so entitled "Mechanical Movements," in which one or two mechanisms—borrowed from an English work that had borrowed from a French work—were illustrated and explained. The American Artisan began a similar series in 1864, and in 1868 it published a compilation of the series as Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements, "embracing all those which are most important in dynamics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, steam engines ... and miscellaneous machinery."[100] This collection went through many editions; it was last revived in 1943 under the title A Manual of Mechanical Movements. This 1943 edition included photographs of kinematic models.[101]
[ [100] Henry T. Brown, ed., Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements, New York, 1868.
[ [101] Will M. Clark, A Manual of Mechanical Movements, Garden City, New York, 1943.
Many readers are already well acquainted with the three volumes of Ingenious Mechanisms for Designers and Inventors,[102] a work that resulted from a contest, announced by Machinery (vol. 33, p. 405) in 1927, in which seven prizes were offered for the seven best articles on unpublished ingenious mechanisms.
[ [102] Ingenious Mechanisms for Designers and Inventors (vols. 1 and 2 edited by F. D. Jones, vol. 3 edited by H. L. Horton), New York, Industrial Press, 1930-1951.
There was an interesting class of United States patents called "Mechanical Movements" that comprised scores of patents issued throughout the middle decades of the 19th century. A sampling of these patents shows that while some were for devices used in particular machines—such as a ratchet device for a numbering machine, a locking index for unmaking machinery, and a few gear trains—the great majority were for converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion. Even a cursory examination of these patents reveals an appalling absence of sound mechanical sense, and many of them appear to be attempts at "perpetual motion," in spite of an occasional disclaimer of such intent.
Typical of many of these patented devices was a linkage for "multiplying" the motion of a flywheel, proposed in 1841 by Charles Johnson of Amity, Illinois (fig. 37). "It is not pretended that there is any actual gain of power," wrote Mr. Johnson; and probably he meant it. The avowed purpose of his linkage was to increase the speed of a flywheel and thus decrease its size.[103]
[ [103] U.S. Patent 2295, October 11, 1841.
