that is to say, their velocities are opposite as to inwardness and outwardness and inversely proportional to their areas.
§ 26. Applications: Hydraulic Press: Pneumatic Power-Transmitter.—In the hydraulic press the vessel consists of two cylinders, viz. the pump-barrel and the press-barrel, each having its piston, and of a passage connecting them having a valve opening towards the press-barrel. The action of the enclosed water in transmitting motion takes place during the inward stroke of the pump-plunger, when the above-mentioned valve is open; and at that time the press-plunger moves outwards with a velocity which is less than the inward velocity of the pump-plunger, in the same ratio that the area of the pump-plunger is less than the area of the press-plunger. (See [Hydraulics].)
In the pneumatic power-transmitter the motion of one piston is transmitted to another at a distance by means of a mass of air contained in two cylinders and an intervening tube. When the pressure and temperature of the air can be maintained constant, this machine fulfils equation (2), like the hydraulic press. The amount and effect of the variations of pressure and temperature undergone by the air depend on the principles of the mechanical action of heat, or [Thermodynamics] (q.v.), and are foreign to the subject of pure mechanism.
Division 3. Motion of a Rigid Solid.
§ 27. Motions Classed.—In problems of mechanism, each solid piece of the machine is supposed to be so stiff and strong as not to undergo any sensible change of figure or dimensions by the forces applied to it—a supposition which is realized in practice if the machine is skilfully designed.
This being the case, the various possible motions of a rigid solid body may all be classed under the following heads: (1) Shifting or Translation; (2) Turning or Rotation; (3) Motions compounded of Shifting and Turning.
The most common forms for the paths of the points of a piece of mechanism, whose motion is simple shifting, are the straight line and the circle.
Shifting in a straight line is regulated either by straight fixed guides, in contact with which the moving piece slides, or by combinations of link-work, called parallel motions, which will be described in the sequel. Shifting in a straight line is usually reciprocating; that is to say, the piece, after shifting through a certain distance, returns to its original position by reversing its motion.
Circular shifting is regulated by attaching two or more points of the shifting piece to ends of equal and parallel rotating cranks, or by combinations of wheel-work to be afterwards described. As an example of circular shifting may be cited the motion of the coupling rod, by which the parallel and equal cranks upon two or more axles of a locomotive engine are connected and made to rotate simultaneously. The coupling rod remains always parallel to itself, and all its points describe equal and similar circles relatively to the frame of the engine, and move in parallel directions with equal velocities at the same instant.
§ 28. Rotation about a Fixed Axis: Lever, Wheel and Axle.—The fixed axis of a turning body is a line fixed relatively to the body and relatively to the fixed space in which the body turns. In mechanism it is usually the central line either of a rotating shaft or axle having journals, gudgeons, or pivots turning in fixed bearings, or of a fixed spindle or dead centre round which a rotating bush turns; but it may sometimes be entirely beyond the limits of the turning body. For example, if a sliding piece moves in circular fixed guides, that piece rotates about an ideal fixed axis traversing the centre of those guides.