title: Simple Working Models Of Historic Machines (MIT Press)
author: Aubrey F. Burstall
description: " This book will be a delight for anyone who is interested in the history of science and is mechincally curious. Isometric and a few oblique drawings are presented for working models of 35 machines.... The model maker is allowed sufficient leeway for his own improvisation." -- "Library Journal"<br /><br />" The pages present succinct descriptions, drawings and photographs of about three dozen marvelous gadgets from the heroic history of technology, all realized as working models. There is no attempt to follow scale, materials or finish in authentic detail; the aim is to abstract and exhibit the 'particular go' of each machine. Most of the devices are to be made at the woodworker's bench, with some sheet-metal, plastic, rope, or hardboard parts. A number call for machined metal gearing that is beyond amateur skills; one can criticize the absense of much effort here to help young people take advantage of the rich marketplace of manufactured parts in our technological era. The book is nonetheless a pleasure and a challenge. Who would not like to see working models of the device used to generate screw threads without copying any existing thread; of the Chinese spoon-tile hammer, an automatic water-power scheme still familiar in Japanese gardens, or of the Cornish man-engine, a vertical moving belt of miners, forerunner of the mine hoist?" -- "Scientific American"<br /><br />&amp; quot; This book will be a delight for anyone who is interested in the history of science and is mechincally curious. Isometric and a few oblique drawings are presented for working models of 35 machines.... The model maker is allowed sufficient leeway for his own improvisation.&amp; quot; -- Library Journal<br /><br />&amp; quot; The pages present succinct descriptions, drawings and photographs of about three dozen marvelous gadgets from the heroic history of technology, all realized as working models. There is no attempt to follow scale, materials or finish in authentic detail; the aim is to abstract and exhibit the 'particular go' of each machine. Most of the devices are to be made at the woodworker's bench, with some sheet-metal, plastic, rope, or hardboard parts. A number call for machined metal gearing that is beyond amateur skills; one can criticize the absense of much effort here to help young people take advantage of the rich marketplace of manufactured parts in our technological era. The book is nonetheless a pleasure and a challenge. Who would not like to see working models of the device used to generate screw threads without copying any existing thread; of the Chinese spoon-tile hammer, an automatic water-power scheme still familiar in Japanese gardens, or of the Cornish man-engine, a vertical moving belt of miners, forerunner of the mine hoist?&amp; quot; -- Scientific American<br /><br />"The pages present succinct descriptions, drawings and photographs of about three dozen marvelous gadgets from the heroic history of technology, all realized as working models. There is no attempt to follow scale, materials or finish in authentic detail; the aim is to abstract and exhibit the 'particular go' of each machine. Most of the devices are to be made at the woodworker's bench, with some sheet-metal, plastic, rope, or hardboard parts. A number call for machined metal gearing that is beyond amateur skills; one can criticize the absense of much effort here to help young people take advantage of the rich marketplace of manufactured parts in our technological era. The book is nonetheless a pleasure and a challenge. Who would not like to see working models of the device used to generate screw threads without copying any existing thread; of the Chinese spoon-tile hammer, an automatic water-power scheme still familiar in Japanese gardens, or of the Cornish man-engine, a vertical movin<br /><br />"This book will be a delight for anyone who is interested in the history of science and is mechincally curious. Isometric and a few oblique drawings are presented for working models of 35 machines.... The model maker is allowed sufficient leeway for his own improvisation."--"Library Journal"
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  ![](index-1_1.jpg)
  
  
  THE MACHINES OF LEONARDO DA VINCI AND FRANZ REULEAUX
  
  
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  HISTORY OF MECHANISM AND MACHINE SCIENCE
  
  
  ## Volume 2
  
  
  ### _Series Editor_
  
  
  
  
  
  G.M.L. CECCARELLI
  
  
  _Aims and Scope of the Series_
  
  
  This book series aims to establish a well defined forum for Monographs and
  Proceedings on the History of Mechanism and Machine Science (MMS). The series
  publishes works that give an overview of the historical developments, from the
  earliest times up to and including the recent past, of MMS in all its
  technical aspects.
  
  
  This technical approach is an essential characteristic of the series. By
  discussing technical details and formulations and even reformulating those in
  terms of modern formalisms the possibility is created not only to track the
  historical technical developments but also to use past experiences in
  technical teaching and research today. In order to do so, the emphasis must be
  on technical aspects rather than a purely historica