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History of Mechanical Engineering
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Wheel and Axle
A simple machine that reduces the friction involved in moving objects, fundamental for transportation and machinery.
Inclined Plane
A flat surface tilted at an angle to help raise or lower loads, significantly reducing the force needed.
Lever
A rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum, used to transmit and enhance power or motion.
Pulley
A wheel with a grooved rim in which a rope can run to change the direction of the pull and thereby lift a load.
Gears
A rotating machine part having cut teeth, which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque and speed.
Steam Engine
An engine that uses the expansion or rapid condensation of steam to generate power, a driving force behind the Industrial Revolution.
Internal Combustion Engine
An engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid.
Bearing
A machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion and reduces friction between moving parts.
Crankshaft
A part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation, fundamental in converting motion.
Camshaft
A shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part, controlling the input of fuel to an engine.
Flywheel
A heavy rotating disc which is used to smooth out power delivery and store rotational energy.
Hydraulic Press
A device using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force, utilizing Pascal's Law.
Screw
An inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder, used to convert rotational force to linear force and motion.
Lathe Machine
A machine tool primarily used for shaping pieces of metal (or occasionally other materials) by causing the workpiece to be held and rotated by the lathe while a tool bit is advanced into the work causing a cutting action.
Cotton Gin
A machine invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 to remove cotton seeds from cotton fibers, increased cotton production and was a historical factor in the American Civil War.
Assembly Line
A manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with traditional methods.
Differential Gear
A gear train with three shafts that has the property that the angular velocity of one shaft is the average of the angular velocities of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average.
Sextant
A navigational instrument used to measure the angle of elevation of a celestial object above the horizon, crucial for celestial navigation.
Water Wheel
A machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill.
Steam Turbine
A mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and converts it into rotary motion, widely used in power generation plants.
Refrigeration
The process of moving heat from one location to another by the use of vapor compression or absorption cycles.
Turbine
A device that captures energy from fluid flow and converts it to useful work, commonly seen in wind turbines and hydroelectric power generators.
Dynamo
An early electrical generator that produces direct current with the use of a commutator, instrumental in electricity production in the 19th century.
Jet Engine
A type of reaction engine that discharges a fast-moving jet of fluid to generate thrust in accordance with Newton's third law of motion.
3D Printing
A process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file, creating the final product by laying down many successive thin layers of a material.
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