Applications

Typefounding, Lettering, & Printing

At present this consists primarily of my project to study "hot metal" type making and letterpress printing (The Circuitous Root Typefoundry and Press).

Telegraphy

Telecommunications when it had style.

Landline manual telegraphy and electromechanical teletypewriter service. Practical telegraphy for the home.

The Teletypesetter will be covered in the Typefoundry.

Geometric Mechanisms

Machines which construct geometry. As drawing instruments. As toys. As machine tools. As machines themselves. Links to the same in other Notebooks.

Construction Toys

Links and Bibliography. Juneero.

Mechanical Breadboard Systems

In electronics, a "breadboard" is a generic construction base for projects. By extension, a "Mechanical Breadboard" is the same for mechanical construction projects. There have been several commercial mechanical breadboard systems, but none is or has been common. This topic overlaps constructively (no pun intended) with modular construction systems and construction toys ( see above). A good argument can be made that Meccano is the most successful mechanical breadboarding sytem ever.

I find this topic endlessly fascinating (probably because as a child I really wanted the American knockoff of Meccano, Erector). But as I've come to need such a mechanical breadboarding or modular mechanical construction system in my own hobby projects I have decided that no existing system quite fit my needs and desires. These Notebooks first briefly list all of the systems of which I am aware and then document a very simple system that I've developed for my own use. (You're welcome to use it too, if you'd like, but I don't think that it is good enough to promote.)

Model Engineering

[NOT DONE] The history and philosophy of model engineering. Projects not covered elsewhere.

Mechanick Exercises

MOVE THESE ELSEWHERE: [NOT DONE] An ongoing miscellany of very short projects in the construction of mechanisms and tools.

Steam Engines (& Related)

[NOT DONE] Historical & technical studies, and model engineering projects, in stationary and marine steam engines. Non-rotative and rotative beam engines,; atmospheric or Newcomen engines; maybe turbines someday. Also, compressed air engines & vacuum engines. For steam locomotives, see Rail.

Electrical Components

[NOT ONLINE YET] Electromagnets. [Batteries.] [perhaps a few larger projects,] but do Telegraphy separately, above .

Horology

The technical and antiquarian study of time machinery.

Note: For watches as they appeared in jewelers' catalogues, see the Jewelry Notebooks, below.

Jewelry

The craft of jewelry making is the most ancient of the fine technologies.

Rail

[NOT DONE] Steam locomotives, of course, but also non-steam conventional rail, cable cars, and rack & funicular rail.

Sculpture

[NOT DONE] Both static and kinetic, in all media.

On Divers Arts

[NOT DONE] Whatever won't fit anywhere else.

CircuitousRoot Project Organization

The system for numbering projects, drawings, etc. in my hobby work.

Open Source Hardware on CircuitousRoot

An index, together with terms of use.