Geometric Mechanisms

This is a subset of the Notebooks which cannot really work as a category unto itself. All mechanisms describe geometries, if only implicitly. Some, though, make a point of it.

But only a few of these machines do nothing but demonstrate geometry. Most have other uses: they are drawing instruments, or machine tools (especially in Ornamental Turning), or parts of steam engines (such as Watt's "parallel" (approximate straight-line) motion), or simply toys (and frequently some of the best toys ever made!) Several of these "applications" are already established parts of my Notebooks, so sometimes I'll describe a mechanism here and sometimes I'll just link elsewhere.

This actually helps the second problem, which is that the same mechanism can show up in several applications. A straight-line mechanism might be equally useful as a drafting instrument or a steam engine subsystem. This set of Notebooks lets me cross-link these.

The last basic problem that I can think of right now is one of classification here: Do I classify mechanisms by their underlying geometry (all straight line mechanisms, all cycloid-generating mechanisms, etc.)? Or do I classify them by the type of machine they are (a toy, a drawing instrument, a lathe, etc.)? I'll be illogical and do a bit of both.

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