Table of Contents

1 Anonymous Developments 1

On Machines Before Man 2

On the Machines of Primitive Man 6

On Popular Machines 13

2 Chinese Inventions and Machines 19

On War Machines 20

On Textile Machinery 23

On Hydraulic Machinery 26

On Clocks and Automatons 33

On Continuity over the Millennia 42

3 Mechanical Engineering in Antiquity 43

On Technological Evidence 44

On the Development of Ingenious Mechanisms 45

On Gears and Screws 52

On the Way to Mechanical Engineering 53

On Vitruvius's Influence 59

On Harmony in Machines 60

4 Medieval Machines and Mechanisms 65

On Raising Water 66

On Clocks and Automatons 74

On the Transition in Europe 84

5 The Machine Renaissance 91

On War Machines 94

On Lifting Machines 95

On Hydraulic Machines 101

On Machine Tools 106

On Machines for Traction and Transport 108

On Machines for the Rural World 111

On Domestic Apparatus 112

6 Machines in the First Colonial Empires 117

On Raising Water 118

On Mills 123

On Lifting Devices 133

On Other Devices 133

On Machinery and Precious Metals 136

On Automatons 138

7 Machinery During the Industrial Revolution 141

On Textile Machinery 141

On the Evolution of Handcraft Manufacturing 147

On Machine Tools 151

On Hydraulic Machines 152

On Steam Engines 155

On the Development of Transport 164

On Automatic Astronomical Devices 164

8 A Vision on Machines 169

On Re-examining Greco-Roman Works 169

On the Systematisation of Machine Study 172

On Progress in Practical Use 185

On Mathematization of Mechanism Design 189

On Machine Training 194

Final Remarks 199

Looking at the Future 200

On the Challenge of Biodevices 202

On the Challenges with Mechatronics 203

Chronic Table 207

References 213