Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt

Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt, by Eugene S. Ferguson, says that James Watt radically altered the steam engine not only by adding a separate condenser but by creating a whole new family of linkages. The study suggests that a highly developed intuitive sense, reinforced by a knowledge of the past, is still indispensable to the design, despite the glamor of today's sophisticated methods of calculation. The contents list sections called TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE, SCHOLARS AND MACHINES and MECHANISMS IN AMERICA, 1875-1955.

The study says mechanisms that employed screws, cams, and gears were certainly in use by the beginning of the Christian era, and that the actual design of mechanisms had been going on for several centuries before the time of Watt. The study mentions that Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) delineated, if he did not build, a crank and slider mechanism, also for a sawmill, and that Agostino Ramelli published his book on machines in 1588. The study says Giuseppe Antonio Borgnis introduced six orders of machine elements and subdivided these into classes and species.