5 ms·
507 Mechanical Movements
Book (1868): https://archive.org/details/fivehundredseven00browiala https://archive.org/details/fivehundredseven00browiala
- rkagerer 22d agoThis is great, but repetitive. A lot of them are minor variances on a previous example. Is there a shorter list that distills it down to novel examples of the major concepts?
- esmoryon 13d agocomment
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- WillAdams 22d agoOne of my favourite sites! and an interesting example of that class of sites which are book made into sites with animations/interaction --- the another classic and notable example is: https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm... Really wish that the folks doing the 507 Mechanical Movements would finish the balance of the animations. Curious if folks are aware of other similar text/website combinations which are still extant (many others such as Bembo's Zoo are no longer available, and of course at one point in time, this sort of thing was the province of CD-ROMs such as Leonardo).
- pcshah1996 22d agoIf you haven't checked it out before, Nicholas Rougeux often does these types of modernization conversions for older printed content: https://www.c82.net/ https://www.c82.net/ e.g. here's a very beautiful reproduction of Euclid's elements https://www.c82.net/work/euclid https://www.c82.net/work/euclid
- WillAdams 22d agoYes, I'm familiar with his work --- it's very nice, but it's not the on-line and animated/interactive thing I was trying to describe/specify/ask about.
- emacdona 22d agoMany of these aren't animated... which gives me a great(?) idea for a new AI benchmark: "Animate the mechanical movement at this URL: ..." Way more telling that "draw a pelican on a bicycle"
- worldsayshi 22d agoAlso, set up formulas for calculating speed, torque, forces etc, of each system. Then create a modular simulation library and point and click simulator where all the component variants are covered so that the user can piece new systems together using those components.
- bonestamp2 22d agoAlso include sliders so parameters can be adjusted to see how it affects the mechanism (ex. wheel radius).
- scrollop 22d agoIronically, before coming to the comments I was thinking this would be a good dataset for llms to learn real world mechanics.
- MisterTea 22d agoFor me it's a great dataset to train my own brain. This way when I'm in the field and need to come up with a fix for something I can query my intellect and come up with a solution. No accounts, internet connection, or compute needed!
- svobodamartin 22d agoYou would become one big walking practical-solution-providing library of expertise hiding in a human form.
- MSKJ 22d ago
- stoneman24 22d agoWell, there’s a book from my past. Got the book to see if I could find a clever way to get high speed, low displacement and high torque from small motors without huge gearing. The side project was dropped as life got in the way, but I really enjoyed looking at all the different mechanisms.
- jjkaczor 22d agoAs a "wannabe" DIY engineer/maker and also in the 3d-printing hobby world, this is a wonderful resource...
- jihadjihad 22d agoIt makes me want to find a way to boot up The Incredible Machine [0], so many hours spent on TIM and TIM2 back in the day. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine
- sys32768 22d agoHere you go: https://archive.org/details/the_incredible_machine_1992 https://archive.org/details/the_incredible_machine_1992
- wowczarek 22d agoGood times. Ever played Sid & Al's Incredible Toons [0]? Same same concept, from the same people (Sierra / Dynamix), but with a slightly different take and an emphasis on silliness / humour. A sound card was a must though. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_&_Al's_Incredible_Toons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_&_Al's_Incredible_Toons
- nsbk 22d agoThis so much! What great games, probably my favorites over the early FPSs of the time, but in close contention with Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island
- bradly 22d agoThe developer for TIM made a modern version called Contraption Maker that is a lot of the same feel and available on Steam. There is a free playable demo that plays well on my 16G M1 Macbook Air. Full version is $12.99 USD https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/
- mklyachman 22d agoHonestly, I miss old-style internet sites like this. Nothing fancy, just good niched out information. No 300 MB loads for something that should be simple.
- herodotus 22d agoI would love to see good animations of a differential gear and a detente escapement.
- mkl 22d agoPast discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436, 27 comments 11 years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26373539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26373539, 30 comments 5 years ago.
- dang 22d agoThanks! Macroexpanded: Five hundred and seven Mechanical Movements - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41579354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41579354 - Sept 2024 (5 comments) 507 Mechanical Movements (1868) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26373539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26373539 - March 2021 (30 comments) Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19968114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19968114 - May 2019 (147 comments) 507 Mechanical Movements (1868) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10374436 - Oct 2015 (27 comments) Mechanical Movements, Animated - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8019787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8019787 - July 2014 (1 comment) Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6230363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6230363 - Aug 2013 (66 comments) Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements (1868) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5660770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5660770 - May 2013 (25 comments)
- OJFord 22d agoPassim: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=507movements.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=507movements.com
- mohamedkoubaa 22d agoNow imagine if each of them got the ciechanow.ski treatment
- bilsbie 22d agoThis would be cool AI training data.
- colinhb 22d agoIt is already in current training data. Both the book and website.
- frnz 22d agoThe first two examples I looked at (https://507movements.com/mm_016.html https://507movements.com/mm_016.html and https://507movements.com/mm_015.html https://507movements.com/mm_015.html) have the ropes partially going in the wrong direction.
- jackpirate 22d agoThey both look fine to me. But I do notice some weird aliasing effects in the animation that makes it difficult to identify the direction of fast moving rope. Maybe that's the problem?
- wowczarek 22d agoIt's a great collection and exploring it is fun, but it misses on titles / names of the given linkage or movement. It makes sense when you are reading the book [0], but on a site like this where you see the individual item in isolation, a title or name would be helpful. 0: https://archive.org/details/fivehundredseven00browiala https://archive.org/details/fivehundredseven00browiala
- the-mitr 22d agoOf possible interest Mechanisms in Modern Engineering Design: A Handbook for Engineers, Designers and Inventors by I. I. Artobolevsky. In 5 volumes and seven books https://mirtitles.org/2018/10/13/mechanisms-in-modern-engineering-design-artobolevsky/ https://mirtitles.org/2018/10/13/mechanisms-in-modern-engine...
- inChargeOfIT 22d agothanks for this!
- mech422 22d agoThis is great! Very interesting - thanks!
- engineer_22 22d agoThese things don't have names they have descriptions of how they work. But I see your point that some of them are described only in reference to another movement with a more complete description.
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- fifilura 22d agoAlso, Christopher Polhem was a Swedish inventor who created the "mechanical alphabet" https://sketchfab.com/Tekniskamuseet/models https://sketchfab.com/Tekniskamuseet/models
- akshay_akula 22d agoThis site is a treasure for anyone who has ever tried to get useful motion out of a small motor. The wish for them to finish the remaining animations is very real.
- stmw 22d agoIneed, it's a very good book. Someone should make an animated website version, though.
- khazhoux 22d agoI found this which might interest you: https://507movements.com/ https://507movements.com/
- pkilgore 22d ago414 is just 1 with extra steps.
- latexr 22d agoHow are these the same? https://507movements.com/mm_001.html https://507movements.com/mm_001.html https://507movements.com/mm_414.html https://507movements.com/mm_414.html
- agrue 22d agoPlugging a yt channel that posts lots of these sort of models: https://youtube.com/@thang010146 https://youtube.com/@thang010146
- dtjohnnymonkey 22d agoThis YT channel is the first thing I thought of when I saw the site.
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- twobitshifter 22d agoRobert Murray Smith made many videos on mechanisms like these https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingandTinkering/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingandTinkering/videos
- georgemcbay 22d agoHadn't seen this channel before. Its great, but also pretty tragic. For those who also haven't seen it before who might follow: the presenter (who demonstrates the mechanical mechanisms) lost his wife to a heart attack in 2024, kept the channel going for another 1.5 years, made a seemingly happy 'My Last Video' video that presented the end as just running out of new things to talk about, then he killed himself.
- victorbjorklund 22d agoDon’t most of these have ”names”? At least I would assume they have names so people know what they are talking about.
- amelius 22d agoCan these be generated automatically from a small set of primitives?
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- ThatOneSong 22d agoIt reminds me of a YouTube channel where I found the best song ever made. Does anyone know
- warpech 22d agoI was expecting a new HTTP status code
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- kazinator 22d agoWhat is the purpose of using bearings to build a crank mechanism as in 39? https://507movements.com/mm_039.html https://507movements.com/mm_039.html Maybe it's for bearing efficiency? Note that the spur gears are rigidly attached to, respectively, the crank and the shaft. So they don't require bearings at their centres. There is a link arm which pulls the gears together, and that rotates. But the key is that this arm is not transmitting the cranking power; it just holds the parts together. So its bushings/bearings don't have to be so hefty. (Their load is going to be proportional to the transmitted power; obviously the bigger the crank and more horsepower going through it, the more tightly you have to hold the gears together. But it's going to be some fraction compared to a bearing that is directly driven.) The note only alludes to this mechanism being used to elude a patent claim, not mentioning any advantages. Someone had patented cranks in such a way that you can weasel your way out with this arrangement. I'm guessing that the patent's drawings and descriptions specifically indicated a rotating bushing on the crank wheel where the arm is attached, and this has no such arm attachment.
- deleted 22d ago[deleted]
- derriz 22d agoLooks like there's contact between the outer diameter of the sun-gear and a surface close to the center of the planet-gear? The link arm is pulling them together and this contact keeps them apart I guess. The rotation speeds are different so you'd need a bearing? I dunno tbh - I'm not sure what the colors represent and I'm not even sure if I'm using the correct words to describe what I see.
- labcomputer 22d agoAvoiding patent infringement. James Pickard modified the Newcomen steam engine to deliver rotary motion using a crank (and patented it). So James Watt used the sun and planet for his steam engine to avoid infringing the patent. The Picard patent specifies that the crank is fixed to the driveshaft, but it is free to rotate in the sun and planet setup
- cestith 22d agoI’ve had this book for a few years. It’s nice to see it in this format.
- andrewcl 22d agoYou know the Museum of Science in Boston has a bunch of these made in real life iirc for the World Fair in Chicago. They are so fun to see since there's a button you can toggle to activate them. My kid loves watching them go. For ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clark_Collection_of_Mechanical_Movements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clark_Collection_of_Mechan...
- taftster 22d agoI'd love to play a game that uses these as building blocks. Is there anything that approaches it?
- NetMageSCW 21d agoErector sets now owned by Meccano came with pulleys and girders that could be assembled with nuts and bolts, but are not focused on these types of mechanisms.
- fernly 22d agoCan we request animations? I want to see #27 working: https://507movements.com/mm_027.html https://507movements.com/mm_027.html
- NetMageSCW 21d agoSomehow makes me think about a Wankel rotary engine.
- nickpinkston 22d agoTwo more great books to have in the mechanical world: "Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals" - amazing photos, diagrams, explanations, etc. of every major manufacturing process - great coffee table book. https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Processes-Design-Professionals-Thompson/dp/0500513759 https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Processes-Design-Profes... "Materials Selection in Mechanical Design" - great book with "Ashby Charts" that let you compare materials against their material properties - e.g. strength vs. weight. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0750661682 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0750661682
- XenophileJKO 22d agoI really love this book, I found a first edition copy in a used bookstore in Maine on vacation. https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.14756/page/3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.14756/page/3/mode/2up
- PufPufPuf 22d ago"507 Mechanical Movements" is a rare HTTP status code, usually only used when the request can't be fulfilled due to an earthquake
- gosub100 22d ago226 is the coolest. Doubles the speed without changing the number of teeth.
- Razengan 22d agoSomewhat similar by the epic Bartosz Ciechanowski: https://ciechanow.ski/gears/ https://ciechanow.ski/gears/
- stevep98 22d agoThis guy has quite a lot of videos of various mechanisms if you’re into that sort of thing https://youtube.com/@thang010146?si=b91XElCL_-TgGMte https://youtube.com/@thang010146?si=b91XElCL_-TgGMte
- hansihe 22d agoMentioned in another comment as well, but I indexed most of his videos: https://mechanisms.ln.gy/ https://mechanisms.ln.gy/
- hommelix 22d agoIf you ever happened to go through Karlsruhe, Germany, there is a collection of mechanical transmission models from Redtenbacher. Some models were on display in the mechanical engineering building at the university. I could only find this link (in German) about the collection. https://redtenbachersteyr.com/redtenbacher-in-karlsruhe/ https://redtenbachersteyr.com/redtenbacher-in-karlsruhe/ One student from Redtenbacher was Reuleaux and there is another collection of transmission from Reuleaux at Cornell university. https://engineering.library.cornell.edu/kmoddl/ https://engineering.library.cornell.edu/kmoddl/
- tomcam 22d agoI don't approve. I can't find a donation link.
- magicmicah85 22d agoI feel like this is a website that needs to be made available with one of those swiss army USB sticks for collecting useful knowledge in case of apocalypse. Very cool.
- kylecazar 22d agoCool site. I started training seriously and the first thing that came to mind when seeing these movements was... Why did it take us so long to make weight machines (19th century) if we knew the effect of resistance training for millennia AND had the mechanical understanding? The answer appears to be free weights did the job and people only became sedentary recently.
- m463 22d agoI wonder if 3-d printing will extend this... There are some weird things you can make nowadays. EDIT: now I find stuff like "walking table" and I wonder if that kind of thing predates 3d printing.
- freeopinion 22d agoThe Book of Ingenious Mechanical Devices was published in 1206. https://historymedieval.com/ismail-al-jazaris-marvelous-machines-of-the-12th-century/ https://historymedieval.com/ismail-al-jazaris-marvelous-mach...
- PinkaDunka 22d agoPlease lock this submission at 507 points…
- hansihe 22d agoSlightly relevant, I built https://mechanisms.ln.gy/ https://mechanisms.ln.gy/ a little while ago Indexed and filterable index of over 4000 visualised mechanisms by thang010146 on YouTube
- hn4e309qn4 22d ago[dead]
- teeray 22d agoIf you get a chance to visit the Museum of Science in Boston, one of my favorite exhibits there is a living version of a whole bunch of these that appeared at a World’s Fair. Some of them are quite clever.
- TacticalCoder 22d agoI've got a book, hand-written, from the early 20th century where my great-great-grandfather (or something like that) made drawings while he was studying to become an engineer. The drawings are really wonderful and I wonder if I should scan them so that AI can have even more data or if I should selfishly keep them just for my daughter. Maybe something in between: maybe scan one page once in a while and post it. Those drawings aren't animated but they look much better than the originals on that site: they're in colors and both work of art and engineering.
- red_admiral 21d agoThis is great! My first thought reading the title was this was going to be about HTTP error code 507 because something is moving data around mechanically ;)
- saltcured 21d agoHmm, so "507 Insufficient Storage" when your station wagon can't hold all the tapes?