Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science

Lorenzo Allievi is best known for the Water hammer solution, which he proposed in 1903. But he also contributed to Mechanism Design with the milestone work ‘Cinematica delle Biella Piana’ (Kinematics of Planar Couplers), published in 1895 as an original work from application of the Burmester Theory. His lifetime’s professional activity cemented him as a Captain of Industry, as he experienced success in many Italian enterprises and organizations.

Leonid Assur solved a great challenge. He devised a classification system of planar linkages with lower pairs based on the theory of mechanisms. This system turned out to be remarkably productive, as it described not only all of the hinge mechanisms known at that time, but also showed how to form the new ones. After Assur’s death, his ideas were further developed in the works of his fellow Russian and foreign researchers.

Giuseppe Antonio Borgnis was among the first pupils of the newly-formed Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, after which he transferred his expertise to the University of Pavia in Italy where he enjoyed a long life of teaching activity. He contributed to the development of professional skills with the publication of a 9-volume handbook on machines that included his own classification and the first volume of technical terminology to be used in Europe in the 19th century.

Chun-Hung Chiang was a pioneer in the academic field of mechanism and machine design in Taiwan. His major research contribution was in the study of spherical mechanisms. While associated with numerical computing methods going back to the 1970s, he introduced body guidance, path generation, and function generation to the classical spherical mechanisms, and he developed concise research in regard to spherical mechanisms. Furthermore, he founded the committee/society of mechanism and machine theory in Taiwan and led the group to join IFToMM in 1983.

Konstantin Vasiljevich Frolov was a well-known scientist and one of the pioneers of vibration study, including its influence on machines and human beings. He received many high honors and awards in his Motherland and great recognition abroad. He devoted his life to the development and promotion of the Russian (Soviet) Engineering School, contributing to modern Mechanism and Machine Science through his work as engineer, scientist, and as the Director of the Institute for Machine Science named after A. A. Blagonravov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Yeong-sil Jang (called Jang Yeong-sil in the Korean style, Unknown) was a Korean inventor and mechanical engineer who served as chief court engineer under King Sejong of the Joseon dynasty (AD 1392–1910). He made two Striking Clepsydras (Jagyeong-nu) in the course of equipping the Royal Observatory in AD 1432–38. He invented liquid-driven discrete ball-falling mechanisms and ball-driven discrete motion control mechanisms for operating dual-time-announcing devices, and applied these towards making the Striking Palace Clepsydra. He developed the mechanisms and employed them to make a functional astronomical clock, the Striking Heavenly Clepsydra, which worked in conjunction with a water-powered wheel drive. The clepsydra was a standard timekeeper capable of announcing twelve double-hours with a bell simultaneous with a visual display indicating the current time. Five night-watches and their twenty-five points could also be announced by way of a drum and gong without human involvement. The stories of his works are told in the Annals of Sejong issued in 1454 and are supplemented by accounts in the dynastic documents afterwards. His innovations on mechanism design led to subsequent astronomical clocks from the seventeenth century onwards in Korea. Not only did he assimilate the techniques of his Korean, Chinese and Islamic predecessors, but was also creative and innovative in the history of mechanism and machine design.

After the death in 1922 of Wilhelm Hartmann, the direct successor of Franz Reuleaux in the “Lehrstuhl für Getriebelehre” (Chair of Kinematics) at the Technische Hochschule (TH) in Berlin-Charlottenburg, there was a succession of interim professors, until Hermann Alt from Dresden finally got the chair in 1939, again as full professor. Karl Hoecken belonged to this row of interims, serving from 1930 to 1934. Looking through Hoecken’s estate, we find some new aspects of the famous kinematic model collection established by Reuleaux. This paper also takes up four publications by Hoecken on mechanisms, models and their kinematic equations, and thus, gives a historical overview of Hoecken’s contribution to the field of kinematics at that time.

Michael S. Konstantinov was one of the founding fathers of IFToMM and was relevant to the development of MMS through achievements in Mechanism Design and early Robotics between 1950 and 1990.

Francisc Viliam Kovács was an innovator in mechanism science and a pioneer in Romanian robotics. His contributions cover a wide theoretical and applicative area. Furthermore, he was a talented manager, who founded the robotics section within the higher education at the University “Politehnica” of Timişoara. He wrote original books and developed new laboratories. His outstanding academic personality facilitated the launching of numerous scientific collaborations worldwide.

Jan Oderfeld contributed greatly to the field of machines and mechanism science, especially with his achievements in the development of aircraft jet engines, classification of machines and mechanisms, and introduction of optimization methods in mechanical design. He promoted engineering study and was one of the founding fathers of the IFToMM—the International Federation for Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science. He was the innovator of significant improvements in complex machinery, as well as an excellent teacher to many generations of mechanical engineers. By developing and improving jet engines, he significantly contributed to the progress of aeronautical engineering.

One of the leading scientific and pedagogical schools of Bauman University in the first half of the 20th century was the school of Applied Mechanics—Professor Leonid Smirnov’s TMM. A number of well-known scientists who subsequently founded their own scientific and pedagogical schools came from it. This article describes the evolution of the teaching course in applied mechanics—the TMM of Professor L. Smirnov—in the 1st half of the 20th century. The main focus of his work was given to the comprehensive application of a graphic method of setting parameters for calculating machines.

Kurt Rauh was a scientist who with his practically oriented approach not only in mechanism theory but also in machine design, patent theory and agricultural engineering started a new research and teaching era of the above subjects at RWTH Aachen University.

This paper will discuss the life and career of Leonid Nikolayevich Reshetov, professor of MSTU, Honored Inventor of RSFSR. He was a great engineer, scientist and inventor. His contribution to the science of Mechanisms and Machines is truly invaluable; he took an active part in improvement of courses in the Theory of Mechanisms and Machines and development of Machinery Design. He developed a new research area in Theory of Mechanisms and Machines: Theory of Rational Mechanisms, also known as self-aligning mechanisms. For many years he was the curator of the Collection of Mechanisms at the Department of TMM. More than 100 models were made by students at workshops of the Department under his direction and by using his inventions, pictures and his own experimental model.

Simon Stevin was born in Brugge in Flanders. In 1581 he left Flanders and settled in Holland. Stevin is one of the few truly great Flemish/Dutch mathematicians. Stevin was a typical Renaissance scientist. He wrote extensively on many subjects: engineering, bookkeeping, algebra, perspective, astronomy, music and others. He is best known for his highly original work in statics and hydrostatics. He also applied the results of this work in the analysis and synthesis of machines.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect/engineer, who in his treatise “De Architectura” in I B.C. described in great detail design and operation of machines for civil engineering. The treatise is a comprehensive reference from Antiquity that, having been rediscovered during the Renaissance, was studied and reprinted both for its historical background and for technical inspiration. In this chapter the focus is on machine developments.