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42 - Linkages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

T. W. Körner
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

During the last third of the eighteenth century Watt embarked on a total redesign of the Newcomen steam engine turning it from a special purpose machine to an economical general purpose power source. This involved the solution not just of one but many technical problems each one requiring either a new idea (like the separate condenser) or the astute adaptation of an old one (like the centrifugal governor which we shall briefly return to in Chapter 72).

One of the problems that had to be overcome was that of turning the rectilinear motion of a piston into the circular motion of a wheel and vice versa. Spurred on by his partner Boulton, Watt patented five different solutions. The one we shall discuss is called Watt's parallelogram. Watt is reported to have been prouder of this invention than of any other.

In its simplest form it consists of three bars AB, BC and CD linked as shown in Figure 42.1 with A and D fixed but D and C free to move. The ‘tracer point’ Q is on BC. A little experiment will show the reader that as C rotates round D, Q performs quite a complicated motion. However, for many purposes it is sufficient that the path of Q is approximately linear for rotations of CD through a small angle θ(∣θ∣ < 20° say).

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Fourier Analysis , pp. 197 - 200
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1988

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  • Linkages
  • T. W. Körner, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Fourier Analysis
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107049949.044
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  • Linkages
  • T. W. Körner, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Fourier Analysis
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107049949.044
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Linkages
  • T. W. Körner, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Fourier Analysis
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107049949.044
Available formats
×