December 25, 2017 Monday
Bedtime Story
Transmission of the Idea of Crankshaft
Let me try to give you a more vivid example
of a reciprocating motion.
Perhaps if you recall from some movie
scenes of distance past of black locomotive engine chugging out from a railway
station, you would fleetingly remember how its wheels moved under the action of
a horizontal rod that moved in a linear fashion back-and-forth.
That to me is the perfect example of
reciprocating motion and underpins the functioning of internal combustion
engine.
The two opposite motions that comprise one
reciprocation cycle is called a stroke.
This reciprocation motion in crank is
achieved by attaching a stiff rod to a rotating stationary wheel more towards
its periphery.
As the wheel rotates stationary in one
place, possibly mounted on a flywheel axle, the attached rod when placed
correctly with appropriate gears and levers will move front and back.
What the Banu Mosa brothers described in
their inventions was not a perfect crankshaft as we envision today.
But they got fairly close.
It was what was described in this book that
inspired Al-Jazari almost 350 years later to further improve on the crankshaft
and make it far more complete.
In his own Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices published in 1206
he connected the rod in the crankshaft to twin-cylinder pump.
Moreover, the wheel described by him had
crankpins which made the crankshaft in principle very similar to the modern
ones.
Al-Jazari would in turn inspire the Lyonese
inventor Jacques de Vaucanson some 550 years later in around 1750.
So you see mon ami, thanks to our ability
to record events and pass it on to next generation, we human apes need not
start tabula rasa unlike our closest cousins the chimpanzees where knowledge
transmission is limited to very close family members such as parents to off springs
or such similar familial ties.
As I had stated earlier, Vaucanson received
no sensible education in his childhood but his encounter with the surgeon Le
Cat ignited a spark within his mind to device automatic machines on the line of
human body.
Human body after all, if dissected
thoroughly, reveals itself to be a mechanical machine made up of biological
tissues whose basic unit of construction and function are cells.
At a very young age of 18 he managed to get
funds from a nobleman that allowed him to set up his own workshop where he
would construct his own machines.
It amazes me to discover that such a young man
with no background in almost anything worthwhile succeeded in convincing
someone unknown to become venture capitalist and invest money on him.
Just try convincing in today’s time rich
tycoons for some fancy and wild technological project with no education background
and see the reply that you receive.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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