December 27, 2017 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Vaucanson's Modifications
Last night we were recapturing the
modifications that were made by Bouchon and Falcon in the loom machine in their
attempt to automate the pattern making.
The eyelets of the horizontally placed
needles had hooks attached to them at right angles.
When the cylinder was pressed manually
against the row of needles, those needles that got pressed against the solid
paper would move forward.
This forward movement would be reflected on
to the corresponding attached hooks.
These hooks would not be raised which meant
that in turn the corresponding warp yarns that were engaged by these hooks
would remain in place.
On the other hand, all those horizontal
needles in the array did not get pressed if they passed through the punched
holes on the paper.
The hooks that corresponded to these
needles would get raised and so the warp yarns snagged by these hooks would get
lifted up.
Vaucanson made some few alterations.
Firstly, he placed this paper roll on top
of the loop instead to its side.
Secondly, the paper that replaced with card
by Falcon was rolled around the drum on top.
Thirdly, he devised a ratchet or a rolling
mechanism in the drum such that the punched paper advanced each time by one row
after the cylinder was pushed against the hooks.
The card greatly took care of the fragility
that was encountered with punched paper.
Moreover, now the card had the support of
the drum which further reduced their chances of getting damaged or torn.
Moving the card and drum on top got the
sensitive part out of the way of the working weavers.
The automatic ratcheting of the drum was a
one step further in automation as it further reduced the need of the person who
was required to handle the movement of the paper or the card.
I understand it is not very easy to
visualize these changes unless you are shown this in an actual model but still
you should get a fairly decent idea of what we are talking about.
If you are curious enough a bird, then
obviously you will seek out the video on YouTube as there is a whole treasure
of educative information out there.
Now what would such pioneering work beget a
man? Awards? Honors?
No, no and again No.
All these innovations and additions that
Vaucanson added to the loom for its automation was not well received as it put
men out of work.
In her book “Edison’s Eve: A Magical
History of the Quest for Mechanical Life” Gaby Wood traces the history of
robotics.
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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