Machinery begins with tools, and tools are simple machines.
The first tools made by man were stone knives, axes and hammers.
All kinds of modern complex and sophisticated machinery are gradually developed from ancient simple tools.
In ancient times, due to inconvenient transportation and few cultural exchanges, the mechanical development of several basically independent cultural regions in the world, such as East Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Europe, was different.
For example, China ancient machinery originated early and developed rapidly. In 13 and 14 centuries, it was in the forefront of the world. It develops independently and has little contact with other regions.
Before 3000 BC (prehistoric times), people had widely used tools made of stones and bones.
Tools for carrying heavy objects include rollers, crowbars and sliding rails, such as those used in the construction of pyramids in ancient Egypt.
Shortly after 3500 BC, Sumer in Babylon, Cuba, had a wheeled car, which was made by installing wheels under a slide rail.
The important tools in the early history were the bow drill and turntable used for pottery making.
Bow drill consists of flint bit, drill pipe, sleeve and bowstring.
By pulling the bow back and forth, the drill pipe can be rotated for drilling, reaming and ignition.
The bow drill later developed into a bow lathe and became a more effective tool.
In the early period of the third to sixth dynasties in Egypt (about 2686 ~ 265438 BC+08 BC1), primitive wooden plows and metal sickles pulled by cows were used in agriculture.
Forging is often used to make copper tools.
Around 2500 BC, Europe and Asia began to use two-wheeled and four-wheeled wooden carriages.
Two-wheeled chariots were found in ancient Egyptian tombs around BC 1500.
In 1200 BC, Syria made a hand mill for milling millet.
In the process of building and loading materials, simple tools such as lever, rope roller and horizontal groove have been used.
Pulley first appeared in BC16th century, and Assyrians used it as an archery tool in castles.
Winches were originally used to extract ore from mines and water from wells.
At this time, Egypt's water clock, siphon, blower box and piston pump and other fluid machinery have also been initially developed and applied.
Ancient Greece and Rome from 600 BC to 400 AD are called the period of classical culture.
During this period, some famous philosophers and scientists were born in ancient Greece, who made outstanding contributions to the development of ancient machinery.
For example, scholar Hiro's theory about five simple machines (lever, wedge, pulley, axle and thread) pushing heavy objects is still meaningful today.
During this period, woodworking tools have been greatly improved. In addition to the complete sets of tools commonly used in carpentry, such as axe, bow saw, bow drill, shovel and chisel, spherical drill, claw hammer capable of pulling nails and double saw for logging have also been developed.
Long-axis lathes and bicycle beds are also widely used to make furniture and spokes.
Bicycle beds were used until the Middle Ages, which laid the foundation for the development of modern lathes.
Coin stamping is also a great achievement of metal processing in this period, and it is the bud of modern mass production technology.
But with the demise of the Roman Empire, this technology was lost for hundreds of years.
Around the first century BC, the ancient Greeks made stone wheel mills on the basis of hand mills.
This is a mechanical and mechanical progress.
At about the same time, ancient Rome also developed donkey pulling mill and similar stone wheel mill.
The earliest gear train application in Europe was installed on the odometer used to record the mileage of chariots.
The application of lever principle in machinery, such as pulleys and compound pulleys, has become more common at this time, and it is used to lift heavy objects in buildings.
Carriages and chariots have also been improved.
The development of fluid machinery and power machinery in this period is as follows: firstly, the application scope of orange peel water lifting tools and bucket waterwheels is expanded; New fluid machines, such as rotating wheels and Northwater mills, have been created. The former uses a rotating screw to lift water from a low place to a high place, which is mainly used for water supply in Rome, while the latter uses water flow to push a square impeller to grind grain and rotate, with less than half horsepower.
The more powerful water mill is Victor Lu Biya. The water wheel is driven by downward water flow. By properly selecting the number of teeth of the gear, the speed of the water mill can be adjusted. Its power was about three horsepower, and then increased to fifty horsepower, becoming the most powerful prime Mover at that time.
Pressure pumps and suction pumps composed of pistons and cylinders have also been developed during this period.
Philo pressure pump was first used to put out fires, and then there were suction pumps and pressure pumps that pumped water from wells, as well as double-barrel piston pumps used by Romans to put out fires.
At this time, the heat engine mainly appeared as a plaything of Greek scholars and philosophers.
In the first century, Hong's spinning ball (also called Fengshen Wheel) was an example.
The steamer at the lower part of the rotating ball is filled with water, and a hollow ball is connected with it through a branch pipe.
There are two tangential nozzles in opposite directions on the ball.
When the fire burns under the pot and the water in the ball boils into steam, if the jet reaction force generated is large enough, it will push the ball to rotate continuously.
As the first device to convert steam pressure into mechanical power, the rotating ball is famous all over the world, and it may be the first device to apply the principle of jet reaction.
The period from 400 A.D. to 1500 belongs to the Middle Ages, the period before 1000 is the early Middle Ages, the period from 1000 to 1500 is the late period, and the next 250 years are the period near the industrial revolution.
The early Middle Ages lasted for about 600 years. Due to the depression of classical culture in ancient Greece and Rome, the development of mechanical technology fell into a long period of stagnation.
Later, with the development of agriculture and handicrafts, Italy, France, Britain and other countries have set up universities to develop natural sciences and humanities and cultivate talents. At the same time, it absorbed the advanced science and technology of China, * * and * * empires at that time, and mechanical technology began to recover and develop.
First, western Europe smelted raw iron from coal and made it into large castings.
With the development of hydraulic turbines, there has been enough power to drive large bellows made of leather to obtain higher melting temperature, and the number of workshops for casting cannons and clocks has gradually increased, and the weight of castings has also gradually increased.
In agriculture, in Roman times, a plow with a curved concave plow plate was used instead of a sharp split plow.
Hand drill also appeared in this period, and its structure shows that the principle of crank-connecting rod mechanism has been used in machinery.
There is a large wheel lathe in processing machinery.
In the12nd century and the second half of13rd century, primitive clocks and balance clocks with rope escapement appeared successively.
The balance clock is the first practical mechanical clock, equipped with an hour hand and a second hand, which indicates that the clock gear system is further developed and widely used in European families in the15th century.
Watches were made before 1500.
The important improvement is that the coil spring is used to replace the weight to generate electricity, and a ratchet mechanism is added.
The success of mechanical clocks is not only the necessity of modern civilization, but also promotes the manufacturing technology of precision parts.
Mechanical clocks and watches were later improved in an all-round way, for example, a single pendulum clock replaced the original pendulum clock.
1676, Britain made two kinds of precision clocks with different pendulum lengths for Greenwich Observatory.
The pocket watch of this period adopted bimetal, which solved the temperature compensation problem of the balance wheel.
In terms of fluid machinery, there are down-flushing or up-flushing water turbines (water mills), windmills and turbines.
The horizontal downdraft turbine was improved from the early water mill and has been used as the power for mining, crushing and smelting in the 12 and 13 centuries.
After improvement, this turbine developed into a large updraft turbine in the14th century, which was used to lift ore.
During this period, great progress has been made in hydraulic utilization in western Europe, and the number of turbine workshops has increased rapidly.
From 1500 to 1750, mechanical technology has developed very rapidly.
The progress in materials is mainly manifested in the use of steel, especially pig iron, instead of wood to manufacture machines, instruments and tools.
At the same time, in order to solve the transportation problem in mining, Britain developed horse-drawn rail cars around 1770.
Wooden railings were first used, and later they were replaced by railings.
During this period, machine tools have also made many achievements, such as manufacturing hydraulic rolling machinery and several machine tools, such as gear cutting machine, thread lathe, small pedal grinding wheel grinder and polishing machine for grinding optical instrument lenses.
Water pumps were also developed during this period, mainly used to solve the problems of mine drainage and urban water supply at that time, including mine drainage pumps, forward rotation pumps (1588) and centrifugal pumps (1689).
At this time, Italy invented the hydraulic air compressor (commonly known as water bellows), which can be used as a blower for steelmaking instead of the old-fashioned leather tiger.
1759 Large blowers appear again.
Wind-driven machinery, such as windmills, has been widely used and its number has increased. There are thousands in Britain alone, which are used for grinding, pumping water and sawing wood.
In terms of power machinery, 1698, the mine steam pump made in savery, England was called "Friends of Miners", which pioneered the use of steam to do work.
1705, newcomen of England invented the atmospheric steam engine. Although it is not perfect, it is the first relatively reliable steam engine, mainly used to lift water, with a power of six horsepower. This kind of steam engine was popularized in Europe before 1750, and later spread to the United States.
During this period, engineering science was born in Europe.
Many scientists, such as Newton, Galileo, Leibniz, Boyle and Hooke, have laid various theoretical foundations for this new science.
In order to encourage inventions, Italy and Britain set up patent offices in 1474 and 156 1 respectively.
1In the 1960s, scientific societies, such as the Royal Society, were established.
Britain began to publish scientific reports in 1665, and France established the French Academy of Sciences at about the same time.
Russia and Germany also established the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1725 and 1770 respectively.
These academic institutions broke through the shackles of the church at that time and freely discussed and exchanged academic views and experimental results, thus greatly promoting the development of science and technology and mechanical engineering.