| Abstrakt: |
In this paper, the contributions of two pioneers of kinematics and machine design, Robert Willis FRS (1800–75) of Cambridge University, and Franz Reuleaux (1829–1905) of the Royal Technical University of Berlin, are compared. The process of designing complex machines using mathematical, science–based methods is one of the important achievements of the late industrial age and was advanced by Willis and Reuleaux. These new ‘engineer–scientists’ broke with the workshop tradition of machine construction, incorporating mathematics, new engineering pedagogy, codification of machine practice and scientific principles into machine design that influenced generations of engineers well into the twentieth century. |
