De Re Metallica, mentioned in the article, was written by Georg Acricola in the 16th century. It was not translated from the original (and highly idiosyncratic) Latin until the early 20th century, by a young mining engineer and his wife, Herbert Clark and Lou Henry Hoover. Yes, later the President of the US. You can read their translation at (or download it from) the Internet Archive:
The book remained in use through the 20th century, discussing both mining and metallurgy.
Stellnungkunst is one form of power distribution, of motive energy across space. There's another mode, which distributes force across an area, through distributed water (or other fluid) pressure. This was widely used in the 19th century, and variants remain in use -- your dentist's drills and other implements, and an auto repair garage's air-powered tools are examples, as well as the mechanisms of some lifts. Low Tech Magazine has an article on this method as well:
As I've noted below, the notion of rod-based mechanisms is reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's "rod logic" from Diamond Age, as well as complex mechanical calculators such as the Curta, developed in the 1930s and still in use through the 1970s:
>It was not long before Herzstark's financial backers, thinking they had got from him all they needed, contrived to force him out by reducing to zero the value of all of the company's existing stock, including his one-third interest.[1] These were the same people who had earlier elected not to have Herzstark transfer ownership of his patents to the company, so that, should anyone sue, they would be suing Herzstark, not the company, thereby protecting themselves at Herzstark's expense. This ploy now backfired: without the patent rights, they could manufacture nothing. Herzstark was able to negotiate a new agreement, and money continued to flow to him.
De Re Metallica, mentioned in the article, was written by Georg Acricola in the 16th century. It was not translated from the original (and highly idiosyncratic) Latin until the early 20th century, by a young mining engineer and his wife, Herbert Clark and Lou Henry Hoover. Yes, later the President of the US. You can read their translation at (or download it from) the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/georgiusagricola00agri/page/n4/m...
The book remained in use through the 20th century, discussing both mining and metallurgy.
Stellnungkunst is one form of power distribution, of motive energy across space. There's another mode, which distributes force across an area, through distributed water (or other fluid) pressure. This was widely used in the 19th century, and variants remain in use -- your dentist's drills and other implements, and an auto repair garage's air-powered tools are examples, as well as the mechanisms of some lifts. Low Tech Magazine has an article on this method as well:
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/03/hydraulic-accumulato...
As I've noted below, the notion of rod-based mechanisms is reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's "rod logic" from Diamond Age, as well as complex mechanical calculators such as the Curta, developed in the 1930s and still in use through the 1970s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/03/hydraulic-accumulato...