The Development of Mechanics and Engineering Design and Machine Theory since the Rennaissance

Abstract

The history of science and mechanics is confronted by two interconnected problems: a critical accumulation and systematization of historical information about the subject of study, and the relationship between events and the laws of their development.The influence of natural philosophy in classical times that led to the development of mechanics and engineering as a science from the 5th/ century B.C. to the Middle-Ages was investigated in a previous article by the author. The rapid development of mechanics as a science started in the 16th and the 17th century. Machine design as an applied science was heavily relying on mechanics. Since the beginning of the 19th century, mechanics became the theoretical basis of an increasing number of applied technical disciplines directly connected with the development of industry, the elaboration of new technological processes machines, and industrial plants. A brief history of the development of the theory of machines and mechanisms is attempted here, along with the personalities and Academic Institutions that influenced Mechanisms amd Machine Theory from Medieval Times to the recent past.