The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux

"This book examines the evolution of machine design methodology from the Renaissance to the Age of Machines in the 19th century. This premise is based in part on the work of the da Vinci scholar Ladislao Reti who translated the last discovered work of Leonardo da Vinci in 1967. In the Codex Madrid, Reti found evidence that Leonardo planned to write a book on basic machine elements and compared the great artist-engineer's drawings to the work of 19th C. machine theorist Franz Reuleaux of Berlin. Reuleaux is credited with classifying the basic elements of machine design and also enumerating six basic classes of mechanisms to change motion from one form to another. Moon's book carries Reti's thesis further and provides detailed analysis, comparing design concepts of engineers of the 15th century Renaissance and the 19th century age of machines from a workshop tradition to the rational scientific discipline used today."--Jacket.