Kinematic Synthesis of Linkages
FOUR-BAR COUPLER-POINT CURVES 6-1 THE FOUR-BAR LINKAGE Link,vork, in its early applications, consisted mainly of revolute connected members and ,vas widely used for converting the con tinuous rotation of a ,vater wheel into a reciprocating motion suited to piston pumps (Fig. 6-1). The piston-cylinder com bination at the end of the line represents a prismatic pair, of course, but ahead of this there are only the revolute connections generally associated ,Yith linkwork. Agricola's arrangements show wheel and pump--power source and point of work-fairly close together. Such compactness did not al,vays prevail; link works of magnificent proportions were also part of the past. A linkwork is a means of power transmission as ,vell as being a motion transformer. Before the introduction of rope transmis sions and the now universal electric wire, linkwork ,vas employed for long-distance transmission of power. Gigantic linkages, principally for mine pumping operations, connected water wheels at the riverbank to pumps high up on the hillside. One such installation (1713) in Germany ,vas 3 km long. Such linkages consisted in the main of ,vhat ,ve call four-bar linkages, i.e., planar four-revolute mechanisms, and terminated in a slider-crank mechanism with a prismatic pair. ,roe ... ,._, Linl.....i.b<t •..,.,...... .i-1-.1,.,.,.P", """""'h • ""ntw,,. [F,- .... ....i. •··o.,,...,,_,,....,•"H_,,,....i.,;.,.(1912).] 150 KINEMATIC SYNTHESIS OF LINKAGES With Watt's invention of the "straight-line motion" (I 784) the four-bar linkage was used a new· \\·ay, for the significantmotion output was not that of the followerin but that of the coupler: Watt had found a coupler point describing a curve of special usefulness.
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